Fall/Winter 2024 Poetry Contest Winners Announced!
1st Place: Song Between Faith Healings by AT Hincapie
The speaker in AT Hincapie’s poem contemplates faith and mortality in the face of a loved one’s uncertain diagnosis. The repetition of imagery and language grounds the poem, just as breath grounds the speaker in this uncertain moment. Despite the poem’s stark emotion and vulnerability, it never strays far from hope,
2nd Place: Elixir for a Perpetual Caretaker by Katherine DiBella Seluja
In the newfound freedom after a mother’s death, the speaker in Katherine DiBella Seluja’s poem discovers that the role of a caretaker is never done, and memory’s haunting brings its own demands. The choice of couplets reinforces the poem’s quiet refelction and contrasts with the poem’s unsettling end.
3rd Place: Lou Gerhig’s Prayers by Scott LaMascus
Using the metaphor of poetry as prayer, Scott LaMascus’s heartfelt poem reflects on his father’s new means of communication and the enduring language of the soul as ALS runs its course. Like the best poems, “Lou Gehrig’s Prayers” is an expression of pure empathy.
Our sincerest thanks to all of those who submitted poems for this season’s contest!