“Waiting in Vain”
Craig van Rooyen
San Luis Obispo, CA

When Plato said that “every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back,” he wasn’t referring to Craig van Rooyen’s “Waiting in Vain,” but he could have been. With a soft music and powerful rhythm, van Rooyen wraps a lifetime of delights and sorrows and mysteries into a single song that makes the heart weep—not with sadness or joy or even redemption, but with all of it at once, with the full force of feeling alive. We’re proud to announce “Waiting in Vain” as winner of the 2014 Rattle Poetry Prize.

Finalists:

“My Father Worked Piece-Rate at the Schult Mobile Home Plant”
Josh Bontrager
Clark’s Summit, PA

“Taxonomy of an Automobile Accident”
Samantha Deal
Kalamazoo, MI

“Poems About Grace”
***Readers’ Choice Award Winner***
Courtney Kampa
New York, NY

“How to Meet the Love of Your Life: A Basic Guide”
Stephen Kampa
Daytona Beach, FL

“The Reality Auction”
James Davis May
Young Harris, GA

“Holy Shitballs!”
Jack Powers
Fairfield, CT

“A Story”
Sarah Pemberton Strong
Hamden, CT

“The Night Relies”
Wendy Videlock
Grand Junction, CO

“Fathers”
Mike White
Salt Lake City, UT

“The Nightly Villanelle of Their Twelfth Year”
Shangrila Willy
Baltimore, MD