Tag: poem contest

Winners of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project 25th Anniversary Poetry Contest

 

winners

 

Spirit of Niagara Award

Stan (Stanisław) Skrzeszewski

Ninety-Nine Iambic Pentameters Celebrating Our Niagara Falls

First Place Winner

Azaghen Ramasamy

The Other Way Around

Second Place Winner

Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews

Into the Mist

Third Place Winner

Jennifer Filipowicz

Me and You and Rebecca and Drew

Honourable Mentions

Kunal Sharma

Before I Met Niagara

Jatin Garg

Twenty-Two Spans

Ryan Boggs

The Second Dare

Kunal Sharma

The Place Where Countries Lean Close

These poems are the winners of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project 25th Anniversary Poetry Competition. They will be published with all the other entrants in a print anthology to be published by Phylum Press. To reserve a copy of the anthology please email aporteus@niagarapoetry.ca. A companion volume exploring the poetry over 6 centuries will also soon be available, and may be reserved ahead of time.

Click on the title of each of the winners to see the complete poem.

Each poem was judged by a panel of 3 judges, and the first, second, and third prizes were the poems with the highest average scores.  The judges recommended poems for the Spirit of Niagara Falls award, which was chosen by the curator of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project (Andrew Porteus). Many thanks to C.D. Onofrio, Sharon Frayne, and Gabriel Graham Piessens for judging.

An Honourable Mention was given to the highest scoring poem from each of the judges and the curator that did not receive one of the other awards.

The Contest is finished!

finished
The 25th Anniversary Poetry Contest submission period has now finished. Thanks to all of the people who submitted their poems.

Poems came from across North America, with others from the United Kingdom, Sweden, India, Indonesia, and a few that I don’t know where they’re from.

The poems are now going into the judges’ hands for scoring. Once they come back to me I will tally the scores and then be able to announce the winners. The winners’ poems will be added to the website at that point. I don’t envy the judges during the scoring process. There were so many good poems that were entered it will be hard to make a decision.

As the judging is being done I will be selecting and compiling the poems into book format (depending on the size and cost of the book not all entires may necessarily be added to the book). That will be completed after the winners are announced, and the manuscript will be sent to Phylum Press to complete the printing process, with the publication date to be announced later. We will be taking advance orders.

After the book is published the non-winning entries will be added to the website. 

Once again, thanks to all of the poets from around the world who entered the contest.

ONE WEEK LEFT!!

left

We’re getting down to the wire!  There is one week left to submit your poem about Niagara Falls to the Niagara Falls Poetry Project 25th Anniversary Poetry Contest!!

The judges have sharpened their pencils and are eagerly awaiting reading the submissions!

The curator is feverishly working at getting all of the submission ready for the print anthology of the winners and contestants that will hopefully be available later this year.

All we need is ….. your poem.

Click here to see all of the info you need to submit your poem.

On Preservation by Kimiko Hahn

Listen to Kimiko Hahn perform On Preservation

 

Four hundred million years ago, a shallow sea
languished across the northern continent
and pressured layers of mud, silt, and marine shells
into varying layers of varying resistance until
the shale entertained a miles-thick ice sheet
that scoured the land into great basins. Meltwater
and glacial debris were ushered over the face.
Undercutting and collapsing yielded the gorge,
the falls, the whirlpools. Then man harnessed the flow,
and the inevitable retreat slowed thus preserving
a home for honeymoon and poetry.
                                                                     Not preserved
is the origin of the name Niagara–possibly adopted
from the Iroquois, Huron or Seneca languages
of which, today, only a few people can still speak.

Source: Kimiko Hahn, 2026kimiko

Kimiko Hahn, New York State Poet Laureate, wrote and performed this poem for the Niagara Falls Poetry Project’s 25th Anniversary, where it was featured at the April 9, 2026 event launching the Poetry Contest. Click here for information about the contest and the event.

About Kimiko Hahn

Maud Willard and Her Niagara Falls Stunt, 1901 by Kimiko Hahn

Listen to Kimiko Hahn performing “Maud Willard and Her Niagara Falls Stunt, 1901”

hahn
Maud Willard With Barrel

The barrel with Maud and her dog
shoots into the rapids’ familiar tossing
then to a swirling of strange currents.

Into the whirlpool, they sink from sight,
sucked into its merciless depths.
The barrel with Maud and her dog

then springs from the maelstrom, 
courses far from tourists on shore
in the swirling of strange currents.

Now dark–a search light into the gorge
illuminates the thrashing waves and
the barrel with Maud and her dog.

Five hours–the woman’s been imprisoned
in the rolling, revolving waters
till from that strange swirl of currents

the men catch the cask though only the pet
—nose seen in an air hole—leaps out.
The Tale of Daredevil Maud and Her Dog
is still strangely swirling. And current.


Source: Kimiko Hahn, 2026

Kimiko Hahn, New York State Poet Laureate, wrote and performed this poem for the Niagara Falls Poetry Project’s 25th Anniversary, where it was featured at the April 9, 2026 event launching the Poetry Contest. Click here for information about the contest and the event.

About Kimiko Hahn