Portia Steele Award Organization(c)

Portia Steele 1937 - 2005

The Poetry of Zoe Steele

Poetry and Prose Competition
2008 WINNERS.

2006

2007

2008

Annual S. Portia Steele Memorial Awards
and Scholarships

The S. Portia Steele Award Organization© is a privately funded foundation offering grants for women writers to further their efforts in the genre's of Poetry or Prose. Additionally, the foundation offers an academic scholarship in the field of Creative Writing..

The S. Portia Steele Award for Excellence in Poetry, and the Award for Excellence in Prose, is an annual competition for writers seeking recognition in their field, as well as a monetary grant. The qualifications and guidelines for these awards reflect and continue the work Portia pursued during her writing career.

The S. Portia Steele Memorial Scholarship for Creative Writing is an annual grant for qualified students pursuing a baccalaureate or graduate degree.

We are offering these awards and scholarships in celebration of Portia's life and we urge you, the contestant or student, to celebrate her life through your participation.

THE POET

I do not write the poem
it writes me.

The hand moves as the heart dictates,
crying, laughing
with sadness and love.

The Poet is not a writer
the Poet is a doer,
a lover of living
   feeling, being.

The Poet is a doer of herself,
a projector
   of passion and the passionate.

I cannot write the poem,
it must endure in me.

Screams in my soul
slither down my pen and be,
   so I can be.

Ache becomes word
pain becomes sentence
The impossible becomes a poem.

I am not the poet
I am the Poem.

Portia Steele
Kaleidoscope
1987