Tag: poem

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:

Ain’t No Red Carpet for the Prophet

Revolution sounds pretty.

This polished word

makes a giddy sound,

like raising your first

or rubbing your feet together.

We quote Martin with a rhythm that swells the chest.

Malcolm’s words hum like power.

Assata’s taste like survival.

Garvey’s tickles the ear.

Lumumba’s boom like djembe drums.

Angela’s convinces the tongue that it is brave.

But no one applauds

the silence that follows a truth

told too clearly

in a world where lies

are the laws of the land.

We forget that Zora died counting coins,

her name folded small in her own purse.

Lowered into the earth without a stone to speak for her

in a segregated garden of silence

while her words, once blazing,

lay out of print like abandoned children.

We forget that revolution is only another word for change,

and change is rarely applauded in its own lifetime.

The ones who bend the arc of the world

often do it alone,

unclapped.

Revolution sounds sweet in the mouth

like a hymn rising,

like the lift of a firstborn into waiting arms,

like the soft hush of skin against skin.

But ain’t no red carpet

for the prophet.

Just dust. Truth.

And the long walk home.

This poem was inspired by an amazing podcast episode of “Our Ancestors Were Messy” about the friendship between Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes (which I’ve hinted at in my novel Renaissance), their fall-out, and what culminated in the tragic ending of a folklorist, documentarian, author, and anthropologist.

Once one of the most successful writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston would die in poverty in the segregated wing of a welfare home. Her body would be buried in an unmarked grave. The woman who preserved Black life faded into obscurity until she was rediscovered by Alice Walker in 1973.

Walker would resurrect Hurston’s writings and place a marker on her grave that read, “Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South.”

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?

Yecheilyah’s 7th Annual Poetry Contest Spotlight: Deep Thought the Lyricist

Today, we are spotlighting the winners of our 2024 poetry contest!

Next is Arsenio Sorrell, better known in these poetic streets as Deep Thought the Lyricist!

I met Deep on Clubhouse back when we were in these COVID trenches, and after hearing him speak, I followed him and some other dope poets on Instagram.

About the Lyricist:

Known on his social media as Deep Thought The Lyricist, Arsenio has a popular following for his work. He is the 2-time Floetry Poetry Sensual Slam Champion, Purple Poetry Slam, Improv Poetry “24 Hour Prompt” Slam Finalist, and now, YAPC Finalist. He has also won The 2024 Golden Poet  Award’ for Poetic Excellence’, the ‘Resilience’ Award, and The 2024 Social Media Breakfast ‘Rising Star Award. 

As you can see, Arsenio is a productive and passionate poet, hosting Sensational Saturday as a member of the Illbejacy Poetry Club.

His winning poem, Hope Moon and Joyful Skies, came in second place for its profound use of poetic technique and imagery. You can watch the replay of our interview right now on Instagram under @yecheilyah where he also recites his poem.

Learn More About Why We Call Him Deep Thought by Diving into his Work at the Links Below:

IG: Deepthought_thelyricist

FB: Deep thought the lyricist 

Threads: Deepthought_thelyricist

Tik Tok: Deep thought the lyricist 

Link: www.Deepthoughtthelyricists.com

Stay glued for details on Yecheilyah’s 8th Annual Poetry Contest 2025, including this year’s theme!

Yecheilyah’s 7th Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2024

Yecheilyah’s 6th Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2023

Yecheilyah’s 5th Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2022

Yecheilyah’s 4th Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2021

Yecheilyah’s 3rd Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2019

Yecheilyah’s 2nd Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2018

Yecheilyah’s 1st Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2017

Yecheilyah’s 7th Annual Poetry Contest Spotlight: Dondi Springer

Today, we continue spotlighting the winners of our 2024 poetry contest! Next up is my good brother, Dondi Springer!

D.A. Springer walks between worlds as a poet-philosopher and visionary, weaving introspective verse and transformative wisdom into a tapestry of awakening. As a creator, D.A. Springer crafts portals of possibility where personal revelation meets universal truth.

His works—from the raw thunder of “Virus Verses” to the soul-stirring Poetic Paradigm—speak to seekers and dreamers, Gen X warriors, and old souls dancing on the edge of becoming. Through poetry that pulses with both shadow and light, D A. Springer guides readers to reclaim their power and voice their own declarations of change.

His winning poem, Echoes of Joy, came in at number three and will be recited during his live interview this afternoon!

Find his illuminated words across these digital platforms:

Instagram/Threads: @Napalmjax

Facebook: @DSpringer76

YouTube: @Napalmjax

Support Him Here:

https://shop.beacons.ai/daspringer/d6705f5b-e196-4376-b11d-c3e97c30c88e

Stay glued for details on Yecheilyah’s 8th Annual Poetry Contest 2025, including this year’s theme!

Yecheilyah’s 7th Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2024

Yecheilyah’s 6th Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2023

Yecheilyah’s 5th Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2022

Yecheilyah’s 4th Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2021

Yecheilyah’s 3rd Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2019

Yecheilyah’s 2nd Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2018

Yecheilyah’s 1st Annual Poetry Contest Winners, 2017