Collected Winning Poems from The Poetry Society of Virginia

Each year the Poetry Society of Virginia sponsors contests in 25 categories, covering traditional forms of poetry, free verse, and effective 2023, spoken-word/verse video performance. This book is a compendium of the first and second-place prize-winning poems from the 2023 Poetry Society of Virginia. This book is especially significant because this is the Centennial year for the Poetry Society of Virginia. If only we could travel back for a long Sunday afternoon in 1923 and meet our founders—how thrilled they would be by how far we've come. How they would love to read these poems!

Each year the Poetry Society of Virginia sponsors contests in 25 categories, covering traditional forms of poetry, free verse, and effective 2023, spoken-word/verse video performance. Some of the categories with structured verse include: sonnets, limericks, and ekphrastic poems. Many of the categories include themes, such as: friendship, farm life, women, fatherhood, technology, nature, historical events, lyrical, and narrative poems. Some categories are open to poems in any style, with any theme. The book is not only a delight to read, but provides examples of outstanding poems that poets may use as inspiration to write their own prize-winning poems in future contests. This book is a compendium of the first and second-place prize-winning poems from the 2023 Poetry Society of Virginia. This book is especially significant because this is the Centennial year for the Poetry Society of Virginia. If only we could travel back for a long Sunday afternoon in 1923 and meet our founders—how thrilled they would be by how far we've come. How they would love to read these poems!

In May 1923, a small group of poets, desirous of fostering and stimulating an interest in poetry in the Commonwealth, met in the Chapel of the Wren Building at the College of William and Mary. There they drew up a constitution and bylaws for the organization and named it The Poetry Society of Virginia. They elected Dr. Charles N. Feidelson to serve as its first president. Since then, the Poetry Society of Virginia – through publications, readings by members and visiting poets, poetry events around the state, contests, workshops, in-school programs, poetry festivals, and other activities – has helped to advance the cause and appreciation of poetry throughout Virginia. Visiting poets have included Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl Sandburg, Richard Wilbur, Donald Hall, Charles Wright, and many others. Membership in the society has grown to over four hundred, with about fifteen percent from outside Virginia. Each year the Poetry Society of Virginia sponsors contests in 25 categories, covering traditional forms of poetry, free verse, and in 2023, spoken-word/verse video performance. This book is a compendium of the first and second-place winning poems from the Poetry Society of Virginia's 2023 contest. ​