Small Heat Challenge Winners
A behind-the-scenes glimpse at the Vocal Curation Team’s top picks from Small Heat.
It feels like an appropriate day to share these, as we’re finalizing the Small Heat Challenge winners list with temperatures hovering around 20° (Fahrenheit) in New York.
For this challenge, we asked writers to focus on a small source of warmth and trust the haiku form to hold it. The strongest entries painted a clear picture of both the heat and the cold around it, letting contrast do the work. A mug, a body, a bird, a flicker of flame. Each poem understood scale and knew when to stop.
As always with short-form poetry, we did a light check to confirm each creator is real and active on Vocal. Just a quick review to make sure these moments of winter warmth were written by human hands.
🏆 Winners
Coil by Maura Fisher-Bernstei
This haiku stakes everything on the chewed-up coil, letting its red glow stand in for heat, damage, and need.
Cold Comfort by Pixel Floyd
Cold Comfort allows a brief internal warmth, even as the cold steadily gains ground.
The Match by Caitlin Charlton
By making the warmth abrasive and brief, The Match keeps the focus on sensation rather than comfort.
a sharp coil of scent by Gerry Thibeault
The poem treats warmth as something fragile, held alive by the careful act of cupping the ember from the wind.
A Goldfinch, Puff'd by Gabriel Huizenga
Warmth arrives as a puffed goldfinch, briefly settling a bleak day behind iced glass.
🎖️ Runners-up
- The Tendency by Lamar Wiggins
- Red Eye In the Dark by Darla M Seely
- At The Buena Vista by Tina D. Lopez
- Shower Song by Ava Mack
- "Alone" Was Inspirational, Okay? by Zakariah C. Haggard
- Bus Stop by SUEDE the poet
- The Winter Walk by Amos Glade
- Winter White by Harper Lewis
- Hot spring by Penny Fuller
- Heat Pressed by Kera Hollow
- Human Hearth by Leslie Writes
- Obstinate by D. J. Reddall
- Retreat by Paul Stewart
- Match by Carl Hartman
- Fingers stiff by Mark Francis
🏅 Honorable Mentions
- Red Light by Cali Loria
- Recycling Energy by K.B. Silver
- Bertie by Martina Franklin Poole
- Bustle by Faith M Adam
- One Flame by Ophelia Keane Braeden
- Betrayal of Palms by John R. Godwin
- The Cabin by Justin Black
- Two Hands by Annie Valenti
- Just Breathe by Stacey Mataxis Whitlow (SMW)
- What the Chair Remembers by Shannon Hilson
Check out the latest on Vocal Challenges.
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Comments (31)
My masterpiece didn't win? WTF? LOL. I will send TRUMP Lawyers to send pizza to the winners.
Great! I liked the story..
Congratulations, everyone! Except for the lovely Goldfinch haiku, I see a theme here. :D
Please follow me,and Read my storyies 🥀🌹🥀🌹🥀♥️,
Good story 👏👏👏,
Thanks Vocal Team for the hard work and fun challenge!!
Seeing the way you highlighted the contrast of heat and cold in these haikus gives me a new appreciation for short-form poetry. The attention you pay to human connection in curation really shines thank you for making us feel it too.
Congratulations to everyone!🎉
Congratulations to all the winners!
Congratulations!!🎉🎉🎉
Hearty congratulations to all of the winners and thanks to the Vocal team for generously recognizing so many, excellent haikus!
Congratulations to everyone! 🎉💖🎊🎉💖🎊
I’ve read all the winners and runners up, moving on to honorable mentions now. Nary a coffee haiku this far. I’m guessing the team was overwhelmed with coffee essays. Btw, thanks for all you do!
Congratulations everyone! I will surely read your Haiku, if I haven't already.❤
Stay warm! 🔥
Congrats! Haikus are some of my favorite type of poems! The judges must've had a tough job
Well done, folks!
Congrats to everyone!!!
Good job guys!
Congrats to all the winners. I can't believe there was 848 entries. I had thought I had read them all and was surprised today to see a few I missed on the leader board. Great job everyone!!!
Congrats all! Wonderful poems!
Congratulations to all, a lot of incredible pieces here!
Congrats to all the winners! Some of these are among the most memorable of the ones I read. It must have been hard to select just a few.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Congratulations to everyone!