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This spring, Orchard Street conducted its seventh annual Poetry Contest. Approximately 800 poems were received from writers in 42 states.

From those submissions, 40 poems were selected for inclusion in Quiet Diamonds 2024; three for cash awards, including the 2024 winner of our Malovrh-Fenlon Poetry Prize: Lew Forester’s captivating “Moonlight and Ashes.” With this, Mr. Forester becomes the first poet to receive a second Malovrh-Fenlon Prize.

I would like to thank all the poets who sent in their work. It was once again our privilege to read some exceptional poems. It was indeed a challenge to choose the 5% of them that would be included in our annual journal.

John P. (Jack) Kristofco
Publisher

Poems selected for Quiet Diamonds 2024

Prize-Winning Poems

First Prize: “Moonlight and Ashes,” Lew Forester; Arvada, CO

Second Prize: “Lost Bats,” Ben Onachila; Pisgah Forest,NC

Third Prize: “Into the Night,” Nancy A. DeFoe; Homer, NY

Finalists

“Idyll for Dusk,” Frank Coons; Arvada, CO

“All the Tongues,” Patrick Daly; Menlo Park, CA

“Crematorium, Terezi Concentration Camp,” Peter Ludwin;

Kent, WA

“Margaret’s Cottage,” Eleanor Lerman; Long Beach, NY

“In This Plum and Othering Dusk,: Elizabeth Chapman;

Palo Alto, CA

“Creep,” Michael John Olson; Hamilton, OH

“Let the Bag Drop,” Mark Taksa; Albany, CA

“The Nothing,” Gail Entrekin; Orinda, CA

“Immortality for Beginners,” Lew Forester

“Mary in Plaster and Aloe,” Bob Wickless; Reidsville, NC

Semi-Finalists

“The Empty Boat,” Bob Wickless

“Allium,” Ben Onachila

“Between Nature and Me,” Nancy DeFoe

“Holding on to the Sound,”  Catherine Moran; Little Rock, AR

“Den,” Clarke Owens; Perrysville, OH

“Mink in the Morning,” Phillip Lisi; Lancaster, PA

“Make Solitude Your Breakfast,” Jennifer Phillips;

Barnstable, MA

“Darkly, I Gaze Into the Days Ahead,” Richard Hague;

Cincinnati, OH

“Other Falls,” Susan Eyre Coppock; Lincoln, MA

“Surfside Beach,” Camille McCarthy; Asheville, NC

“Warning Signs,” Adrian S. Potter; Minnetonka, MN

“Icarus Survives,” Megan Mary Moore; Cincinnati, OH

Honorable Mention

“Elegy for the Vanished,” Clarke Owens

“What Has Been Given,” M.S. Rooney; Sonoma,CA

“Idyll for Two,” Suzanne Freeman; Ingram, TX

“Photos of My Brother and Me,” Joan Goodreau;

        Chico, CA

“Finality,” Michael Miller; Amherst, MA

“February Flowers,” Susan Donnely; Arlington,MA

“What the Poets Have Taught Me,” Graig McVay;

Columbus, OH

“Things You Never Thought You Could Do,” Gail Entrekin

“Hibiscus Shadow,” Deborah Bachels Schmidt;

El Sobrante, CA

“Reasons,” Deborah Doolittle, Jacksonville, NC

“Park Bench Blessing,” Frank H. Coons

“Looking at the Quiet Things,” Catherine Moran

“If You Procrastinate,” Varsha Saralya Shah;

Houston, TX

“I Slowed My Pace,” Mark Rich; Cashton, WI

“Night Nuances,” Joanna McKethan; Dunn, NC

The deadline for the 2025 Orchard Street Press Poetry

Contest will Once again be April 30 (postmark or online)