poetry contest may 2026

Welcome!

This is where you can submit your poetry for the third All Words Bright & Beautiful poetry contest!

There will be 3 winners and 3 honorable mentions; if you win 1st place, you get $120 in cash; if you win 2nd, you get $85 in cash; if you win 3rd, you get $60. Your winning or honorably mentioned piece will also be featured in a non-paywalled post to our 1.5K+ subscribers.

Your poem should be inspired by this phrase: memento vivere.

Memento Vivere means “remember that you must live.”

Your poem should be about the glory of living audaciously. It should be about living with courage and refusing to allow the pressures of the soul and the hardness of the world to keep you in a box. It should be about living a life so fully and so fearlessly that the cause of death is living.

Think of a coal-miner with the courage to whistle in the dark. Think of the schoolgirl living life to the fullest without being afraid of not fitting in. Think of the lover who dies to save his beloved from death. Think of the war hero. Think of the martyr.

Please note: it is not necessary or encouraged that you include the phrase "memento vivere" in your poem, either in the stanzas or in your title. The important thing is to get the idea the word evokes across.
There are only 3 rules:

1. Thou shalt make the poem rhythm and rhyme. It is not enough that the poem merely rhymes. It must also have a recognizable rhythm when read out loud. Examples of poetry that both rhymes and rhythms well are "Noel" by J. R. R. Tolkien, "The Wreck of the Hesperus" by H. W. Longfellow, and "The Ballad of the White Horse" by G. K. Chesterton. 
2. Thou shalt make the poem imaginative and beautiful. The poem must use beautiful and imaginative language! For example, we want the same kind of language that describes the moon as a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, stars as silver sky-fish swimming in a sea of darkness, and grassy lawns as worlds of adventure to explore, if only you were the size of an acorn. 
3. Thou shalt make the poem's meaning easy to understand. The poem needs to not be difficult to understand for the average person. Make sure when you write it that it is something that most people would be able to appreciate. 

If you have a paid subscription to All Words Bright & Beautiful, you get to enter this contest and all poetry contests we hold after this date for free (as long as you have the subscription). You may also submit as many entries as you like without having to pay the entry fee at any time.

If you haven't gotten a paid subscription yet but want to, feel free to do it here! They're on sale!

Submissions close: on August 5th, 2026 AD or once we reach 49 submissions, whichever happens first.

We look forward to seeing what you send us! Godspeed! :)