From the Submission Files
Award Winners
I promised you some poems from the ASPS Annual Poetry Contest that appear in the organization’s publication Sandcutters. I’ll explain how a Minnesota Poet ends up in an Arizona Poetry Society publication in a minute, but first here is a poem, originally titled See Me, I am Dancing that won first place in the Audrey Wiebold Memorial Prize Category in the League of Minnesota Poets 2025 Annual Poetry Contest.
Romancing the Wild by Laura L. Hansen How can I convince you my dandelions are flowers? My sweet tiny violets along the verge between lilac hedge and lawn are magical fallen stars? My yard is a ruffled dress pressed up against your ironed tablecloth, flounce to starch, feather to rock. I pull a bit of grass, long enough to twirl between fingertips, to kiss. Show me how the short sharp nails of your just-mown lawn can do this ... swirl, sway, wrestle love from butterfly and bee and dragonfly. Your lawn is a monastic cell striving for perfection. Mine is a messy bed, covers thrown back after sex.
In my last post I promised to share my two Second Place Winners from the 2025 ASPS Annual Poetry Contest and here is how I became involved with a contest so far from home. When you join the League of Minnesota Poets, you automatically become a paid member of N.F.S.P.S. or the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. As such, you receive notices of contests from other state societies. I don’t enter most, but since I have been asked more than once to be a category Judge for the Arizona contest, I feel it is a good gesture to participate as a poet as well when I do this. I, of course, do not enter the category I will be judging. More on that at the end.
The 2025 results have have just become available in book form. I provided a screen grab from the e-file I received of my two poems and a little surprise companion link for the second one.
Here is Snag at Midstream (previously titled Poem with Gravitas):
And here is When Fiona Apple Sings:
If you don’t know the song or singer, here is Pale September by Fiona Apple, a song I came across on a music for fall playlist.
The category I judged this past year for ASPS was the Ekphrastic category. The first place poem was rich, vivid, expressive - a real stunner. I encourage you to read it from the book. The winning poet was Natasha Deonarain from Chandler, AZ for her poem Marek Danielewski’s Vitellius. At the time of judging, I was able to google an image of Danielewski’s Vitellius which was a part of his Caesars of Rome Exhibit. I would provide a link to it here if I could get back to the source, but, alas, no luck today.
If you are interested, I have added the judge’s comments on my “Poem with Gravitas” or “Snag at Midstream”. I didn’t agree with all his recommendations, but did accede to changing the title. In the end, he tried to add a more upbeat note which I thought changed the mood and intent of the poem.
Here are the comments. I thought they may be instructive if you are new to entering contests or having work critiqued. It can be hard and after years of writing I am still getting used to it. In the end, I have to stay with what is true to me and the poem.
