Editor’s Note

It is with a full range of emotions that we present our 2^nd Annual Poetry Prize Contest Issue. This is the first issue since Vince O’Connor, our Co-Managing Editor and Webmaster, passed away. We deeply miss his joyful spirit, willingness to tackle any challenge, and dedication to the excellence of RockPaperPoem. Though he wasn’t physically with us, we thought of him throughout the publishing process and are honored to continue the tradition of offering fine poetry to you, our readers.

We hope you will enjoy all 15 beautiful poems—12 Finalists and three Prize winners—in this special edition of RockPaperPoem. Also, please take a few moments to read the wonderful comments from this year’s Contest Judge about the winning poems.

Thank you again for your loyal readership and ongoing support as we begin a new chapter in our journey together.

With warm regards,

The Editors

Comments from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, 2025 Contest Judge, about this year’s winning poems:

Grand Prize Winner—”Okay, Okay” by Zoe Boyer

This poem lights me up. I love how the language itself is sensual, surprising—so much music stitched into every stanza. It’s a joy to read out loud. That sensual richness serves this poem, which is, truly, a celebration of how beauty opens us up, even when, perhaps especially when, we think that isn’t possible. I am struck by the simple language in the telling lines—“how easy it would be to lie down,/ let sorrow make a stone of me” and “I have begged the world to stop asking me to stay.” These lay the foundation for the poem, setting up the tension so the reader, too, can be “pierced cleanly through the heart” by “silt red as persimmons, trunks tilting at the banks like the columns of some Roman ruin.” The title is doing such great work here, too, a somewhat reluctant acceptance of the treasure of this life—but by the last lines, the reader and poem’s speaker both are steeped in the gifts of the natural world. 

Runner-Up Prize Winner—”ChatGPT Says it Can’t Analyze Why Things Happened the Way They Did” by Meggie Royer

Oh there are so many layers in this poem, the sense that the poem’s speaker is still “looking for things under things.” And so many ways are presented that we might try to understand what has happened—through ChatGPT, through a therapist, by turning over rocks, or even by writing a poem. I love all the unknowns in this poem. And I appreciate, too, all the strange, oddly specific sensory details, such as the taste of rocks from the yard, the brother’s apology that belongs to someone else, and that glorious last image of quiet before the therapist knows the poem’s speaker is present. This poem is a deeply effective blend of what is known and what is unknown—perhaps even unknowable. The simple language is so helpful for a poem interested in exploring the ineffable. There’s a sense of some unspeakable pain that has happened that tugs against the almost tender tone used here. This poem both unsettled and moved me.

Runner-Up Prize Winner—”Feral Camels Unsettled the Land, Tossed Down and Rolled Like Dice” by Sarah Sorensen

The first line of this poem pulled me right in. Immediately I knew I was entering a poem unlike any I have read before. And feral thorn-eating camels become such a profound metaphor for the speaker of the poem: “I know what it means to gorge before sudden bounty and to subsist on pain.” Oh. Oh! It’s so embodied and brings up so much feeling. And then to shift the metaphor so this camel becomes “a golden candy, hard and beautiful in the sun.” Gah! It’s so full of paradox, so wounded, so honoring. I love, too, how the poem begins with such certainty, so factually, and ends somewhat surreal, though still carrying the essence of being factual, even when it ends with a question. Also, the title pulls me in—fills me with curiosity.