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Submissions Closed 🪶 Theme: Travel Entry: $5 USD

Contest of the Month

Welcome to the Monthly Poetry Championship, the elite tier of competition at The Poetry Soul. This month’s Monthly Poetry Championship focuses on the theme of Nature, inviting poets...

Prizes & Awards Leaderboard Rules & Terms
Merit Judging by Official Judging Team Most Loved & Shared Boosts Win Chance Authors Retain Full Copyright
🏆 Guaranteed Prize Pool
$105 USD
Disbursed globally via PayPal & Stripe
Deadline
October 31, 2026
Expired
Participation
$5 USD
Open Worldwide
Line Limits
10 – 40 Lines
Any poetic form
Submissions
4 / 30 Min.
26 more needed
👥 Participant Quota 4 / 30
Needed to activate cash prizes 13%
View Standings & Leaderboard
🏆 Recognition & Rewards

Grand Prizes & Laureate Honors

In addition to guaranteed cash disbursements, winners earn permanent profile badges, editorial feature interviews, and homepage immortality.

🥇 1st Place Champion
$50 USD

Cash payout + Gold Laureate Badge + Platform Grand Feature + Permanent Homepage Spotlight.

🥈 2nd Place Runner-Up
$30 USD

Cash payout + Silver Laureate Badge + Digital Anthology Feature + Profile Spotlight.

🥉 3rd Place Laureate
$15 USD

Cash payout + Bronze Laureate Badge + Official Digital Certificate.

❤️ People's Choice
$10 USD

Awarded to the verse that garners the highest combined community engagement and votes.

ℹ️

Contest Update:

The deadline for the Poetry Contest 2026 has been extended to October 31, 2026.

✍️ Submit Your Work

Enter the Competition

Select an original poem from your published portfolio to submit. Ensure your piece strictly complies with the competition guidelines.

📜 Submission Guidelines

  • 1

    Strict Originality

    All verses must be your own original creation. Plagiarism or uncredited borrowing results in instant disqualification.

  • 2

    Line Restrictions

    Poems must adhere to the 10 to 40 line range. Lyrical, free verse, sonnets, and classical meters are all accepted.

  • 3

    Published to Portfolio First

    Poems must be saved to your platform profile before they can be chosen for this competition.

  • 4

    Judging Team Merit Review

    All submissions are evaluated on literary merit, with final rankings and official results decided by our judging team. Community support plays an active role—the most loved and most shared poems gain high visibility, greatly boosting your chances to win prizes!

  • 5

    Minimum Participant Threshold

    A minimum of 30 participants is required for official winners to be selected and cash prizes to be disbursed. Current entries: 4 / 30 poets.

Questions? Read the Official Contest Terms & Conditions.

⌛

Submissions Are Closed

The entry window for this competition has expired. You can view the live community rankings on the leaderboard.

View Championship Leaderboard
📊 Live Standings

Championship Leaderboard

Live rankings of submitted entries calculated by reader engagement, community votes, and peer appreciation. The most loved and most shared poems earn vital visibility that helps increase your chances of winning prizes with the judging team!

🥇

"My Happy Place"

1st Place

By Bobbie Lay

🥈

"“the weight awaits”"

2nd Place

By Francheska Barairo

⚖️ Official Competition Standards

Rules & Evaluation Criteria

Review the judging rubric, eligibility standards, copyright policies, and payout terms.

1. ⚖️ Judging Team Merit Rubric & Scoring Weights

Submissions are evaluated on creative and technical excellence, with final rankings and results determined by our official judging team. Core evaluation criteria include:

  • Creativity & Thematic Interpretation (40%): Depth of insight, originality of metaphor, and engagement with the prompt.
  • Emotional Resonance & Imagery (30%): Ability to evoke feeling, sensory richness, and atmosphere.
  • Rhythm, Structure & Language (20%): Meter, musicality, line breaks, and linguistic command.
  • Originality & Voice (10%): Distinctive personal style and authentic literary voice.
💡
Community Engagement Advantage: The most loved (highest voted) and most shared poems gain significant spotlight and community momentum, which strongly increases your chances of winning prizes with our judging team!
2. 📄 Originality & Submission Integrity

All poems must be entirely original works written by the entrant. No plagiarism, automated text generation (AI writing), or unauthorized copying is permitted. Once entered, submissions are locked against edits to preserve contest integrity.

3. 🔒 Copyright & Intellectual Property Rights

You retain 100% full copyright ownership of your work. By entering, you grant The Poetry Soul a non-exclusive license to publish your poem on our website, social features, and digital anthologies with permanent author attribution.

4. 💰 Cash Prize Payouts & Global Disbursement

Cash prizes are distributed via PayPal or direct Stripe transfer within 7 to 14 business days following winner certification. Winners are contacted via their registered account email address for verification.

5. 👥 Minimum Participation Requirement (30 Poets)

A minimum of 30 participants is required for this contest's cash prizes to be distributed and official winners to be certified.

If the competition does not reach 30 participants before the deadline, cash prizes will not be awarded. Instead, the top performers based on community engagement (likes, views, shares) will be featured on the homepage as “Top Poets of the Month” and will receive the exclusive “Poet of the Month” profile badge with featured promotion.