St Lucia's Sigmund Griffith has won the Caribbean Magazine Plus Poetry Contest 2023 with his entry, Caribbean Cry.

Two Trinidadians placed second and third respectively. Sheba Sookoo who is based in Aruba, placed second with The Dreamer and Shane Jitta placed third with The Zemis.

Commenting on his victory, Griffith said he was not expecting to triumph over his competitors.

“I actually wasn’t expecting to win, so I feel good. I haven’t been writing in a while and I only started back this year, so I saw the opportunity and I said let me give it a shot,” he said in a media release.

[caption id="attachment_1042359" align="alignnone" width="819"] Sheba Sookoo -[/caption]

For Sookoo, who wrote poetry in the past, it was her first shot at writing something new in over a decade.

“I did some poetry before when I was in Trinidad with the Poet Society of TT, but this is the first poem I did in maybe 12 or 13 years."

While she has placed in other contests before, this was the first time in a “long time,” and it “feels really nice to do it again,” she said.

Jitta describes The Zemis as an “epic."

“For someone who never entered a poetry contest before, and also my first time doing something regional-wide, being given the ability to explore any issue, topic or genre, I’m really glad that it resonated with the judges. I’m really glad that my somewhat epic poem got some likes and I am really happy to see that.”

Caribbean Magazine Plus thanked its top finishers and all participants in the poetry contest.

The award ceremony was held on October 7 on its Facebook and YouTube pages.

To watch a replay of the ceremony visit Caribbean Magazine Plus Facebook page or YouTube, CaribMag TV.

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