Category: Poetry

Yecheilyah’s 3rd Annual Poetry Contest 2019: Rules, Guidelines, and Prizes

poetry contest

It’s that time of the year again!!!

Submissions Accepted

Now – August 1, 2019

Winners Announced:

Friday, November 1, 2019.

Theme:

The purpose of this year’s theme is to use words that empower and inspire us to be the best version of ourselves. We talked about Self-Love last year and now it’s time we spoke it into existence and live it through our actions. 

Choose any one of these words to dedicate your poem to.

Strength, Courage, Wisdom, Faith

Guidelines:

  • The poems submitted must be original work. This means that the poems must be written by you. If we find a poem that resembles any previously published poem in any way that poet will be disqualified from the competition. Poems must be your own work.
  • The poem must not be published (previously or afterward) in a book or anywhere online (including your blog).

 

  • The poems will be judged based on originality, writing, style and how closely the poem adheres to the theme.

 

  • We are judges of the competition only. All poets are welcomed to enter regardless of race, religion, political views or location.

*Poems using discriminatory language will be disqualified from the competition.

  • All poems must be written in English. In the event a poet wins this competition and their residence is outside of the U.S., any prize requiring shipping (if any) will be awarded in digital form. ex. ebooks /e-cards.
  • All poets must be at least 18 years of age to submit.
  • There is no entry fee for this competition, but you must subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list HERE to enter. Anyone who subscribes only to unsubscribe before the competition is complete (any time before the winners are announced) will be disqualified for the win. Any subscription that has not been made before 11:59pm EST on August 1st will be disqualified.
  • Authors of the winning poems grant Yecheilyah of Literary Korner Publishing the right to publish the poems on her blog (either in part, excerpt, or in its entirety) located at www.thepbsblog.com as the winning poem. Permission is granted upon entry of the contest for publishing to The PBS Blog in full or in part. The poets retain all rights and copyrights of their own work. (I don’t own your stuff.)
  • Upon submission, poets grant Yecheilyah of Literary Korner Publishing the right to publish the poem in the Literary Korner Publishing 2020 Magazine Edition. The poets retain all rights and copyrights of their own work. (I don’t own your stuff.)
  • Multiple entries to this contest are allowed. If submitting multiple poems there is a 2-poem max per poet.
  • Entry is taken as acceptance of ALL of these guidelines.

Submission Instructions:

  • Click on THIS link and subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list. This will automatically give us your name and email address. *If you are already subscribed to my list you are halfway there! Just email your poem*
  • Once you’ve subscribed to the list, please send your poem(s) to yecheilyah@yecheilyahysrayl.com.
  • Both of the above steps are needed for a poem to be considered submitted.
  • Winners are announced November 1, 2019 on The PBS Blog and across social media.

Prizes:

  • $50 Barnes and Noble Gift card
Coming June, 2019 Featuring Last Year’s Poetry Contest Winners!
  • Publishing in the 2020 2nd Edition Literary Korner Publishing Magazine for Poets
  • Publishing and Author Spotlight Interview on Yecheilyah’s Blog (over 2800 subscribers, 70k views a week)
  • Spotlight across Yecheilyah’s social media
  • Spotlight in Yecheilyah’s email list
  • Signed copy of I am Soul with matching bookmark
  • 1 Grand Prize Winner (Wins Everything)
  • 3 Runner-Ups (Wins everything minus the gift card)
  • 4 Honorable Mentions (Wins publishing in the LKP 2020 Edition Magazine)

All Entrants

All entrants will have the chance of being featured in the magazine. Put your best foot forward, only a few will be chosen!

Yecheilyah (The PBS Blog and Literary Korner Publishing) are not responsible for poets who entered the contest and did not read these terms and conditions in full. If there is anything, you disagree with we encourage you NOT to join. Emailing your poem and subscribing to the email list is taken as ACCEPTANCE of all these terms.

Cry Out

Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

How does it make you feel

to see someone

mistreating themselves

to hear them poison their mouth

with self-hate language

or disrespect their soul

with insecurities

does not your intestines cringe

do they not wrap themselves around the wrongness there

the diseased spirit of a person defeated

does not your stomach turn into knots

does not the human in you cry out

now imagine

if you were outside your own body

and observing yourself

poisoning your mouth with self-hate language

and disrespecting your soul with insecurities

do your intestines cringe?

do they wrap themselves around the wrongness there?

do you recognize the diseased spirit of a person defeated?

does your stomach turn into knots?

when you are self-hating yourself

does the human in you

Cry Out

It’s National Poetry Month!!

 

Grab your copy of I am Soul for just 99cents in ebook for the entire month of April.  Want a paperback? The Nubian bookstore signing is next week! (4/12) Be sure to stop by for a signed paperback copy and save on shipping. Meet me in person and let’s take pictures and stuff!

https://www.yecheilyahysrayl.com/

The Most Irritating Thing about the Self-Care Movement

the fact that everything is a movement now

like the importance of self-love didn’t exist

before Instagram memes

like healing is a status update

like self-care ain’t a journey but a tweet

like healing ain’t a process but words we hang

on our Facebook walls

and pretend we ain’t cover trauma in hashtags

I see healing differently

mistakes are opportunities

failure is strength

and self-love and healing is a process

paths that we aren’t always sure to take

we become masters of ourselves

only to begin again

like a battle we don’t know if we’ve won yet

a journey, healing is

and we master the parts of ourselves

until there are no more apologies

in our throats

until everything we do doesn’t sound like

sorry

until we value ourselves like we do

likes on a post

until burden ain’t heavy no more

cause we learned how to carry it

until we no longer carry it

until we’ve struggled so long

we don’t know what quitting is

Introduce Yourself Author Interviews: Poetry Edition

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Author Interview programming for this special announcement.

National Poetry Month, a celebration of poetry which takes place each April, was introduced in 1996 and is organized by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry in the U.S. For our April Author Interviews, I’d like to feature as many author poets as possible. If you have not been interviewed on the blog, head on over to the Introduce Yourself Author Interview page (linked below) and find out how you can get involved! Stay tuned for next weeks final author introduction for March.

*All authors are still welcomed to participate in the interviews. These interviews occur every week on Monday’s. You don’t have to be a poet. I would just like to feature poets for the month of April in honor of National Poetry Month.

>> LEARN HOW TO JOIN. CLICK HERE <<

 

Courage

How dramatic the transformation is when I turn lioness
how dangerous courage is
how beautiful too
how tingly the feeling when you throw caution to the wind
when an introvert speaks
you know that little mustard seed’s got a fire
how revolutionary to be humble in spirit,
but courageous in character.
The weight of this bravery
both heavy and powerful
how sensitive and warrior I am at the same time.
How powerful strength is
when you don’t know that it is there.

Aborted Purpose

Photo by Alexis Chloe on Unsplash

 

I know too many women aborting their purpose

Manipulating our daughters so that their dreams are tied to two horses

And the black family unit is pulled apart in both directions

And our sons are Willie Lynching their seed

On Fallopian tubes

And walking away

They forgot what grew there

They forgot there are trees with their DNA

and we gave birth to boys who never became men

I know too many women aborting their purpose

We forgot the generations of women we carried in our ovaries

at conception

So we miscarried Eve’s redemption

now the hand me down fabric of expired womanhood

dangling over the degrees of our bedroom walls

we traded our integrity for dried ink on top cream colored paper

the folded crease and stained remembrance

of what we used to be

before the glass ceiling defined us

the faded glory of the black family unit

before we were Diva’s

and Bosses

back in the day when we were content

being Queens

we traded our crowns

in exchange to do bad all by ourselves

now the stress

and the guilt

of 70% of black women

whose descendants will stare down the barrel of a gun

cause she couldn’t admit

that it takes more than a black mother

to raise a black son

YouTube: New Poem Added! Listen to “Grief” #Poetry #Spoken Word

I wrote this poem in honor of my dad last year, inspired by a real experience. I was listening to Pandora and Yolanda Adams “Open My Heart” came on. I usually turn the station because the song reminds me of my dad who died of cancer in 2000. This time though, I allowed myself to feel. I allowed myself to grieve. I put this video together when I first published the poem to this blog but I am just now getting it uploaded as I am getting my YouTube grind back! Listen to the poem below, read the poem here and be sure to subscribe for more poems!

SUBSCRIBE HERE