Announcing the GRAND PRIZE WINNER of our 2025 October Project Poetry Contest, SAM AURELI, for his poem “A Soft Unfolding.”
Sam originally from Italy and now based in Boston, is a design and construction professional working in real estate development. When he’s not immersed in concrete and steel, he writes poetry rooted in the elemental textures of the world. He came to poetry later in life as a refuge from the noise, a way to pause and listen more closely to what the world quietly offers. His poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The Atlanta Review, Sontag Mag, Underscore Magazine, Prosetrics The Magazine, Stanchion Magazine, Humana Obscura, among other literary journals.
A Soft Unfolding
The crows lift— sharp, sudden, a clamor against the sky. I hear it: the hurt of the world, an ache in the earth’s bones, the thin cries of children under war’s shadow. A raven sits on the morning’s branch.
I don’t shout back. My quiet isn’t retreat—I’ve watched the wind turn the grass, seen the river carve its slow way through stone. The weight stays, a pebble in my hand.
Look— the world doesn’t close its eyes. Rilke saw it: the panther’s gaze, a pulse behind bars. Whitman sang it: life rising through war’s red haze. And Oliver—her voice unbound, calling with the wild geese, harsh and clear over a muffled earth.
I don’t say this to hush the grief, or step past the shadowed ones, but to show you something stubborn, something green.
Yesterday, by the hawthorn—its trunk scarred from winter—a sprig pushed through, tender, new, a question, a promise. Isn’t this hope? Not loud, not a cry to cover fear, but a root, a leaf unfolding, saying, “Stay. Look. Keep going.”
Today we feature the SECOND PLACE WINNER in our 2025 October Project Poetry Contest, Elizabeth Johnston, for her poem “To All Our College Boyfriends, Who Ought to Know.”
Elizabeth is a widely published poet and the author of two chapbooks: Wild Things, (Main Street Rag, 2021) and Imago, Dei (winner of the Rattle Chapbook Poetry Prize, 2022). Coordinator of the Creative Writing Program at Monroe Community College and co-founder of Straw Mat Writers, she also leads trauma-writing workshops for the Breast Cancer Coalition and for survivors of sexual assault. She lives in Rochester, NY with her partner, Brian, daughters, and four unruly rescue animals.
The final poet of the four who tied for THIRD PLACE in our Poetry Contest is Anne Marie Wells, for “Postpartum Abecedarian In Front of the Bathroom Mirror.”
Anne Marie is the author of two poetry collections: Survived By: A Memoir in Verse + Other poems, and Mother, (v) [pronounced Mother comma verb]. She is a certified Listener Poet and the content and copy editor for Mama’s Kitchen Press and Alegria Publishing. To find out more, visit AnneMarieWellsWriter.com.
In order to maintain the structure of the poem as Anne Marie laid it out on the page, we have attached an image of it here.
Today we feature “Let the Line End Here,” by Katie Ruffing, which tied for THIRD PLACE in our Poetry Contest.
Now only were we amazed to learn that Katie is only 18 , she writes “This is my first time ever writing poetry!” She plans to pursue a degree in Neuroscience with a minor in Philosophy.
Katie’s poem is a vivid, courageous, and personal story, the first of what we hope will be many poems to follow.
Let the Line End Here
They ask if I will ever want children,
as if the question is soft.
As if the answer is not already
lodged in the back of my throat
like a splinter I never learned to swallow.
They do not see the name stitched beneath my skin,
In alphabetical order, here is the second of the four poems that tied for THIRD PLACE in our Poetry Contest this year – “Inheritance,” by Diyora Kabilova from Uzbekistan! Imagine our surprise to learn that the author of this breathtaking poem is only 15 years old.
Diyora writes that “she uses poetry to make sense of the world and everything I feel too deeply to say out loud. My work often explores memory, emotion, and the quiet moments that leave a lasting mark. I write to remember—and to be remembered.”
Remarkably, FOUR POETS were tied for THIRD PLACE in our Poetry Contest this year. In alphabetical order, we begin with a deeply powerful poem from Canadian poet Dean Gessie entitled “on the consolation of elegy.”
Dean Gessie is an author and poet of global renown who has won dozens of international poetry awards and prizes. He was twice selected for The Best 64 Poets by Black Mountain Press in North Carolina and he was one of twenty international poets included in the Poetry Archive NOW! World View video anthology in England. Dean’s poetry collection, goat song, won the Seven Hills Literary Competition in Florida.
October Process 