Poetry Contest Finalists

Comments  58

• Gail Ingram 03 Feb

  very neat poems.  does clicking like mean a vote?  In "The Power of Choice" by Shane Fisher, there seems to be a mispelled word...the last one in line 12.
  I really enjoyed reading all the poems.  Poets are to be congratulated!  Wish I had seen and known about the contest.  I write poetry and would have entered. 
  Hats off to choosing LIFE and turning this country's history around....at least the history of abortion since Roe v Wade. 
  Patricia Gail Box Ingram

• Manhattan Declaration 03 Feb

  Gail, thank you for your support in choosing life! We are sorry you did not have the opportunity to enter however you do still get a chance to vote. Yes, by clicking "Like" your vote will be placed. The voting is hosted through Facebook so you will have to be logged into your account for your vote to work. We hope this is helpful!
  
  

• Michael Griffin 03 Feb

  freestyle - A Baby Book
  lyric - Act of Life
  Haiku Nativity

• Sylvia Sullivan 03 Feb

  Thank you so very much for the opportunity to participate in the poetry contest. You helped to get the message of life out to so many. May hearts and lives be touched and changed as a result.
  
  Congratulations to the winners!
  
  God Bless!

• Lisa Bergman 03 Feb

  I am saddened by the fact that I (and many of my friends, who do not use Facebook) were unable to vote on our favorite poems.  It also made it a bit of a popularity contest, don't you think?  I thought it was about the poetry...
  
  Perhaps next year you might be able to find a way of holding the voting without requiring membership on a social media site?

• Ryan Bethurum 03 Feb

  I know we gave up the copyrights to our poems when we submitted them. If we were not selected as a finalist do we retain them (copyrights) for future use if we chose to use them for something else? And again, thanks for all the great poetry everyone. I enjoyed reading them all!

• Nancy Molina 03 Feb

  When I submitted my poem, ("Silenced"), I did not realize I would have to promote it through social media.  I decided against doing so, because of the sensitivity of the topic, and because I felt the words might be painful to some who may have had an abortion and are sorrowful about it.  I did send my poem to President Obama a couple of years ago, although I doubt very much if he ever saw it!      

• Manhattan Declaration 03 Feb

  Lisa and Nancy,
  Our thought for the contest was to leave it up to individuals involved to really promote their entries. The e-mail you received once your poem was approved gave instructions on how voting was to take place. Wo do apologize if that was unclear in any way. The reason for selecting "finalists" is to level the playing field somewhat and leave it to not only authors' "friends" but to all participating in the contest to decide on the winner. 
  
  Thanks again to you all for your participation!
  
  
  No, the copyright was assigned to us and we'll be using many of the poems in the future for blog posts, new websites, etc.
  [2/3/12 1:39:21 PM] Jason Reynolds: That said, the poem will stay on our site and they are welcome to refer people to it anytime they want.

• Manhattan Declaration 03 Feb

  Ryan,
  To answer your question, the copyright was assigned to us and we will be using many of the poems in the future for blog posts, new websites, etc. in order to promote the sanctity of life. That said, the poems submitted will stay published on our website and you are more than welcome to refer people to it anytime you want.

• Brittany Wilson 03 Feb

  I just wanted to say, good luck to the authors who are in the finals! It has been such a fun experience, and for such a great cause. I am one of the finalists for the "freestyle" section, and can't help but admire all of the talent that God has shown through the authors of all of this poetry! 
  Goodluck, and I hope everyone stands true to their pro-life values and morals. 
  God bless.

• Sylvia Meyer 03 Feb

  I submitted two poems.  I know we gave you  the copyright and I am happy if you use any of the lines for any purpose to promote life.  My question is:  Can I also use those same poems for a booklet of verses I would like to publish.

• Mattea Wilber 03 Feb

  To join the chorus, thank you Manhattan Declaration for having this contest! It's great to have a contest not only be fun, but also meaningful. I would also like to informally dedicate my above haiku "Dear Decision-Maker" to my friend, Chris. He committed suicide Jan 12, at 21 years of age. I thought about him as I was writing my poem because he was like an older brother to me. From conception to natural death, life is precious and we should never end it! Thank you everyone for raising awareness about this with your writing!!

• karen cronin 03 Feb

  I thought the poems were good but do not like the idea of popularity; writing should be based on merit, and not who can hit the "like" tab on Facebook only. If an editor worked this way they would never publish too much, would they? I submitted something but realized after I sent it that you could retain all rights. I immediately sent an email and said I wanted it back because, at that time you had not even "selected" mine yet.  No one had emailed me back re; my wanting it. The next morning I received a notice that it was selected. I do want my poem back. I have been published and  no one can have my rights unless I get paid for it or sign it away. I would think the electronic submission is not sufficient enough, in addition to my changing my mind the same day within hours asking for its return.
  
  Thank you.

• Manhattan Declaration 03 Feb

  Sylvia, 
  The Manhattan Declaration won't be defending the CopyRight assigned to us by authors against the authors in their published works. So in short, we won't give you permission and we also won't be upset with you if you print them somewhere.

• Greg Matejek 03 Feb

  I understand about the rights, but would like to use my poem in a Knights of Columbus newsletter.  How can this be done?
  
  Thank you.

• karen cronin 03 Feb

  PS...Congratulations to all whose selections were chosen!

• Manhattan Declaration 03 Feb

  Karen,
  We must have missed that e-mail. Please forgive us. What was the name of your poem and it will be removed immediately. 

• Dean Paul Larsh 03 Feb

  In spite of submitting my work to The Manhattan Declaration contest, as a published author  I proclaim full rights to my poem 'A Humble Prayer of Thanks' as it has already been published in print, submitted to other organizations and musicians, posted on the internet, stored in my on-line file (www.4shared.com) and distributed en masse. Therefore , being previously copywritten, it is uniquely my work and remains to be so. But, I thank The Manhattan Declaration for accepting it as a submission and hope that they appreciate it as much as others have. :)

• Emily 03 Feb

  I don't think the final winner should be based on Facebook likes. As said before, that's basically just a popularity contest ( and isn't that somewhat contrary to the overall website's cause?), and has nothing to do with the quality of the poems or how they relate to the message we are trying to spread. I think, from the top 3, the winner hsould be chosen by the admins based on its relevance and overall quality. Otherwise this is just based on who has the most facebook friends willing to vote.

• Laural (Squirrel) 03 Feb

  I really think that the poem Act of Life is my favorite!
  It is so amazing to choose life.  AMAZING
  Congratulations winners!  I hope to make it next year.

• JOHN ZUBALIK 03 Feb

  IT'S A SHAME THAT SOME POEMS WEREN'T EVEN ALLOWED TO HAVE A VOTE. I'VE BEEN PUBLISHED MANY TIMES AND REALLY HOPED MY 'DONATION' WOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN A CHANCE. PERHAPS THERE'S SOME POLITICING GOING ON , BUT THEN AGAIN, WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT POETRY!

• Shane Fisher 04 Feb

  Dear Gail Ingram,
      I just wanted to let you know that the word in line 12 is not a misspelled word.  If you look up "tame", you will get several definitions. What I basically meant by that line is that we are under God's protection when we allow ourselves to stay within His boundaries which is best for our complete fulfillment and happiness.  I just thought I let you know that.  I probably should have changed "apart" to "a part" down in one of the last few lines.  Shane
  

• Philip Ney 04 Feb

   I believe it is only fair that Manhatten release all those poems it does not have definite plans to use in the foreseeable future so that they can be enjoyed by others on some other site. To hold as their copyright, poems they know they will not use is very unfair to authors and certainly not Christ-like.
                 Sincerely  Philip 

• joyce 04 Feb

  I vote for "Act of Life"

• Jack K 04 Feb

  Freestyle:  A Baby Book
  
  Lyric:  The Gift
  
  Haiku:  Tiny Hand

• Blake Amundson 04 Feb

  I vote for

  Grace by Rosemary Bailey

  
  

• William H. Jennings 04 Feb

  How do I vote?  I vote for (a) The Baby Book, (2) The Gift, and (3) Tiny Hand.

• Donna Zaniewski 04 Feb

  I vote for A Baby Book in the freestyle category.      I vote for Act of Life in the Lyric category.    I vote for Tiny Hand in the Haiku category.

• Jen Owens 04 Feb

  Haiku--"Nativity" by Anna Bowen

• Joel 04 Feb

  the gift

• Joanne Rice 04 Feb

  All these poems are very good and each brought tears to my eyes. I vote for:
  Freestyle-"Grace"
  Lyric-"Act of Life"
  Haiku-Dear Decision Maker

• Jody 04 Feb

  This is wonderful, however, many of us choose NOT to use facebook.  It would be great if we could vote another way.  After having abortions back in the 80's & 90's, the knowledge, teaching and torture was not so in the open.  For me it was "a better choice for the babies"; so I thought.  Someone chose to simply write their votes on this comment, so I will do the same:
  1.  Grace
  2.  The Gift.
  3.  Dear decision maker
  
  Thank you for taking a stand and encouraging others to do so!

• Rolda Hammond 04 Feb

  I think they were ALL winners. Sorry I missed out on reading all 600 entries.

• Manhattan Declaration 04 Feb

  Thanks so much to all who are interested in voting for the poems! To vote you must click the Facebook "Like" button next to each poem you want to win. Feel free to comment about which poems you like most, but do know that votes are only tallied by actual Likes.

  There have been some questions about why we require a Facebook login to vote. The answer is simple in that more people have Facebook logins than any other type. Had we required people to create their own logins on our site to vote, less people would have been involved and fewer people would have seen each of the poems. Facebook "Likes" share the fact that you voted back to your Facebook timeline and thus 10's of thousands of people more see the poetry than they otherwise would.

  Our goal in this contest is to change the hearts and minds of people, not to select exactly the best poem from some expert panel's opinion. We believe in the wisdom of crowds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_of_the_crowd) when it comes to something like this. So, we appreciate and are thankful for the fact that many of the submitters are accomplished poets, but not so accomplished at marketing. This is meant to be fun. Our focus, and our hope for everyone's as well, is to further our collective cause that is attempting to prevent 50,000,000 more babies from being aborted and many from dying unnaturally at the hands of doctors and "family".

• Ryan Poe 04 Feb

  I voted for Grace by Rosemary Bailey

• Manhattan Declaration 04 Feb

  There have been questions about Copyright in the comments here. The contest rules were very clear. The purpose of assigning Copyright to the Manhattan Declaration (which submitters did no matter where their poems had been published previously) is that it gives us uninhibited rights to republish the poems without legal or administrative encumbrances. We recognize each poetry submission as having substance as a labor of love and time. For our part, we are excited to get these poems in front of our nearly 500,000 supporters and millions more over time. 

  Poetry authors names will always be presented alongside the title and poem provided. We aren't yet sure how they will be used, but we can promise you it will be in more ways than just this contest. We have thoughts of creating a bound book, blogging one poem per day, including poems in our weekly emails, and other ideas as well. In any case, we want to sincerely thank everyone who submitted their poetry to us. We believe it is going to make a big difference in reaching people to give them a message of thought-provoking hope, inspiration, courage, and belief that things don't always have to be this way.

• Nanette V Harder 04 Feb

  Grace by Rosemary Bailey

  
  

  Act of Life by Becky Wright

  
  

  Tiny Hand by Melissa Bronoske

• mary Jean Gillette 04 Feb

  I have voted for the poem, "A Baby Book"

• Janice Barrett 04 Feb

  I voted for   The Tiny Hand by Melissa Bronoske
  Very Good
  God's Blessings

• edna 04 Feb

  act of love by becky touched my heart

• Amy De Rosa 04 Feb

  The contest is a good idea and the poems are beautiful, but I agree with a comment above that next time around the voting not be connected to Facebook.

• James Knight 04 Feb

  I vote for (1) A Baby Book (2) The Gift and (3) Nativity

• Pat Wagner 04 Feb

  I don't know how to do Facebook, but I'd like to vote for:
  
  A Baby Book
  
  The Gift
  
  Tiny Hand

• Christina Badura 04 Feb

  I voted for:
  
  Freestyle: A Baby Book
  
  Lyric : Act of Life
  
  Haiku: Tiny Hand

• Clyde Pharr 04 Feb

  I concur with Lisa Bergman who, on 03 Feb, lamented the fact that voting must be done via Facebook. My vote will be cast here, and I cast my vote for the opportunity to vote directly on your website, rather than on a "social" medium such as Facebook.

• Ralph Short 04 Feb

  Great poems all, so it is always a difficult choice but I vote for 1.  Grace  2. The gift and 3. the tiny hand.
  
  All were fantastic and for sure touch the soul.

• Nancy Molina 04 Feb

  I voted for "Act of Life" because it has deep personal meaning for me.  All the poems that I read were very good!  I don't mind at all if you use and publish my poem, "Silenced."  

• Suzanne 04 Feb

  I don't understand why the voting was limited to those who belong to Facebook. I do not, but I am very pro-life! It seems that all should have a voice and not just Facebook members. If you took the time to link to Facebook and it's membership, you also should have opened this to individual logins that way that many others who do this very same sort of thing do. I am disappointed in this.

• Rick Casey 04 Feb

  Haiku:  Tiny Hand
  
  Lyric : Act of Life
  
  Freestyle: Forever Mine

• David 05 Feb

  I think you should have had it  where the people  that don't know hundreds of people can still have a shot at wining otherwise it is just a race to see how many votes we could get I mean you could just write one word and still win

• Cathy 05 Feb

  Free Style:  A Baby Book
  Lyric: Act of Life
  Haiku: Tiny Hand

• Don 05 Feb

  1. Free Style - Forever Mine
  
  2. Lyric - Act of Life
  
  3. Haiku - Dear Decision Maker

• Jim Gilliam 06 Feb

  Free Style:    "Forever Mine"
  Lyric:    "The Power of Choice"
  Haiku:    "Tiny Hand"

• Becky Wright 06 Feb

  This is Becky Wright (writer of "Act of Life", which is actually a song, recorded 3 yrs. ago). I am honored to have been a part, along with hundreds of other writers, in hopefully changing the mind and hearts of millions of Americans toward the horrific evil of abortion. Just this week, a woman was in my home (I teach voice & piano), telling me that she "didn't share [my] views about abortion", and that she'd even considered having one years ago. She's a good person who's fallen for the rhetoric, the deception, the LIE, that killing your pre-born child should be a person's "right".
  
  I PRAY that each of our poems, as they were (and will be) shared with the world, will unveil the truth, point to hope, and lead many to CHRIST.
  
  God bless each of us as we continue doing what God has called us to do. (Thank you, many above who commented, for your kind words about "Act of Life". I am thankful that it continues to touch lives and bring healing.)
  
  Becky Wright, mom of 9

• Becky Wright 06 Feb

  This is Becky Wright (writer of "Act of Life", which is actually a song, recorded 3 yrs. ago). I am honored to have been a part, along with hundreds of other writers, in hopefully changing the mind and hearts of millions of Americans toward the horrific evil of abortion. Just this week, a woman was in my home (I teach voice & piano), telling me that she "didn't share [my] views about abortion", and that she'd even considered having one years ago. She's a good person who's fallen for the rhetoric, the deception, the LIE, that killing your pre-born child should be a person's "right".
  
  I PRAY that each of our poems, as they were (and will be) shared with the world, will unveil the truth, point to hope, and lead many to CHRIST.
  
  God bless each of us as we continue doing what God has called us to do. (Thank you, many above who commented, for your kind words about "Act of Life". I am thankful that it continues to touch lives and bring healing.)
  
  Becky Wright, mom of 9

• Peter Lynch 06 Feb

  I enjoyed the poems and the profound insight and tender wisdom they offered. Thank you for sending them. 
  
  I'm not a Facebook user, but I understand your interest in using Facebook to draw visibility and publicity to your mission. I suggest you offer an alternative voting method in addition to Facebook, next time. 
  
  My favorite poems (it was hard to choose) were:
  
  Forever Mine
  Act of Life
  Tiny Hand

• Simi Desouza 06 Feb

  Free Style: A Baby Book
  
  Lyric: Act of Life
  
  Haiku: Nativity

• Nancy Molina 13 Feb

  To Becky Wright...... "Act of Life" meant a lot to me because at age 16 I gave up my baby boy for adoption.  Sixteen years later I had the great joy of meeting him and hearing him thank me for not having an abortion!   
  Abortion wasn't legal in 1966 when he was born.  If it had been "safe and legal" I don't know what I in my teenage ignorance would have done.  
  I am so thankful that he is alive........AND he has two beautiful children.  I am so honored that they call me Grandma!