"The Creative Endeavor" Unofficial Poetry Challenge

That's right - I am so pleased to announce the opening of my third ever unofficial challenge on Vocal Media!

It has been very inspiring to me to see how many folks have developed brilliant unofficial challenges, and even more so to see how many members of this creative community have showed up in droves to support and share stories. I hope the market for these unofficial challenges is not too oversaturated for me to slip this one into the mix - I really hope that the originality of the prize system for this one gets some folks excited. Thank you kindly for stopping by, whether or not you join in; your taking the time to read my work and consider my ideas means more than I could ever hope to put into words. :)

The Creative Endeavor Challenge:

The task is this: to create an original poem whose subject is an introspective reflection on your creative process. What lies in the depths of your motivation, behind the creation of that poem, song, short story, painting, or novel? What does it look like, to you, to refine an idea? What metaphors can you conjure up for your crafting process? And perhaps most importantly: why do we create - and then create again, and again? My challenge to you is to reflect on these questions, and express some sort of answer - as abstract or specific as you like - with as lovely, rich, and image-laden language as you can.

THE PRIZES:

Before getting into the judging and timeline for the challenge, I will briefly discuss the prizes - because this is where the real fun of it all lies. While trying to be a bit more financially responsible, I felt I could not in good conscience offer prizes of money, this time. However, I hope you all might be intrigued at this alternative prospect: instead of cash prizes, I will be offering three prizes of original artwork, created by yours truly, inspired by your very own poetry.

I have yet to decide on the media I will use for these pieces; sketching is what comes most naturally to me. However, I have greatly enjoyed forays into the worlds of watercolor and oil painting - and either one of those may also end up being the medium in which I create the prizes.

1st place will receive an original artwork, inspired by their winning piece, of dimensions at least 11 x 14 inches (sorry, non-Americans...all of my art-scaling experience is in the accursed imperial system).

2nd place will receive an original artwork, likewise inspired by their poem, of at least 8 x 10 inches.

3rd place will receive an original artwork, once again inspired by their entry, of at least 5 x 7 inches.

I will leave the details of delivery and such for my future self. Likely, I will create some sort of Google Form by which to acquire the necessary info to ship things to winners, or else I can provide the information for us to connect via my public Instagram art page, or something. Not to worry - this will be sorted out later, and detailed in my post announcing the winners!

(the irony of this being a 'money-saving' strategy is that said artworks might cost exorbitant amounts to ship to wherever the winners might reside...but we won't worry about that for now...)

THE RULES:

Regarding the rules, I will first quote myself here from an outline given in my previous unofficial poetry challenge:

Your poem can be just about any form or length - from a full length multi-stanza piece to a haiku. I will try to judge without prejudice regarding length! But I must begrudgingly admit that I often find myself biased towards slightly longer, exploratory, reflective pieces...that being said, I believe that if you choose the right words, a concise seventeen syllables can pack as much depth and poetic brilliance as the longest epic! So all lengths and styles are totally welcome.

I will ask that all entries include the link to this article embedded somewhere, if that is possible for you (I know links can sometimes be tricky on here).

I will also request that all entries include something about "Creative Endeavor Challenge," or "Unofficial Challenge," or "Gabriel's Challenge," or something else along those lines included in the subtitle - just to increase the likelihood of the word about this challenge getting out to more folks!

Please share the links to your published stories in the comments section of this article! I will embed the links to all submissions in a list at the bottom of this piece, and will plan on updating that list every few days or so for as long as new entries appear.

THE DEADLINE:

The Challenge will be open until the start of the New Year - Jan. 1 2026! (To be clear - I am actually fine with entries being submitted through the end of the day on the 1st!) I am trying to leave a pretty long window - I think great poetry often (not always - but indeed often) takes time to settle into a masterfully complete piece. So if you're planning on entering, please know that you have a good long time to ponder and edit whatever you're submitting! But if you're the type to bang out a completed poem in one quick sitting - more power to you. Some of the best pieces have been created that way! Goodness knows I'd love to get some early entries, too. :)

I will announce winners on February 1st. I know a month is a LONG time to wait, following a challenge - especially after such a long entry period! But I plan on having at least working forms of each of the three artworks for the winners by the time I announce the winners, so that I can share photos of the artworks in that announcement post. Having been late in announcing the winners of an unofficial challenge before, AND in the interest of having enough time to start on the aforementioned artworks, I am giving myself that longer window of judging time. Thank you, future participants, for your patience and understanding!

Individuals may submit as many different entries as they would like! No more than one entry per person will be eligible for the podium, naturally.

THE JUDGING:

Regarding the judging process, I will again quote my own writing from the aforementioned previous challenge of mine:

I will be the sole (and hopefully pretty benevolent) arbiter, picking my personal favorites. I will strive to remain as impartial a judge as possible - though I hope we all can acknowledge that all forms of ranking will almost always involve some measure of subjectivity!! I will strive to remain open to the brilliance of as diverse a spread of interpretations and styles as possible, though; but remember that if you don't place, it doesn't speak anything against the quality and inherent genius of your own pieces- it just means some random 24-year-old wasting away in a cafe didn't have the brains see it.

ALRIGHTY - I think that's quite enough talk from me! To any and all who participate - you have my genuine and lasting gratitude. Thanks for making it this far - and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, wherever and whenever you are upon reading this. I want this challenge, more than anything, to be a celebration of a community of creativity. Thank you, friend, for being a part of that. Cheers, all!

THE ENTRIES:

"Chaotic Creation" by Archibald Thorne

"Process is Like a Cup of Tea" by Shirley Belk

"Spirals Downhill" by Paul Stewart

"what is process if not a cage" by John Cox

"In the Waiting Room of My Mind" by Diane Foster

"a walk in the park" by kp

"Always All Ways" by Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred

"Korydwen and Le Scélérat Rouge" by Matthew Fromm

"Building Birds" by Harper Lewis

"Hunger After Hunger" by Tim Carmichael

"The Distillation of Creation" by K.B. Silver

"Until Next Time" by Paul Stewart

"mingling with the muse" by Lamar Wiggins

"the many uses of rope" by Alexandria Stanwyck

"Soul Visual" by Tanya Lei