Tautogram Challenge Winners

Write a poem where every word starts with the same letter.

Seems simple enough. After all, a poem can be... anything. How hard can it be? Well, we tried and, turns out, it's really hard! Sure, stringing some words together that begin with the same letter is easy, but creating a poetic energy, a story, a feeling, that's hard, really hard.

As always, you rose above and wrote beyond the Challenge. We were blown away by your submissions and their breadth of creativity. Once again, restriction bred brilliance.

Here are the winners of the Tautogram Challenge and spotlight on two of the Runners-Up. You can check out the full list of winners HERE.

$1,000 Grand Prize Winner

t.r.h blue for When Winter Wanes

We received many submissions whose subject was nature but none encapsulated nature and its changes as beautifully as When Winter Wanes. There is, dare we say, an Americanness to this poem, a continental, sweeping homage to the passing of a season, whose winds wend through bedrooms and fields, down streets and over ponds. Not a word was forced in this poem, each image brisk and true. We felt ourselves floating on its energy, proud to be in its presence. This really was an exceptional piece. Congratulations, t.r.h blue!

$250 Second Place Winner

Lauren M. Frazier for Twenty-two

Aside from nature-focused poems, we also received many about love and fallibility. How beautiful is it that as a community we look to the elemental building blocks of our world - love and nature - for our art.

What made us fall for this poem was its poignant capture of the feeling of being 22. If you haven't made it there yet, get ready to hold on. And if you've been 22, we know you understand this poem. Caught between being a teenager and an adult, you have the desire to love, to crush, to live so viciously, just like the two subjects written within. It's all a rush (This? This? This?) but there are always constraints. Geography, money, time, allegiance, whatever it may be, at 22, you want to conquer the world but the world says slow down. Frustrating, true, sublime. Congratulations, Lauren M. Frazier!

Honorable Mention

Kat Forbes for Sunrise, Sunset

This was one of the rare tautograms where the poet used a rhyming scheme. A challenge on top of a Challenge! The rhymes felt natural, the meter unstrained, and all of this without the use of 25 starting letters. We could smell the sea while reading this one, see the sun arcing and disappearing. And just in time for summer. Well done, Kat Forbes!

Honorable Mention

Pamela Walsh-Holte for Humble Heart

Simple in its form, this poem was severely deep in its message. It was a story in so few words, a searing moment, a love leap unrequited. This one broke our hearts. Well done, Pamela Walsh-Holte!

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