If You Could Write a Poem For The Statue of Liberty Today, What Would You Say?
The Emma Lazarus Poetry Contest offered young and emerging poets the opportunity to reimagine The New Colossus. View all of our winner and finalist submissions below for 2020 and 2021.
2021 Poetry Contest Winners and Finalists
2020 Poetry Contest Winners and Finalists
Winners and Finalists
by Benjamin Regan
The heartbeat of our land reverberates, vibrates from liberty on a stand. A torch for truth, a flame for freedom, may immigrants see their…
2021
by Lilly Wu
To yearn for more, one reaches outto the opportunities Lady Liberty does provide.A torch in her right hand shines brightbeyond the labyrinthine darkness of…
2021
by Ayelet Amittay
I was born a giant. I held firein one hand, the book of justicein the other. I was born to metaland flame, the rain…
2021
by Everett Arellano
As Lady Liberty looks around,She realizes what the nation is all about,Murder, discrimination, war all throughout,A divided nation where politicians fight for power,Where the…
2021
by Angelique Sarofim
Her watching eyes have gazed upon the progress of a century and then some. Those eyes of bottle green, boundlessly bold, Forever watching the…
2021
by Alexa Marsh
Are the lines that stretch down the Patina skin of lady liberty emblems Of a hallowed history? Once her Thick brows and stiff lips…
2021
by A. Thu Ngo
Mother of Exiles—conceived in abolitionist dreambut still barely rid of the shackle and chain at your feet—you struggle to stand erect; this vision you’ve…
2021
by Samantha Tan
“Happy 4th of July”a phrase said proudly every year my young blind self. Happy for who Lessons taught about America,conveniently leaving out th rest…
2020
by Dana Blatte
i.Give me your tired, your poor,your waterlogged mouths of rubble,your salt-lipped bleedingtongues & prayer-bent palms.Look: lady liberty, guardianof shipwrecks & wayward bodies.Guide us ashore…
2020
