Unfiltered Challenge Winners
An inside look into the Vocal Curation Team's favorite poems from the Unfiltered Challenge
Mesh Toraskar from London takes first place in our Unfiltered challenge, with their poem city of fog. This was a fascinating challenge to judge, because our prompt allowed… well, almost anything, so we trusted our instincts as you trusted yours. We loved the images here, ‘everything that fell through/ and how gorgeous/ that nothing here belongs to no one else.’ It had the sense of pouring, relentless forward motion of thought that spoke to the challenge and offered a mournful beauty.
In second place Joe Nasta’s Honeydew was sensually lovely, poetry, sex, food, a real embodied specificity all came together here, ‘the work of the words’, as the poet has it, celebrated in so many forms. And it was tough to whittle down our runners-up because there was so much strong work here.
Plaudits to Michèle Nardelli for Leaving, about a mother’s death; the poem returns the dying woman to the girl she was but which her daughter never knew. Kateresa’s Go Fish goes to similar places, the poet scattering ashes in a river… the poem’s conversational tone takes us into its subject, allowing for both light and dark. Lars Knutson’s jagged edges of the mind took all our gods and set them against and with each other in a fine philosophical musing.
Thank you — a special thanks — for all these unfiltered thoughts. Vocal is a place where we can be ourselves; we so appreciate your presence here.
You can check out the full list of winners HERE and learn about our current challenges below:
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Vocal Curation Team
Collaborative, conscious, and committed to content. We're rounding up the best that the Vocal network has to offer.
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Comments (22)
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great piece
Congratulations, everyone!!
😻
Thank you so so much, very moved by the team's kind words. Deeply honoured to have placed alongside such beautiful poems too. Congratulations to everyone!!
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wow nice i like it https://sarkariprep.in/
well done
Nice work everyone
Congratulations to everyone! Well done!
Congratulations everyone!
yay! so honored. Congrats to everyone— excited to savor all these pomes
This was a fun challenge. Congratulations everyone!
Congrats people... was one of my fave challenges
Congratz all!!! ^^
Congratulations!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Congrats everyone.
Congratulations!
I am so honoured to have a poem so true of mine to be recognised. Thank you, Vocal. Congratulations to all other winners! My poem, Get Out Of My House, which won runner up is part of my small poetry collection titled A Love Letter To Heaven. Linked below if you are interested🤍 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Letter-Heaven-Katerina-Petrou/dp/B0D2RVZJNY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2XC7H1IT3X3DQ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Kje3OwZROm3Ha71h07MpwjSD-H3-J7ofPeK03AsENTNP4HrGYfR35D1BQhahWhooeCmxSai9vQz6gBi4hvvoTYtr2ATIpKfTbAPE790k_SXZc6tGj6R641mX40yVmn-8BEG3ySjvUMas7PKi1yzHtVEbjDAqYUodVoleISw4p_1kpc5OMArT388J0czM78fHw-KruG_fT6C-J4RiPGLF5g.Xzyg7GDzEcjto_fqAKb2GWjeh08xe20OE2Q0u9BBaqU&dib_tag=se&keywords=a+love+letter+to+heaven&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1727991617&sprefix=a+love+letter+to+heaven%2Caps%2C99&sr=8-1
I congratulate every participant.
Congratulations to everyone! I am so honored to have placed. This was one of my favorite challenges so far - I had a blast experimenting with a type of poetry that’s been calling to me for awhile (but one I also felt too scared to try). Thank you, Vocal! 🤗
Congratulations everyone!!! 🎉🎊