Mail Entries to:
Mikki Pennington, Contest Chair
P. O. Box 7842
Moore, Oklahoma 73153-7842
PSO members include check, cashier's check, or money order for $5.00 'Flat Fee' for one or all category entries. Non-PSO entrants please include $3.00 per poem. Submit only one entry per category.
Postmark Deadline is December 15, 2020

Open to All 

1. Conclave Journal Award
1st Place $40.00 || 2nd Place $30.00 || 3rd Place $20.00
Form: Poet’s Choice
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: 40 Lines maxSponsors: Lara & Bill Bernhardt
Judge: TBA

2. Geraldine Moore Memorial Award
1st Place $30.00 ||2nd Place $20.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: Poet’s Choice
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: less than 30 Lines
Sponsors & Judges: Jymmie & G.K. Stanton

3. David and Bill Stewart Memorial Award
1st Place $30.00 || 2nd Place $20.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: Vivianne Sonnet—15 lines iambic pentameter
Rhyme: abcd abcd abcd eee
Theme: Common Sense
Line Length: 15 lines form required
Sponsors: Vivian & Lowell Stewart
Judge: Vivian Stewart

4. Jack Koch Memorial Award
1st Place $2.00 || 2nd Place $15.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: Etheree
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: 10 lines (form required)
Sponsor: Patti Koch
Judge: TBA

5. Sonnet Award In Honor of Dr. Lewis Turco
1st Place $25.00 || 2nd Place $15.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: Any modern or traditional rhymed or unrhymed sonnet (please note name of sonnet form used on poem)
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: As required by form
Sponsor & Judge: Sandy Soli

6. Happiness In Haiku
1st Place $25.00 || 2nd Place $15.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: traditional Haiku
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: 3 Lines
Sponsor & Judge: Beverly Stanislawski

7. Windmill Poets Award
1st Place $20.00 || 2nd Place $10.00 || 3rd Place $5.00
Form: Poet’s Choice
Theme: Sounds of animals (no cruelty or abuse)
Line Length: 40 Lines
Sponsors: Windmill Poets
Judge: TBA

8. Japanese Tanka Award
1st Place $25.00 || 2nd Place $15.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: Traditional Tanka w/title
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: Five lines - 5/7/5/7/7
Sponsor:  Anonymous
Judge: TBA 

Only for PSO Members who live in Oklahoma
and have not served as PSO Poet Laureate

9. PSO Poets Laureate Award
1st Place $25.00 || 2nd Place $15.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: Poet’s Choice
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: 40 lines max
Sponsors: PSO Past Poets’ Laureate
Judge: TBA

Open to PSO Members Only

10. PSO Past Presidents’ Award || Honoree: Joan & Eddie Wilcoxen
1st Place $15.00 || 2nd Place $10.00 || 3rd Place $5.00
Form: Poet’s Choice
Theme: Family
Line Length: one page
Sponsors: PSO Board
Judge: TBA

11. Lector Lillian Hall Memorial Award
1st Place $40.00 || 2nd Place $30.00 || 3rd Place $20.00
Form: Rannaicheacht Ghairid- Irish Poetry Form**
**For example see—www.thepoetsgarret.com Celtic Poetry
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: 16 Lines
Sponsors: Karen Kay Bailey
Judge: TBA

12. Laughter is the Best Medicine Award | In Memory of PSO’s Humorist, Clark Elliott
1st Place $30.00 || 2nd Place $20.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: End Rhymes – pure and/or slant, hopefully unexpected.
Theme: Humor – Make us laugh! If you (like Clark) have the gift of wit, write a poem that gives
us a hearty laugh! Be original – do not retell a familiar joke.
Line Length: one page
Sponsors: Vivian & Lowell Stewart
Judge: Vivian Stewart

13. Formal Haiku Award
1st Place $20.00 || 2nd $10.00 || 3rd Place $5.00
Form: formal Haiku = 5-7-5 syllables
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: 3 lines (form required)
Sponsor: Anonymous
Judge: TBA

14. Oklahoma Historical Award
1st Place $25.00 || 2nd Place $15.00 3rd Place $10.00
Form: Poet’s Choice
Theme: An Oklahoma Memory
Line Length: one page
Sponsor: Mary M. Goad-Chase
Judge: TBA

15. Alda Johnson Memorial Award  
1st Place $25.00 ||  2nd Place $15.00 || 3rd Place $10.00
Form: Poet’s Choice
Theme: Sisterly Love
Line Length: 40 Lines max
Sponsor & Judge: Dena R. Gorrell

16. Blank Verse Award | In Honor of Sandy Solis’ Encouragements
1st Place $20.00 || 2nd Place $10.00 || 3rd Place $5.00
Form: Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter
Theme: Poet’s Choice
Line Length: 40 Lines max
Sponsor: Anonymous
Judge: TBA

EXAMPLE POEM FOR CONTEST 11

EXAMPLE POEM:

Rannaicheacht Ghairid (ron-a'yach cha'r-rid):

A quatrain stanza with uneven lines. The first line has three syllables, the other three have seven. The stanza rhymes a a b a, with a cross-rhyme between three and four.

A x a
x x x x x x a
x x x x x x b
x x x x x x A

Fatal attraction

Spider's throne;
myriads of sparkling stones
Dawn generously spread out,
call each scout to deadly zones.

Come, she sings,
fly on your gossamer wings;
in my lair I will keep close,
who once rose- caught in my strings.

Fight no more,
surrender your very core
to the Oneness of the Web-
flood and ebb in full rapport.

I have thrown
my glittering net to drones;
be the feed I'm thriving on-
you've won to share Spider's throne.