April Poetry Contest Winners!

The time has come to announce the winners of WordHustler’s April Poetry Contest. We received hundreds of poems from amazing poets everywhere, but were forced to decide on three Winners and six Honorable Mentions.

Winners:

Megan Robb, Poughkeepsie, NY

Erin Adams, San Clemente, CA

Maureen Dolan, Hayden, ID

Honorable Mentions:

Kristy Hoard, Girard, OH

Kate Murphy, Skaneateles, NY

Sarah Seidel, Dallas, TX

Melony Malsom, Aberdeen, SD

Joshua Merrell, Bountiful, UT

Amy Platon, Orlando, FL

If you didn’t win this time, you still have a chance to enter the May writing contest, which celebrates WordHustler’s First Birthday. Look for contest rules HERE.

The three winning poems are posted below. Read on to see how these three WordHustlers wowed the judges with their poetic artfulness.

Bright
by Megan Robb

I want to see you under a streetlight
in an angel orange spotlight how I
need to see you beneath fluorescent lamps
that unforgiving green halo I want
some electricity for murdering
the darkness that keeps you from me I need
a torch to burn down what I can’t see
I want to force the blindness outside
myself so that I could have you again
even if it’s only in my line of vision
shadows and shades cannot keep me from you
nor the unseen phantoms of the alleys
when need and want are my only guidance
to keep the long night from a life inside us.

Megan Robb is a freelance writer currently living in the Bronx. After graduating from Syracuse University, she is now in the process of applying for a graduate program in public communications. Megan has also written for cracked.com.

Walls of Straw
by Erin Adams

look out at the ocean
turn around and face the shore
face yourself
feet don’t get wet
water well-lit by the moon
alone alone alone alone alone alone alone
quiet

who are these saints that love me
why do they stick around
stop trying to teach me how to swim
some of us were meant to drown
do i deserve any of this
no absolutely not

it’s a strange thing to walk in one direction
only to end up right back where you were
oh God right back in October
just when the warm breeze blows upon my face
a cold wind runs up my spine
is there no escape

what do you call home
my home is memories
their laughter was windows
his embrace a roof
and the walls of my foundation
made of all i had
made of straw
couldn’t stand up to that cold wind the first time
why believe they’ll come through now
those walls made of straw

Erin Adams grew up and currently resides in Southern California. She is married to Chris, whom she met on the school bus in junior high. Erin writes both poetry and short stories, but enjoys the catharsis that writing poetry brings her. She is a fan of literature, owls, quality time with her loved ones, and is an aficionado of good ice cream.

Early Cynicism
by Maureen Dolan

Morning after morning,
we let it walk us into the woods,
take us to places where
every leaky faucet is chronic;
where stains and scarred sinks are
best-case scenarios.

Doubt drugs us,
twists itself
amongst our receptors
until nothing is simple.
We are hooked early;
what with the sweetest voice
crooning to us about
how the bough always breaks.

Nightly reports
from the living room
waft down the hall,
ride the glow of the television.
Sensational shadows
assert themselves,
selling bills of goods in
song and dance
on the bedroom walls.

As we master the arts of
the toothbrush and the shoelace
incredulity settles in
somewhere between reaching for dreams
and crayon marks on the wall.

Maureen Dolan was born in New Jersey in 1962. She works as a writer in Idaho and has been published in a few places in cyberspace and print.