SWS: This Is How I Remember It Challenge Winners

For This Is How I Remember It, we asked for poems built from memories that stay with us. Vocal writers returned with afternoons that still glow with sunlight and dust, the scent of someone who lingers long after they have gone, and houses filled with both laughter and loss. Some memories came through clear and sharp, others fractured and blurred, but all of them carried a truth that felt undeniable.

These are the poems that remind us memory holds on, even as everything else changes.

🏆 Winners

I remember— by Mackenzie Davis

Mackenzie Davis' winning entry holds the weight of memory that won’t fade. It’s frayed, visceral, and exacting. Every return to that stained sofa sharpens the ache. This isn’t a cry for help. It’s a clear-eyed reminder of what had to be carried.

scent memory by kp

kp's poem stays with the body and the room, where sweetness and rot mix into something unforgettable. Every detail is carried with stark honesty: the vanilla masking decay, the untouched smoothie, the exact hour of loss. This winning piece is both tender and unflinching, a memory that lingers long after the last line.

1998 by Nitsua

Nitsua's piece captures how a sun-soaked afternoon, stalled by a broken down van, became one of the last moments of true family togetherness. The memory holds both the carefree ease of childhood and the quiet ache of what was still to come.

The House I Carry by Emily Erickson

Emily Erickson's remembrance makes the mess and warmth of home feel real in a way that’s hard to shake. Every detail lands like something you’ve actually touched, from pet hair stuck to blankets to the chaos of half-finished walls. It’s honest about the noise and the clutter but never lets go of the tenderness.

Crimson Streaks by Jose Antonio Soto

Jose's poem cuts deep with its honesty, unraveling memory in sharp, unsteady bursts. The clash of childhood defiance and heavy domestic air makes every detail land with a visceral weight.

🎖️ Runners-up

• Our Fathers Were Brothers by Gilayna Joy
• A Fragment of Mother by Aubrey Rebecca
• i was in a baby blue parka and snow pants by Oneg In The Arctic
• the green room by Raistlin Allen
• “It” by River and Celia in Underland
• The Goodbye Box by Michelle Liew
• October Drips Through the Vents by M.R. Cameo
• My Earliest Memories, Part 2: by Sam Spinelli
• A Day on the 'Hill by S. A. Crawford
• her last supper / my first bite by Dane BH
• Living Proof by Danielle Eckhart
• What Stains Through by Cali Loria
• Dream by Aspen Marie
• You were the warmth of my December by Daniel K
• Fade to Black by Shaun Walters

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• Boomerang by Lamar Wiggins
• Midnight Oil by Marie Wilson
• Semahs by Kait Thursday
• Ripe by Franny Dorney
• Take Me Back to Yesterday by Tara L Sevedge
• Forever Plaid and the Rainbow Moon by Alyssa Cherise
• on a curb in a walmart parking lot by Chrissy MKM
• White Is for Virgins by DB Maddox
• Pilgrim by Sophie Hargrove
• gardens by Emily Ryan

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