Tag: National Poetry Month

Yecheilyah’s 8th Annual Poetry Contest Judges: Estefania Lugo

Greetings, Esteemed Poets!

This week, we’ve been rolling out some of the amazing poets who are helping with this year’s contest. Up next is Estefania Lugo.

Estefanía Lugo is a brilliant bilingual creative strategist with a sharp eye for the written word.

She delights in exploring authors’ imaginations and celebrating the richness of their voices.

This contest is not just national but international, and we are honored to have  Estefanía as part of the team!

🫰🏾

If you are on Instagram, please head over to my page here and show her some love!

Reminder: This year’s poetry contest is accepting submissions from now to June 1st!

Theme: “What We’re Carrying Now.”

This theme explores personal loss, collective memory, survival, and the emotional weight of living in today’s world. Through this contest, we are not only uplifting poets, but we are also creating space for community storytelling, reflection, and connection through the arts.

Prizes:

  • 1st Place: $150 Cash Prize
  • Live Instagram Interview with Yecheilyah
  • Winning poem published on The PBS Blog at thepbsblog.com 
  • Social media promotion across all platforms
  • Unlimited bragging rights 😉

For a full list of prizes, including 2nd and 3rd place, please visit the website here.

How to Enter

  • Subscribe to the list here.
  • Read the rules and guidelines on the site.
  • Submit your poem on or before 6/1/26.

Don’t forget to visit and bookmark the website here.

Be sure you are:

Yecheilyah’s 8th Annual Poetry Contest Judges: BrinwiththePen

Greetings, Esteemed Poets!

This week, we are rolling out some of the amazing poets who are helping with this year’s contest. Up next is BrinwiththePen.

Love-centered poet Brinwiththepen inspires safety and inclusion through her poetry and the workshops she facilitates.

Brin joined Atlanta’s poetry community in 2021 and pours into the intentional time and space of writing with The Ink Refill, a monthly poetry writing workshop.

I met her in 2024 when we were both poetry features at the same event. I also got to witness her brilliance at one of her workshops.

We are honored to have Brinwiththepen and her company as part of our judges’ panel for this year’s poetry contest!

🫰🏾

Please help us welcome The Ink Refill to the team!

If you are on Instagram, please head over to @theinkrefill and show her some love!

We have more shout-outs to give. Stay glued.

Reminder: This year’s poetry contest is accepting submissions from now to June 1st!

Theme: “What We’re Carrying Now.”

This theme explores personal loss, collective memory, survival, and the emotional weight of living in today’s world. Through this contest, we are not only uplifting poets, but we are also creating space for community storytelling, reflection, and connection through the arts.

Prizes:

  • 1st Place: $150 Cash Prize
  • Live Instagram Interview with Yecheilyah
  • Winning poem published on The PBS Blog at thepbsblog.com 
  • Social media promotion across all platforms
  • Unlimited bragging rights 😉

For a full list of prizes, including 2nd and 3rd place, please visit the website here.

How to Enter

  • Subscribe to the list here.
  • Read the rules and guidelines on the site.
  • Submit your poem on or before 6/1/26.

Don’t forget to visit and bookmark the website here.

Be sure you are:

Yecheilyah’s 8th Annual Poetry Contest Judges: Joshua “Roses” Clark

Greetings, Esteemed Poets!

Today, we are rolling out some of the amazing poets who are helping with this year’s contest. Up first is Joshua Clark.

Joshua Clark, who goes by Roses, is a Dallas-based spoken word poet, creative specialist, and Texas Chapter Leader of the Poetry Business Network.

He is the CEO of Sculpted Roses Company (@sculptedrosescompany), where his team offers mental health and creative writing workshops, poetry sessions, and public speaking engagements.

We are proud to have Roses and his company as part of our judging panel for this year’s poetry contest!

🫰🏾

Please help us welcome Sculpted Roses Company to the team!

If you are on Instagram, please head over to @sculptedrosescompany and show this brother some love!

We have more shout-outs to give. Stay glued.

Reminder: This year’s poetry contest is accepting submissions from now to June 1st!

Theme: “What We’re Carrying Now.”

This theme explores personal loss, collective memory, survival, and the emotional weight of living in today’s world. Through this contest, we are not only uplifting poets, but we are also creating space for community storytelling, reflection, and connection through the arts.

Prizes:

  • 1st Place: $150 Cash Prize
  • Live Instagram Interview with Yecheilyah
  • Winning poem published on The PBS Blog at thepbsblog.com 
  • Social media promotion across all platforms
  • Unlimited bragging rights 😉

For a full list of prizes, including 2nd and 3rd place, please visit the website here.

How to Enter

  • Subscribe to the list here.
  • Read the rules and guidelines on the site.
  • Submit your poem on or before 6/1/26.

Don’t forget to visit and bookmark the website here.

Be sure you are:

Call for Submissions: Yecheilyah’s 8th Annual Poetry Contest 2026

Greetings, Esteemed Poets!

Happy Poetry Month!!

We are pleased to announce that this year’s poetry contest is now open! Submissions will remain open until June 1, 2026.

Entry: Email Subscription (Free)*

*If you are already subscribed, you can skip this step.

Theme: “What We’re Carrying Now.”

This year’s theme centers on personal loss, collective memory, survival, endurance, and/or the emotional weight of living in today’s social and political climate.

This year, we are asking poets to create a living archive of how they are processing, surviving, and making meaning in this moment in history.

What are you carrying this season? What are we carrying now?

Prizes:

  • 1st Place: $150 Cash Prize
  • Live Instagram Interview with Yecheilyah
  • Winning poem published on The PBS Blog at thepbsblog.com 
  • Social media promotion across all platforms
  • Unlimited bragging rights 😉

For a full list of prizes, including 2nd and 3rd place, please visit the website here.

How to Enter

  • Subscribe to the list here.
  • Submit your poem before 6/1/26.
  • Read the rules and guidelines on the site.

Don’t forget to visit and bookmark the website here.

Be sure you are:

My Poetry

Black History does not just live in textbooks,
but on the tongues of poets.

Every stanza is a stepping stone
laid by those who came before me.
It echoes of cotton fields, jazz clubs,
freedom songs, and community.

This is more than poetry.
This is preservation.
This is protest.
This is legacy.
This is poetic justice.

These words be the revolution my ancestors prayed for.

This is why my poetry
cannot be disconnected
from my History.

Pen in hand, I’m stitching liberation into every line.

This is Phyllis Wheatley
and Gil Scott-Heron’s reminder
that my future is Black, brilliant,
and beautifully written.

Echoes of Influence

Can ya’ll believe I created this image using ChatGPT? Lol

I love Maya Angelou’s poetry, but it is not what drew me to her. What drew me to Angelou first was her story.

When I read I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and discovered she had also written other collections of autobiographies, I was delighted by her strength and how it came out in her voice. I watched YouTube videos of her interviews and understood more about how she grew up and what led her down her path. Before Maya Angelou was one of my favorite poets, she became one of my favorite people.

The process of writing out my story on Substack has led me to question how much of what I like really belongs to me and what belongs to the world.

By the time I was born, Angelou was already 59 years old. Her name had already been carved into stone and printed inside the pages of history books. Before I was formed in my mother’s womb, Angelou had been crowned Queen.

But this isn’t really about the amazing Maya Angelou.

I am only using her as an example of how many of us drift through life as mirrors reflecting other people’s likes, passions, and preferences, not out of genuine love but habit.

Is that thing the rhythm in your soul, or is it simply the first thing whispered to you by a world that told you what to like before you liked yourself? Before you knew yourself?

Did you ever listen to that person’s music before they were your favorite artist? Did you ever trace the lyrics with your fingers or read the curve of a poet’s stanzas with your own eyes before you anointed them the best?

Did you ever actually feel the pulse of Angelou’s poetry beneath your skin? Felt her passion jump from the page to her throat and out of her mouth like the voice of many waters? Or do you carry her name like a badge, not because it speaks to you, but because it speaks to everyone else?

Have you ever wandered beyond the well-lit paths of fame into the quiet woods where lesser-known voices sing? Or, have you let the world define your taste, shaping your mind to match the music of the mainstream?

Do you like what you like because you like it or because you’ve been trained to like it?

He Looked Like a Lifetime Supply

Photo by Collis from Pexels

He looked like a lifetime supply of confidence
black-gold wrapped in a Hershey’s kiss
like his soul had stretched up to the sun
this melanin-plated skin
When he shined, we were all shade
Sweat looked like honey dripping
from his brow
forming sweet golden pools
Look too closely, and he starts to look
like a lightening
his eyes two backpacks full of moon
and we scatter like children
looking for jars big enough
to capture the illumination of his essence
made up not of blood and bone
but stars
He looked like a lifetime supply of monuments
a dark sun-kissed body
full to the brim
with uncompromising
confidence.

The inspiration for this poem is from a poetry prompt I saw on IG on the topic of “He Looked Like a Lifetime Supply.”