Poetry Publication With NFSPS - The King's Words
Poetry Publication With NFSPS in 2024 - PART 1
The King’s Word
by Patricia Tiffany Morris
PART 1
This year I celebrated two poetry awards from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, NFSPS.
“The King’s Words” was originally formatted for a potential children’s literature picture book, and someday I might publish a longer version, but I was thrilled to see “The King’s Words” as a shorter children’s poem find its way into an anthology this year.
The poetry form is a combination of prose and free verse. I like mixing things up and genre blending.
After attending two writers conferences in 2019, I entered a collection of poems called “Fight Songs” into two different writing contests. One entry at Serious Writer’s BLUE SEAL AWARDS, and another with Word Weavers International, TAPESTRY AWARDS. With those pieces I won my first two poetry awards. I am completely immersed in a new career in my 50s after raising a family and working for a few years as an architect in the late 1980s.
In 2020, I joined the Iowa Poetry Society, and as a member of NFSPS, I continued to enter writing and poetry contests and attended events online during the pandemic. After pondering what I might do with the 400-500 poems created since winning my first awards in 2019, I discovered the need to organize my pieces in an app called Scrivener, trying new poetic forms, and teaching about writing poetry and organization with Scrivener.
Pleasantly surprised by the news, “The King’s Words” placed 2nd in the 2024 in contest #34 sponsored by the Iowa Poetry Association Award.
Would you like to see this poem illustrated and published as a children’s picture book?
What will you write in 2025?
Would you like to join Word Weaver’s International and apply to be a member of my poetry critique group?
Love always, because of Jesus Christ,
Patricia
See PART 2 here for “yesterday’s storm” a free verse poem.
Click the affiliate link to purchase Prize Poems 2024. by NFSPS.
The King’s Words
A long time ago, the King’s faithful letters,
and the beautiful words they had made,
gathered under the giant orange tree,
and sat
in the shade
on the tallest mountain in the land.
The tree was no ordinary tree. It belonged
to the King whose light shone from his words.
The fiery-orange, sun-kissed leaves swayed
in the wind. And the tree’s roots hung upside
down and swung like ropes from branches,
begging the letters to bathe in the light.
The light from the King’s castle
helped everyone forget about the sad,
and lonely yesterdays.
The villagers came one by one and sprinkled
their colored tears over the land in the shade
of the giant orange tree.
One day silence gathered the stars
above the King’s village and the sky listened.
A long silence, like a restful nap in the middle
of the day, blanketed the earth.
Then a brave voice whispered,
“Where do I belong?”
The village heard the King’s answer
like a spring breeze fresh from the mountain tops.
“You belong to me. No matter where you live.
Or what you have done. You are loved and you
matter to others in this world, today, tomorrow,
and forever. You belong to me.”
The King’s voice broke through their darkness.
“Yes. As you have prayed, I will help you.
Those who are brave enough to sail across the
water-waves can now have courage to tell
everyone they matter to me.”
The letters, and the words they had made together,
smiled. Everyone matters. Everyone can choose to
live with the King in his forever place and sing
His belonging-song under sun-kissed leaves.
He hears you. You belong to the King.
Yesterday, today, and forever.
by Patricia Tiffany Morris
Also first published in Prize Poems 2024 by NFSPS.
SECOND PLACE in contest #34 sponsored by the Iowa Poetry Association Award
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