•  $20 Winning Prize

•  $10 for Honorable Mentions

•  Eligible for Pushcart Prize nomination
•  Free Entry
•  Prior Publication Okay
•  Ends Sunday, Results by Next Sunday

Each week's Winner will receive a $20 cash prize, sent via PayPal to the user's registered e-mail address. Entry is free.

There may occasionally be one or more additional poems that receive an Honorable Mention. This will not necessarily be awarded every week, but when awarded, the poet(s) will receive a $10 cash prize, sent via PayPal to the user's registered e-mail address. All Winners and Honorable Mentions will be eligible to be included in future print anthologies.

Any type of poem is welcome! Formal or informal, long or short, rhyme or free verse, haiku or epic—we like all kinds of poems. Original translations are also welcome and will be evaluated as English poems. However, please include the original poem with any translations.

Each week's winner will be selected by Poetry Nook's editorial staff within seven days of contest end. Contest winners can be found in the Contest Winners forum; Honorable Mentions can be found in the Honorable Mentions forum. We read the poems with an eye to their overall impact, not for any particular style, form, or subject matter. We're looking for poems that will grab us right from the beginning and linger in our imagination. Things like vivid and concrete language, fresh perspectives, rhythm, lyricism, vibrant imagery, and human understanding can help, but are not necessarily decisive: it is the organic impression and memorability that matters.

Note: Most literary magazines consider web-published poems to be "published" and will not consider those poems, so if you want to publish a poem in a literary magazine, we recommend that you wait until it is published and are allowed to re-publish before submitting here. Poems submitted to a contest cannot be removed once the contest is over.

Rules
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1. Any length.
2. Any theme.
3. You must be a registered user of this site to post (registration is free).
4. By posting you certify that this is your own work, you hold the copyright, and you are granting us permission to publish it on our site and in a printed anthology.
5. Prior publication is fine, as long as you hold the rights to republish. Please credit the prior publication beneath the poem, in italics.
6. Posting on social media or other sites is encouraged. We actively follow user likes and insightful comments on the poems.
7. Non-English poems are welcome as long as you have an English translation beneath it. You are welcome to submit your own translation of public domain foreign poems or poems where you have received written permission to translate. We will evaluate these translations as English poems and will not consider the original. However, please include the original poem with any translations.
8. Winners will be announced within seven days of the contest end. For example, if the contest ends on Sunday, the winner will be announced by the following Sunday.
9. Payments will be made only via Paypal, sent to your registered email address. The recipient is responsible for any Paypal fees. We will not send payment by any other method.
10. No feedback will be provided if your poem did not get chosen.
11. If your poem did not get chosen in a given week, you are welcome to resubmit it in a subsequent week.
12. Poets with winning or honorable mention poems are welcome to enter subsequent contests with a different poem. A poem that has already won or earned an honorable mention will be disqualifiied if entered into  subsequent contest.
13. We recommend copying your poem into the editor from Notepad or some other program that does not add text markup for best formatting results. Please review your formatting after posting to make sure it looks how you want it to look. In the worst case scenario, if you can't get line breaks to work correctly, please disable rich text.
14. Every contest begins on Monday at 12:00 AM and ends on Sunday at 11:59 PM (New York time).

Thank you for participating! We look forward to reading your work.

Felicity Teague, Editor (contests ending 1-3; e.g., 361-363)
Rie Sheridan Rose, Editor (contests ending 4-6; e.g., 364-366)
Khuzaima Ali, Editor (contests ending 7-0; e.g., 367-370)

The editors can participate only in contests they do not judge.

Monday, July 7, 2025 to Monday, July 14, 2025
Contest type: 
Poetry contest
Poem Name Submitted By Likes Comments
Before the world told me who to be Missylanius 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Under Summer Sun wakofoed 1 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
The Wrath of God Abdul Malik Mandani 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Grieving for Love DivyaSriPoetry 1 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
This Dog Michael R. Burch 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
The Softness JP Davies 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Quantum Theology for the Paravoidant Poet vinnawrites 1 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
YOU WERE THE LIGHT Daydreamer 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
FLYING HOME Twizzle48 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Sharks FABIYAS M V 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
To My Daughter Greg Hill 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Labyrinth Thompson Emate 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Enchant The Wanderer MyNAh_27 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
The Middle of July Madhumathi 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Don't want to Zsófii 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Grocery Shopping Sherry 1 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
The Working Class Chukwuemeka starlin 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Unheard value Subhashinir 1 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
The Owl Calls Ryan Stone 1 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Stupid Woman c.jolis 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
The Weight of Feelings Anoosha khuram 1 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Skater bloom 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
Sailing Silvery Seas Rie Sheridan Rose 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]
OUR REQUIEM rptb0b0 0 [field_honorable_mention][field_winner]

Comments

KasturiDasgupta's picture
Headache Imagine, I am dead and I have a terrible headache. My hands are also dead How can I touch my own head? You are sitting there touching the body But I can't tell you What people will think - if the dead can talk too? Just when you are crying and caressing the head of my body... I am thinking - Oh, if only your hands were a little more But, bad luck Before that, the body is being taken away in a hearse. I want to cry over my own death. I can't. Do whatever you want, I am dead, how can I scream? The headache after death - all mine I was your headache I am lying in this grave See the last time. Imagine, I am dead and I have a terrible headache...

Kasturi Dasgupta

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