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Announcing the Winners of the
2022 CLA Sacred Poetry Contest

Our judge this year was acclaimed poet A.M. Juster. We think you'll find his comments below illuminating.

“Let me begin by commending all the finalists for their fine work in perhaps the most challenging poetry contest in the United States.

Why do I say “most challenging”? First, poets who entered their work could not simply pull their best poems out of their computers and send them in. They had just a few sources of inspiration to write about and a limited amount of time, and most poets never work in such a constrained way.

Second, good ekphrastic poetry is extremely difficult to write. A straightforward description of a painting or sculpture is unlikely to succeed as a poem because the reader typically cannot see the nuances of the work that make it memorable; the poet must find strategies for making the reader react to the subject in ways similar to the way that the poet reacted to the art.

Third, the task of writing outstanding religious poetry is full of temptations, particularly the tendency to be didactic. The point of a religious poem may be compelling, but if a poem only offers doctrine, it is not much of a poem. To capture religious feeling—that spiritual feeling that supersedes doctrine—through well-crafted images is exceptionally difficult, and there is no roadmap for doing it, as the varied work of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Jennings, and Christian Wiman demonstrates.

I read all the finalist poems three times, narrowed the group to four, and then read the survivors many more times in order to rank them.”

—A. M. Juster, 2022 CLA Sacred Poetry contest judge

A. M. Juster’s Commentary

My choice for third place is “A Time Apart,” which drew on Jean Wetta’s “Fishing.” Of the four finalists it is the most concise, and its concision complements the power of its imagery and its call to contemplation. It uses skillful iambic pentameter and an unusual ABCCBA rhyme scheme; normally the distance between a stanza’s first and sixth lines is too distant for a reader to hear the rhyme, but the second stanza’s trisyllabic singularity/clarity rhyme allows the reader to hear it—and to hear it with a BANG that brings the poem to closure.

A. M. Juster’s Commentary

My second choice is “Fishing,” which also riffed on Jean Wetta’s “Fishing,” but it is a very different and riskier poem. In many ways it rejects the call to contemplation of the third-place poem because of the intrusive effect of concern about the Russian genocide in Ukraine. Its carefully crafted, haiku-like free verse takes a dramatic turn in the fourth line of the first section with:

so unlike Lviv
where no boy I know
wakes to an air raid siren

These lines make us feel not only of the difficulty of meditation in a violent and unfair world, but also the difficulty of maintaining empathy without visceral connections to victims.

In the second section the poet tries again to meditate, but is thwarted once more in the third section when the poem turns “to a catastrophe/of rubble where once were houses”. These straightforward words demonstrate one of the strengths of this poem—its willingness to let the images of the poem speak for themselves without intrusive explanation.

A. M. Juster’s Commentary

My choice for first place is “Oblation,” which was inspired by Matilda Oliviera’s “Virgin of Hope.” At first blush this reflection on the Virgin Mary seems simple from a formal perspective—four four-line stanzas not in a set meter with the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyming. However, the skilled surprises of the language put this one over the top for me. There is this marvelous second line reminiscent of Hopkins:

in the silver shadow of slivered leaves 

There is the striking alliteration of “vacant vestibule” and “buried/breeze” along with the ninth line’s wordplay with “seed” and “accede.” There are also innovative breaks from tradition in the unusual but powerful gaps in lines four and thirteen. The second of those gaps connects with a one-word run-on from the previous stanza, all of which focuses attention on the pivotal and nuanced word “keep.”

In short, “Oblations” is a beautiful and hopeful poem worthy of the honor of first place.

Contest Information

Join A. M. Juster, judge of the 2022 Sacred Poetry Contest, along with the winners and finalists reading their work, on June 7, 2022 at seven p.m. via Zoom.

Register at this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/340290035657

The event is free, but registration is required. We welcome your donations to help fund scholarships for next school year's Teen Writing Mentorship Program. See the details of this program here:
https://www.catholicliteraryarts.org/teen-writers-mentorship-program

Contest Period:

• February 1st to April 30th

• Contest closes at 11:59 pm on April 30th

Winners posted on CLA website:

• June 1, 2022 by 12 noon.

• The judge’s comments will be posted along with the text of the winning poems, visual image, and link to author’s websites, if applicable

• All non-winners will be notified June 2, 2022.

Virtual Winners’ Reading:

• Winners and finalists will be invited to read their entries at a virtual celebration via Zoom. Tuesday, June 7, 7:00 pm, CST.

• Mr. Juster will attend this virtual reading and read previously prepared comments on each of the three winning poems.

Text and Contest Parameters (Submittable): 

One fee of $20. Up to three poems may be submitted. Only one submission per poet. Files may be .doc, .docx.

Instructions for poets:

Please give the title of each poem and the number and title of the sacred image to which it is a response by completing the Submittable form designed for this purpose. Name of poet must not appear in or on poem itself or in the file name when submitted. A list of the images and artists is given for your convenience.

Click on an image for a larger view. Scroll through the larger images using the left and right arrows.

For more information about the artists, visit their website:

1.     Jean Wetta – Fishing http://www.jeancarrutherswetta.com/

2.     Matilde Oliviera –Virgin of Hope https://matildeolivera.com/en/obras-singulares/

3.     Thomas Marsh – I Thirst http://thomasmarshsculptor.net/sculptures.html

4.     Diego Velazquez – Crucifixion (Public Domain)

5.     Marianne Stokes – St. Elizabeth of Hungary Working for the Poor (Public Domain)

6.     Daniel Mitsui – St. Michael the Archangel www.danielmitsui.com

7.     Fr. Jonathan Harmon, S.J. – Immaculate Conception

8.    Osamu Giovanni Micico - Holy Mother of Sorrow and Hope https://osamugiovannimicico.com/en/

Guidelines for the Contest:

All poems submitted will be ekphrastic poems.  That is, they are literary responses to the art presented in the contest guidelines below. 

Additional Definitions:

• Technical proficiency: the poet employs devices of sound and language, form and image, in fresh and powerful ways.

• Creativity: the poem reveals a unique, unexpected approach. The poem speaks to the power of the visual image and taps into the eternal perspective of a spiritual journey towards the Trinitarian God.

• The search for Truth: the poet grapples with some aspect/s of the human condition within the story of Salvation history that connects us all.

Prizes:

• First place prize: $250

• Second place: $200

• Third place: $150

The first prize-winning poem will be published in Catholic Arts Today, an international publication of the Benedict XVI Institute, San Francisco.

The three prize-winning poems will be published on the Catholic Literary Arts website. The three winning poets will be awarded a year’s membership to Catholic Literary Arts.

Specifics:

• All poems must be original, unpublished in print, on the web, or in limited edition books.

• Simultaneous submissions are not allowed.

• Submissions will be primarily in the English language.

• International submissions are allowed if Paypal will process the payment.

• Line maximum per poem: 48 lines (does not include title or stanza breaks)

• Format: all poems must be in 12 pt. font in a typeface of Times New Roman, Arial, or other easy to read typeface. We regret that we're unable to accept handwritten pages.

• Form: all forms and free verse are accepted.

• Entry Fee: $20 for up to three poems. Poets are limited to a single entry of up to three poems.

• Entry is open to poets aged 18 or older on the date of submission.

• All submissions are handled through Submittable

Judging:

All judging is blind judging. The name of the poet must not appear on the poem itself or in the file name when submitted. The Submittable system will direct each poet to completion of a form that stores the poet's identifying information and other pertinent information related to the entry.

Deadlines and Dates:

• The contest opens 02/01/21 for submissions.

• The contest ends 04/30/21 at midnight.

• Winners will be announced on the Catholic Literary Arts website June 1, 2021.

Ineligible to Enter:

• Catholic Literary Arts board members and charter members of the Catholic Poetry Society of Houston are ineligible to enter. Persons under age eighteen on the date of submission are ineligible to enter.

• Any winning entries that are found in non-adherence to contest guidelines will be disqualified. Winners will be required to submit IRS Form W-9 for payment of awards.

Communication with Catholic Literary Arts and Submittable:

If you have a question, please email cathla.org@gmail.com and enter 2022 Sacred Poetry Contest in the subject line. If you have trouble uploading your documents to Submittable or you decide to edit your document before the Submissions deadline, please contact Submittable by phone, chat, or email. https://www.submittable.com/help/organization/

When you have completed your poem/s, please return to this web page and click on the Submit button below. You will go to the Submittable website where all your information and poems will be entered and uploaded. If you have trouble uploading your documents to Submittable, please contact Submittable at https://www.submittable.com/help/organization/