WINNERS & RANKINGS
The Great American Poetry Competition
Judged by
Andrew Benson Brown, Joseph Bottum, Margaret Coats, Evan Mantyk,
Arthur Mortensen, Joshua Philipp, Mark F. Stone
.
Henry Longfellow Ode & Ballad Grand Prize
Prize Winner ($1,500)
Hymn – Joseph Charles Mackenzie
Finalists Tier 1 ($250)
The Melody That Lingers On – John McPherson
American Dreams – Adam Sedia
An American Dash – Linda Ellis
The Ballad of the Ghost Mountain Boys – Rachel Lott
The American Spirit – Dusty Grein
Finalists Tier 2
Legend of the Griffin – Iryna Hall
Clarence Thomas, American Hero – Cynthia Erlandson
The Gold Star Mother – Gerard Maritato
Ogden Nash Satire & Light Verse Prize
Prize Winner ($1,000)
Two Fateful American Coin Flips – James A. Tweedie
Finalists
Love Not War… But Maybe a Red-Blooded Man? – Shelly Marshall
The 51st State – James Sale
Robert Frost Sonnet Prize
Prize Winner ($500)
The Swearing-in of Calvin Coolidge – Robert W. Crawford
Finalists
America: 250 Years – Cliff Miller
Ben – Theresa Werba
High School Prize
Prize Winner ($500)
For Those We Never Meet – Aneesh Agarwal
Grade 11, Sunset High School, Portland, Oregon
Finalist Tier 1
A Gentleman’s Guide to Losing a War – Arnon Peterson
Grade 11, Home School, Oregon City, Oregon
Finalists Tier 2
Two Hundred and Fifty Years Hence – Robert Catanese
Grade 11, St. Cloud High School, St. Cloud, Florida.
An American Road Trip – Tashvi Reddy
12th grade at Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts
The Sowing of a State – Arnon Peterson
Grade 11, Home School, Oregon City, Oregon
The Anonymous Soldier – Lucy Lind
Grade 11, Classical Keys Academy (Homeschool), Lakeland, Florida
Honorable Mentions
Henry Longfellow Ode & Ballad Category
The Wonder of the World – Muhammad Athar
Look Away – Roger Crane
The Wild Flame – Joseph Charles Mackenzie
America, My Home – Rusty Rabon
A Quarter-Thousand Years – Jared Chang
An American Fabius – John Hernandez
Common Sense: Addressed to the Inhabitants of America – Bradford Skow
Old Man At The Wall – John McPherson
Double Date: July 4th, 1826 – Stephen Binns
The Ballad of Zebulon Pike – M. D. Skeen
There’s Blood that Flows Within the Stripes – Lauren Leon
The American Eagle’s Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness – Manna Cruz
Death of a Statesman – James Fife
The Oldest Glory – Bethany Grace
What America Was Meant to Be – Mike Johansson
Co-option of Co-created Reality – Josh Mitteldorff
Outstanding in Afghanistan – Jared Chang
250 More – Miguel Moreno
Penelope – Monika Cooper
On Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence – Maura H. Harrison
The Thirteen Folds — From the Soldier Whose Memory It Carries – Katniss Everdeen
The Buffalo Ghosts’ Story – Joan Lange
When the Last World War II Veteran Passes Away – N. S. Boone
The Day Mr. Lincoln Died – Robert Bartles
September’s Child – Anne Buchanan
Winged Warrior – Sam Kauffman
Stones of Arlington – Sean Keating
Before the Shot Was Heard – Harry Kirk
With Liberty and Justice for All – James A. Tweedie
One Day In July – Kristina Tilley
A Speck of Life in America – Gail Gilligan
The Passing of the Torch – Susan Rives
Liberty Bell – Guy Grabil
Night Light Legend – Scott Dunham
Fly Free – Roger Adams
Thomas Paine – Sophie Schiller
Betsy Ross – Kristy Marrett
Ogden Nash Satire & Light Verse Category
The Semiquincentennial Tree – Janice Stanley
The Mall Not Taken – Risa Lewak
Stripes – Iryna Hall
Otto and Octavius at Boston Harbor – Mary Gardener
Our Time – Joseph Charles Mackenzie
Robert Frost Sonnet Category
Omaha Beach – Bradford Skow
Prayers of an American Chaplain – Stephen Binns
Ben Franklin’s Copper Fugio Cent – Geoffrey Smagacz
The Weathered Flag – Joseph Charles Mackenzie
High School Category
A Light that Guides Today – Howard Li
Grade 9, Highland Park High School, Dallas, TX
The Republic We Built – Anthony Moskvich
(Age 20) Loyola Marymount University
The Tale of Frank Jackson – L. Lucille Jackson
Grade 12, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, North Carolina.
Missing In Action – Sarah Angelica Tarka
Grade 11, The Baldwin School, Bewn Mawr, Pennsylvania
Onward Route 66 – “America’s Highway” – Nathaniel Leon
Grade 10, Independent Homeschool, Mantellum Matris Academy, Riverside, CA.
Congratulations to all!
I would love to read the poems. Will they be published on the website?
good job to all the amazing poets
Thank you so much SCP for my Honorable Mention in the Great American Poetry Contest. It is an honor to be listed with such esteemed poets. I wrote what I know. The Speck of Life was my speck. I was five months old when WWll began. GG
Ditto to Gail Lambert Gilligan’s gracious thank you. I am also honored to be listed as an honorable mention in such talented company. Congratulations to everyone who submitted their work.
Reading the “Comments Policy”, it seems ok to do this. My Honorable Mention poem is unlinked, so here it is (I hope you enjoy):
Night Light Legend
by Scott Elliott Dunham (2026)
Honorable Mention
The air at old Forbes was charged with Game Seven,
The yard all dressed up as a bright emerald heaven.
They’re here from the Lancasters, Butlers, and Eries
To witness the moments that bathe the World Series.
They stand for the Anthem, hearts thumping inside,
Voices as one, and one country with pride.
Fireworks bloom, colored garden in the sky,
‘Cause every day in baseball is the fourth of July.
It’s Friend gets the pea for this ultimate duel,
While the Yankees choose Ford as their champion mule.
Peanuts acrackin’, the folk settle in,
“Play ball!” barks the ump, let the history begin.
Three innings pass by, yet with nary a score,
As the Bombers scratch two hits, the Pirates sting four.
Jolly Roger has struck out–and struck out again,
He’s struggling and stranding ’em, ofer the last ten.
Top o’ five sees the Yanks touch up Friend for a deuce,
It’s a blooper for Mantle and a blast from the Moose.
Buccos cry rally in the home seventh frame,
Lag they do by a pair in the year’s biggest game.
Two on and two out, and it must have been fate
That would bring Jolly Roger up now to the plate.
“Get a hit!” and “Go Jolly!” were the crowd’s hearty pleas,
But he’s rung up once more, and he falls to his knees.
The ninth has snuck up, the ‘Burgh still down by two,
But the faithful stay on, for to will their hopes through.
The first two men bounce out, and all you can hear
Is groaning, and murmurs of “Wait ’till next year”.
But hold on a moment, it’s not over yet–
A walk, now a double–the table is set!
Center stage, Jolly Roger would have final say,
And Turley is waved in to rescue the day.
Jolly strolls plateward, his lumber in hand,
Thrice before he has batted, three times he has fanned.
He knows this is his and the Bucs parting flirt,
As he glares out at Turley and kicks up the dirt.
The moundsman looks level at those menacing eyes,
At the twenty inch biceps and iron-like thighs.
Dare they pitch to this slugger, or relinquish first base?
He was slumping all Series, with the stroke out of place.
Oh the challenge was on! Yogi squats and he signs,
It’s a low diving slider that’s foul down the line!
The oh-and-one pitch dangles high and inside,
Jolly turns on it fiercely, he gives it a ride!
Maris streaks for the wall, as he measures the arc,
Then he leaps for the ball–but it’s out of the park!
“You can kiss it good-bye!” echoes all through the stands,
A roar fills the space, weeping faces fill hands.
As Jolly rounds third with his fist piercing sky,
A mob waits at home for the hero on nigh.
The jubilant spectators “Hail! Hail!” their team,
Closure for the season, fulfillment for the dream.
A creak of his door, and his father peeks in,
“Sweet dreams, little slugger.” Dad knows where he’s been.
The poster of Maz, American flag,
Watch over their boy and seeming to brag.
He stirs half-awake in the shadowy womb,
The night light confirming his stadium room.
With sparks in his eyes and a field in his mind,
Jolly drifts once again to a world so inclined.
end
Thank you for posting your exciting poem, Scott. The hallmark of a good writer is to bring alive something that even a reader ignorant of the subject can enjoy. You have succeeded. I loved reading it.