15th International Poetry and Prose Reflection Competition

“Child of the Earth… Nature, Its Great Mother”



Duration:
Submissions Open: July 11, 2025
Submission Deadline: September 14, 2025



Organised by:
Hellenic-Cypriot Cultural Association (HCCA)
Under the auspices of the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation



Competition Theme:
This year’s theme highlights the relationship between humans – especially children – and Nature. The Earth, as the Great Mother of us all, becomes a source of inspiration, contemplation, and creative reflection through poetry or prose. Where is the child of the Earth? Within us? Around us? In the future?



Awards:
The top two distinguished works (poetry or prose) will receive publication awards. Selected works will be included in the printed Anthology of the Association. Additional Awards and Honourable Mentions will be given.



Announcement of Results:
The results will be announced at the end of September 2025. The new Anthology featuring the awarded works will be presented at an official event on October 24, 2025, in Athens, at the Stelios Foundation Conference Hall, under the auspices of the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation.



Free Participation:
Participation is open and free to all, with no age or geographical restrictions.
Submissions are welcome from all over the world, in Greek or English.



Submission Categories:
Poetry: 12–20 lines or 90–150 words
Prose Reflection: 16–23 lines or 250–370 words



Technical Specifications:

• Unpublished, original work dedicated to this year’s theme
• Submit in Word file format (.doc/.docx)
• Font: Calibri or Times New Roman | Size: 12 | Single spacing
• Language: Standard Modern Greek or English
• For minors, written parental/guardian consent is required

The Word File Must Include:

• Full Name
• Year of Birth
• Place of origin / residence
• Studies / Profession
• Full contact details
• High-resolution photo

Submission & Guidelines:
Interested participants are kindly requested to read the detailed instructions carefully and send their material to: [email protected], Email Subject Line: 15th Poetry Competition – Child of the Earth



More information at the Association’s official website: www.cultural-association.org

Be Inspired, Create, Express Yourself!

Let us once again celebrate the world as a child dreams it — with roots deep in the earth and the heart turned toward the light of Nature.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

“Nature, the Great Mother” is not merely a poetic expression — it is the collective memory of humanity, the beginning of all things. From Gaia of ancient Greek mythology to the present-day tears of the climate crisis, the Earth feeds us, inspires us, and calls us to return to her and protect her. As long as destruction threatens the seas, the mountains, the seeds, the birds, and the children, Art can become the voice that awakens. As Ritsos once wrote, “If all the children of the Earth…” unite, the world can change. And as Savvopoulos observes, “How can you hide from children? They know everything anyway.” And as Elytis sang, “The Sun King lives” — in innocence, in memory, in hope, in poetry.



Elytis spoke of innocence with the sounds of a girl on a bicycle vanishing over the waves, of a seagull that doesn’t know what a knife is, of a seashell left on the sand like a heart. Through the purity of childhood, through the music of words, Nature becomes familiar again, alive, radiant. And the child – the child of the Earth – becomes the only true voice that sees, that feels, that remembers.



So write about Mother Earth the way a child would paint her with words. With light, with sea, with soil, with sky. With the love you feel for the tree that shades your yard or for the wave that whispered only to you one summer. As long as there are children who “know everything” and as long as there are words that can grow like sea clover, there is hope.



And as Georgios Vizyinos so simply and profoundly wrote in “The Children’s Prayer”:



God grants children
the mind and the tongue,
to say what’s in their hearts
and to learn so much.

So good children,
night and day,
with heartfelt prayer,
thank Him always.



This prayer — both a poem and a way of life — reminds us that when a child learns to speak with the language of their heart, there is still a path forward. For poetry, for the world, for the salvation of the Earth.