Instructions for a Feeling Challenge Winners

This round asked writers to give instructions for a feeling. What arrived were poems that treated emotion as something you can rehearse, delay, invite, sidestep, or practice in small, deliberate ways.

Here are pieces that rose to the top...

🏆 Winners

Flinty Heels by Caitlin Charlton

Framed as a set of hard-earned instructions, this piece makes resistance feel deliberate and lived in. Each imperative steadies the voice, turning private hurt into a ritual of self-possession.

How to Keep Yourself From Feeling by Luna Jordan

How to Keep Yourself From Feeling reads like advice you give yourself late at night. The measured steps soften the fear of feeling, even as they show how much effort it takes to keep turning away.

Instructions for Feeling Small on Purpose by Imola Tóth

This poem reads like a quiet nighttime invitation. Each gentle instruction makes smallness feel chosen and relieving, as if stepping outside yourself is a way to come back steadier.

How to Fall in Love at First Sight by Teresa Renton

The how-to voice keeps changing its mind, stacking plans on top of spontaneity. By the time the latte spills, all that preparation feels both earnest and useless in the best way.

Baby steps for the guarded soul by Lamar Wiggins

Instead of grand gestures, this piece focuses on habits. Each instruction chips away at distance, showing how care can be built quietly, one action at a time.

🎖️ Runners-up

• Realize Reckless Righteousness in Rebellious Ridiculousness by Lightning Bolt ⚡
• A Moron’s Guide to Freezing your Balls Off by Sam Spinelli
• No-one learns to sail without first lifting the anchor by Hannah Moore
• room for rage by Raistlin Allen
• Recipe for Regret by Bridget Couture
• If You Let Me by Katheleen
• How To Die of Boredom by BK
• Tethered by DJ Nuclear Winter
• I am the Algorithm by Fiona Hamer
• How to Be AuDaCioUs by Novel Allen
• Ghost by M. A. Mehan
• The Light by Kera Hollow
• it cannot be fear by Leigh Victoria Phan, MS, MFA
• thirteen ways of stepping towards your fury by Dane BH
• Rehearse for Ressentiment by D. J. Reddall

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• Where Fibers Meet Fire by Kate Kastelberg
• How to Hold Heartbreak at Midnight by Pixel Floyd
• 12 Steps To Avoid Falling In Love by Mama Magdalene
• Dealing with Angst by Dana Crandell
• Guaranteed Results by Kat Bassa
• how to keep hope alive by Daniel K
• Something New by Gunnar Anderson
• Instructions for Peace by Michelle Liew Tsui-Lin
• Hush, Piggy by Judey Kalchik
• How To Break Yourself Down by Ariana GonBon

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