FPS: The Sonnet of Shadows Challenge Winners

Welcome to the winners announcement for the second challenge in the Fall Poetry Series. The Sonnet of Shadows was especially tough to judge, so many standout submissions made choosing just a few a real challenge.

Writers were asked to balance light and dark in love, memory, and imagination, all within the bounds of a 14-line sonnet. The results were moving, inventive, and full of contrast. From joy and ache to doubt and clarity, each piece carried emotional weight and poetic craft in equal measure.

🏆 Winners

Such are the Blue Climes by Gabriel Huizenga

Gabriel Huizenga's sonnet moves through emptiness and creation with a quiet sense that absence can be its own kind of muse. It shifts from dark to light in a way that feels both thoughtful and earned. The final couplet lands a gentle but powerful truth: sometimes peace lives in the pieces we carry.

deep things in darkness by John Cox

John Cox's piece invites you into a space where light and dark aren't opposites but companions. With Biblical and mythic echoes woven throughout, it explores the quiet strength found in shadow and the lessons waiting in the depths. The result is thoughtful and grounded, ending on a note of hope that lingers.

Grapes of Putrescence by Imola Tóth

Imola Tóth's entry leans into the beauty of decay with vivid, sensory detail. The image of ripened grapes slipping into rot is both lush and haunting, turning sweetness into something darker but no less captivating. It’s a rich take on how desire lingers even as it fades, and how ruin can carry its own strange elegance.

Chiaroscuro by Phar West Nagle

Phar West Nagle's poem brings light and shadow together in a way that feels both honest and tender. What starts with fear and sharp edges slowly shifts into trust, showing how love can hold space for both pain and care. The turn lands smoothly, reminding us that even our messiest parts can lead to real connection.

Alchemy by E.K. Daniels

E.K. Daniels' reflection moves from shadow into light with a rhythm that feels both grounded and intimate. The imagery is rich and tactile, especially in the way it celebrates connection through small, shared moments. The final couplet ties it all together, leaving a sense that even in darkness, something true and golden can be found.

🎖️ Runners-up

• “A door through the crevice of which the moonshine peeps in”* by Alison McBain
• The Turn by Hannah Moore
• The Glimpse of the Tattered Man by Scott A. Vancil
• Wolf In Shepherd’s Clothing by Sean A.
• Those Glaring Eyes by Callum Summers
• Greenlight by Gerard DiLeo
• What if I Told You by Cathy holmes
• Midnight Eyes by Obsidian Words
• Photo Finish by Marilyn Glover
• Narcissus in Candlelight by Paul Stewart
• Weighted Blanket by Justin
• destroy my notebooks when I’m gone, please dear by Chloe Corcoran
• Pemaquid Point by Raistlin Allen
• What Our Hearts Have Learned by Dana Crandell
• Only time can undo... by Leigh Hooper

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• The Day Dreamer by Lizzy Rose
• A River Through Ruin by River and Celia in Underland
• Persephone’s Ascent by Harper Lewis
• Winter Night, Give Way to Spring by Amanda Starks
• Logarithmic Drift by Pamela Williams
• Rejection (Sonnet 1) by Conor Darrall
• Ghost in the Fire by Katharine Poole
• And your loveliness by Emily Ryan
• Forces by Jessica McGlaughlin
• flowers of fate by Joe O’Connor

Check out the latest on Vocal Challenges.