This announcement is very late. It’s so late the annual contests and submission calls for Cadence 2026 are now open (get details on the Florida State Poets Association website). My plans for this past fall and winter derailed when my father became suddenly, seriously ill. He passed in January. Since then, I’ve spent more time in Florida than my home base of Tennessee, learning a new cadence as I juggle life and family needs bouncing between two states. Poetry is finally getting rotated back in, so … on to news about this anthology!
Each year, Florida State Poets Association (FSPA) holds annual poetry contests and offers a call for submissions to members. Winning and selected poems populate their annual Cadence anthology. During their late October 2025 conference, the society announced winners for their annual poetry contests and launched their 43rd volume, Cadence 2025. The anthology is available for purchase. In addition to poems, photographs on the theme Action and Adventure are interspersed throughout.
I’m thrilled to share my poetry appears several times in the edition: “Another Lucky Day” (free verse), “Epilogue” (free verse), and “Shades of Opening Night” (haibun, ekphrastic in response to Edward Hopper’s New York Movie). Also appearing is a reprint, an edited version of “Pining for Home” (first published in Heartwood Literary Magazine, Fall 2021, Issue 12).
Other Poets to Love in This Edition
I feel fortunate to be included in this anthology with so many fellow poets from Florida and beyond:
- FSPA Northwest Florida Writers chapter members Mary Gutierrez, Claire Massey, Carolyn Joyce Tokson, and Lori Zavada. This chapter is also affiliated with Emerald Coast Writers.
- From Central Florida, Marc Davidson, Diane Neff, and Elaine Person (who leads Write On! workshops).
- From North Carolina, Write On! workshop pal Kit Schmeiser (also a fiber and mixed media artist).
- Fellow Alabama State Poetry Society members Jerri Hardesty and Dargan Ware.
- Current and former Poetry Society of Tennessee members Jonathan Bennett, Gail Denham, Lela Buis, and Sara Gipson.
Prompts and Workshops
As with last year, my selected poems resulted from either a prompt-based workshop or email workgroup. I am grateful to Elaine Person and Devan Burton for their thoughtful generative prompts, which took me places I might not otherwise have gone organically. If you have not tried a prompt group or workshop, try Elaine’s Write On! workshop or Shuly Cawood’s generative workshops.
I’d also like to give a shout out to the Poetry Writers Workshop and the Monday and Wednesday Poetry Society of Tennessee poetry workshop groups for the feedback they provided on my poems. If you’re not involved with a workshop group, I highly recommend it.
About Florida State Poets Association and Cadence
The Florida State Poets Association was founded in 1974. Their mission is to secure a fuller public recognition of the art of poetry, to stimulate a finer and more intelligent appreciation of poetry, and to provide opportunities to study and practice writing and reading poetry. They accomplish this through an ever-expanding network of FSPA chapters. In addition to chapter activities, the association holds events and contests. They publish Cadence annually and also publish a bi-monthly newsletter, Of Poets and Poetry, which is published in print and online. Learn more.
The association has published their poetry anthology, Cadence, for 43 years. The 2025 edition of the anthology features the poetry of FSPA’s poetry chancellors and category winners from the association’s national poetry contests along with other selected works. Purchase your copy of Cadence 2025 here.