Tate Morgan

Tate is a product of the Midwest, raised on the plain states of North America. He was nurtured on an ideal akin to the American Drama "Mayberry". He grew to manhood under the Midwest sun. Playing Baseball and running the streets of his little town. There friends were lifelong spirits essence of their souls follow him still.  He is a poet by nature, compelled through a life time of experience to give voice to our existence, honoring the struggle, not the reward.

     Tate is a 6th generation Harness horseman. Many of his works speak of the accomplishments of a wild tumultuous life on the track. In 2005 he took up the pen to chronicle his life and times. His works speak to the heart of a life spent in adventure and the final realization of the true treasures we all have in this world, family. His poetry tells the story not only of his own life and times but also of his ancestors. Speaking on the subject in 2010 at the funeral of his son in law Michael Wellman he said this. "Can any man say he is not beholding to the spring from which life flows? As in the times of the ancient mariner we all hear the call of sirens that gesture us to sail home. Continuity of purpose flows from the wellspring of our lives. In the end we all find we are drawn inexorably home, to the hearth from around which we told our tales of long ago and spun our yarns of a life well lived. The well spent life will always beckon from the winds of change a call for home."

     A regular fixture at the preeminent poetry sight in the United States http://www.writerscafe.org Tate has won over 1000 poetry contests there.

Tate has been interviewed many times adding that he likes this interview best by Kathy Reinhart, posted here reproduced for Carty’s Poetry Journal.

http://www.cartyspoetryjournal.com/index.php/ink-drop-interviews-tate-morgan-kathy-reinhart/

     In the years since he began writing Tate has produced 3 books of poetry. His works are based in rhyme and meter. It is his belief that poetry, like life plays on our emotions like a melody.

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

     I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organizers of the Rabindranath Tagore Award - 2014. It has been a great honor to be asked to judge this contest. The contest is well organized and well presented. I would like to offer my heart-felt thanks to the other judges who participated and lent their expertise to this honored effort. It was not easy to judge this contest. The competition was fierce. I myself am a rhyme and meter poet. I find the classical education of the Indian population to be quite extraordinary. I lent my time and effort for many a sleepless night to the effort of fairly judging these entries. It has been a great experience for me.

"You created a great system double blind it is as good as any blind test in medicine. I like the system you have it judges blindly and justice is supposed to be blind. In the states above every court room is lady liberty holding a scale blindfolded weighing the evidence without deception or deceit.

Hélène Cardona is a poet, literary translator and actor, the recipient of numerous awards and honors including a Hemingway Grant and the USA Best Book Award. Her books include three bilingual poetry collections, most recently Life in Suspension (Salmon Poetry, 2016), and Dreaming My Animal Selves (Salmon Poetry); and two translations: Beyond Elsewhere (White Pine Press, 2016), and Ceque nous portons (Éditions du Cygne). She also translated Walt Whitman’s Civil War Writings for the Iowa International Writing Program’s WhitmanWeb.

A Romanian translation of Dreaming My Animal Selves was published by Junimea Editions in 2016.

She co-edits Fulcrum: An Anthology of Poetry and Aesthetics, is Co-International Editor of Plume, Essay contributor to The London Magazine, and co-producer of the documentary Pablo Neruda: The Poet’s Calling. 

She holds a Master’s in American Literature from the Sorbonne, taught at Hamilton College & Loyola Marymount University, and received fellowships from the Goethe-Institut& Universidad Internacional de Andalucía. Publications include Washington Square, World Literature Today, Poetry International, The Irish Literary Times, Dublin Review of Books, The Warwick Review & elsewhere.

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

Rajendra K. Padhi

at present working as lecturer in the Department of English in Women’s College, Bargarh, Odisha has already published four volumes of poetry- THE LIVING TOUCH, O EARTH! by Alpha publications, New Delhi, SONGS OF VOID and SUNYATARA PRIYATAMA in Odiya in bilingual edition. THE DARK HOURS is his first English novel. His articles on education and literature in English and Oriya have been widely appreciated. Articles like “Inquest of True Education”, “Lyric poetry of western odisha” “Regional literature – an overview”, “Going off the track”, “Frankenstein Monster”, “where are we?”, “Women’s Colleges – A New Thrush” and many more have received high acclamation. He was born at padampur in the district of Bargarh, Odisha in 1963.

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

My journey of  going through the poems of Rabindranath Tagore Award of international poetry is to gather dreams for future thoughts, invoked my soul to something luminous , subtler than subtle to dwell in them to know the speech of the mind , the truth of the immortal souls born from the sublime ecstasy of human consciousness, the rigorous self churning of  life on Earth.

The passionate stretching of imagination is so powerful that it is too hard to give a poetic judgment to the great poems all in its wonder of beauty and compatibility.

I thank dear poet Gopakumar Radhakrishnanji for providing an opportunity of such a rare kind to venture for such a unique task.

Diane R. Light

(Author/Poet/Psychology Theorist/Psychotherapist/High School English Teacher)

Diane R. Light, MA, CIT, has worked in the fields of education and mental health since the mid-seventies. She began her career as a junior high and high school English teacher and worked with the guidance department to provide communication, growth and development-oriented programs and services to the students, their parents, and the community in rural West Virginia.

Today she maintains a private practice in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC as a Professional Life Coach and Certified Personality Integration Therapist (CIT).

As an undergraduate in college, author Diane Light studied British Literature and the great Irish poets. She went on to get her graduate degree in Counseling and became a psychotherapist.

She is the author of children's books Into Fairyland: A Treasure Chest of Fairy Stories, an illustrated anthology of 25 original stories about her Irish grandmother's fairies, and Alfonse L'Amour:The Dog Next Door. In the nonfiction, psychology genre she authored critically acclaimed THIS WAY OUT: The Power to Change.

        THIS WAY OUT: The Power to Change by Diane Light (Sep 27, 2011)

         Alfonse L'Amour: The Dog Next Door by Diane Light (Aug 1, 2012)

      INTO FAIRYLAND: A Treasure Chest of Fairy Stories by Diane Light  (Aug 14, 2012)

         Eating Peas...: Puullleeeease! by Diane Light  (Mar 4, 2014

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve as one of three judges for the 4th Annual Rabindranath Tagore Poetry Award - International - 2015.

I found the poetry entries to be imaginative, varied in theme and message, and many to be powerful in their impact. It was wonderful to read and study them.

Many thanks to Gopakumar Radhakrishnan, the Contest Administrator, for what I found to be a very positive and enjoyable experience.

I am very happy to have been a part of this year’s Tagore International Poetry Award.

Linda Ibbotson

Linda Ibbotson was born in Sheffield, England, lived in Switzerland and Germany, traveled extensively throughout Europe and Morocco, spent a month in India before finally settling in County Cork, S. Ireland 19 years ago.

A  poet, artist and photographer her poetry has been published in various international journals including the Blue Max Review, the Mad Swirl, the Porter Gulch Review 2013, The Inspired Heart, Virtuoso,  Episteme ( Bharat College) and Levure Litteraire 9. A research article was published in Levure Litteraire 10. Poetry and an essay was published in The Enchanting Verses Literary Review. Forthcoming journals in which her work is published are the Spring/Summer issue 2015 of Iodine and a future issue of Poetry Bus. She has had poetry read on Phoenix fm radio in Australia and formerly written a regular poetry feature in Musicians Together on-line music journal and a feature for Plum Tree Books UK . She has also been interviewed on Cry 104 fm radio. Youghal, Ireland.

Linda was also invited to read at the Abroad Writers Conference, Lismore Castle, Lismore, Co. Waterford, Ireland in December 2013.

In 2014 one of her poems published in The Enchanting Verses Literary Review ‘A Celtic Legacy’  was performed in France at Theatre des Marronniers, Lyon, the village of Saint Pierre de Chartreuse and 59 Rivoli, Paris  by Irish musician  Davog Rynne.

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

It was an honor and a privilege to have been invited to be on the panel of judges for the 2015 4th Rabindranath Tagore Award.

Having visited India many years ago I felt an immediate kinship with the people, land and culture as I read these poems.

I was very impressed by the diversity of the poetry in this competition with a multiplicity of both style and subject matter. Many poems touched me deeply in some way. I commend the great effort and personal feeling that went into all of the work and I encourage you all to keep writing as it gave me great pleasure to read all your work.

Many thanks to Gopakumar Radhakrishnan for his dedication and hard work in making this a very fine competition indeed.

Dr. Vijay Nair

Former Associate Professor, Department of English, Government Victoria College, Palakkad, Kerala, has taught in various colleges for the last 31 years. His poems have appeared in Pursuits, Littscape, Kerala Feature, Perspectives, and Diotima’s. His collections of verse include The City and the Hermitage (1988), Eyes (2010), and Whispers of Light in Darkness (2013). His poems have also appeared in the International Anthologies I am a Poet (2013), With Love (2013), Anthesis (2014), and Synthesis (2014). 

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

The poems covered a wide spectrum of thematic concerns. One came face to face with romantic effusions,philosophical and spiritual musings, epiphanic moments, historical allusions, and strong feminist voices, Some "protest" poems revealed a keen awareness of socio-economic issues. Flashes of inspired satirical writing were also on display. Events and experiences were frequently projected with the aid of subtle images and metaphysical conceits. Many poems underscored a genuine love for the natural world. The observant "eye/i" drew in and defined people and places. Congratulations to all the poets who participated in the competition and made this "an affair to remember"!

I was, indeed, pleasantly surprised to have been invited to be on the panel of judges for the 4th Rabindranath  Tagore Award (2015). I consider it a privilege to be associated with an Award named after one of India's greatest poets. We poets owe a debt of gratitude to Gopakumar Radhakrishnan for his dedication and devotion to the cause of propagating genuine poetry internationally.

Adjei Agyei-Baah

Adjei Agyei-Baah is the co-founder of Africa Haiku Network and Poetry Foundation Ghana. He also doubles as the co-editor of “The Mamba” and “Poetry Ink”, the official journals of the two organizations respectively. He holds MA. TESL (Teaching English As A Second Language)and MBA in Strategic Management and Business Consulting from University of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Business respectively, and currently teaches Communicative Skills and Literature in English as a part-timer at University of Ghana Distance Learning Center, Kumasi Campus and Ghana Baptist University College. Adjei is an inventor and a champion of “Afriku” (African Haiku) – an avant-garde haiku type that focuses on the unique sight, sound and settings of Africa. He is a widely anthologized poet both at home and abroad, and havepresented eulogies such as“Ashanti” and “In the Grey Hair of Soyinka”toOtumfuoOsei Tutu, the King of Ashanti and Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Prize laureate respectively.

At the international scene, Adjei is a Commonwealth poet, and his piece “For the Mountains”was selected by BBC to represent Ghana in the Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, Scotland, 2014. His other poems have also received several honorable mentions and is the proud recipient of“The Heron’s Nest Award”March, 2016”,from the Heron’s Nesthaiku journal and “Akita Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Award, of the third Japan-Russia Contest, 2014.

He is an ardent follower of poetry and seesit as the surest way of uniting diverse cultures and making the world live peacefully as one big family.Adjei currently has been mentoring young Africa poets in the haiku/Afriku art with his African brother and partner, Emmanuel Kalusian with their newly founded organization,Africa Haiku Network, with the sole aim of sharing Africa’s uniquesettings with the world in the beauty of three lines.He launches his two maiden collections “Afriku “-Haiku & Senryu from Ghana (with Red Moon Press, 2016) and Embers of Fireflies ( with Author House, 2016)  this year.

Olivia Kent

I have been writing poetry for around forty years. Having started writing with a poem about a cat, which I entered into a local competition it came second.

As time has progressed I have written and self published several books.

I write all sorts of poetry from the darkest of darkness, akin to Robert Browning to metaphoric words about changing seasons, nature and ageing.

I am a nurse in the real world.

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

Dr S.S. Kanade

A teacher, poet, painter, editor, publisher, and administrator, Dr S.S. Kanade is blessed with multi-dimensional personality. He is Asst. Professor in English at Shri MadhavraoPatil Mahavidyalaya, Murum, Dt. Osmanabad (MS) India, affiliated with Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad (MS). Apart from this, he is known for his critical acumen. Edited several books and published number of research papers in reputed journals and magazines; He is editor of several academic research journals. Under his guidance, several students pursued PhD successfully. He is actively engaged in research and social activities and associated with several associations at global level.

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

Rabindranath Tagore Award is a prestigious award at the global level. Being one of the juries, for this contest, I have gone through all the poems, which are blessed with the best thoughts. In fact, it was difficult task to rank these poems. It was an intellectual and poetic feast.

Gopakumar Radhakrishnan, Founder and Managing Editor (xpresspublications.com and PoiesisOnline.com) is doing yeoman’s service to the lovers of literature. He is not only a good poet and editor but also a human being, as I have experienced. He is a devotee of Saraswati, Goddess of Learning in Indian culture, and dedicated his life for this noble cause.

His institution acts like a vehicle for philosophical ideas and policies by bringing forth human consciousness among human souls. It highlights the desideratum of harmonious understanding in the present society. Moreover, it acts with an optimistic attitude to life by overcoming the difficulties. It manifests real the colours of life.

is a former journalist and newspaper editor, book editor and teacher. He has been a traveler (kidnapped and robbed), and has worked as a courier and a farm hand. His writings have appeared in anthologies in the United States, in British Columbia, Canada, in the “Fifty-five Plus” annual directory, “Today’s Senior Magazine,” and “Bryce’s Blog for Seniors.”

He is also a blogger, mostly of poetry, as an advocate in the fight against Alzheimer’s Disease.

He was the February 2017 featured writer in the Royal City’s Word Play at Work magazine:
https://issuu.com/rclas/docs/february_2017_rclas_ezine New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, the province’s original capital city.

Previous features, and even comic strips, have appeared in “The Daily Mirror Book for Boys,” and “…for Girls,” in London, England, where he worked as a book editor. He also plied his journalistic skills with a daily newspaper in Worthing, England.

He has a degree in English and Journalism from Western University inLondon, Ontario, Canada, as well as teacher’s certification from the University of Alberta. Upon graduation from Western (then the University of Western Ontario) he joined the staff of Canada’s national newspaper of record The Globe and Mail.

Mr. Bryce, author of “Ann - A Tribute,” and “Chasing a Butterfly – A journey of love and loss to acceptance,” a book of poetry arising from his decade as care giver to his Alzheimer’s wife, writes from is home in Maple ridge, British Columbia, Canada.

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

The Rabinranath Tagore Award is a very important contest. It is an outlet and a proving ground for poets worldwide, an encouragement for aspiring poets; also it is a most rewarding, and a learning, experience to be involved with it.

Mr. Gopakumar Radhakrishnan has done a commendable, sterling service in setting up this contest, and he runs its with diligence and impeccable manners. He is co-operative beyond necessity, and has proven to be an excellent leader. Perhaps there is an award for him.

It has been an honor to serve.

Of her debut poetry collection, I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast, Robert Pinsky writes, “This poet’s ardent, winning ebullience echoes that of God…” and Cate Marvin says her work “would have no doubt pleased Neruda’s taste for the alchemic impurity of poetry.” Melissa Studdard is an editor for American Microreviews and Interviews, executive producer and host of VIDA Voices & Views, and vice president of the Women's Caucus. She is also the author of the novel, Six Weeks to Yehidah, and a collection of interviews, The Tiferet Talk Interviews. Her awards include the Forward National Literature Award and the International Book Award, among others. Her poetry, fiction, essays, reviews and articles have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Poets & Writers, Pleiades,Tupelo Quarterly, Psychology Today, the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day, and Connecticut Review. Learn more at www.melissastuddard.com.

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

What a pleasure it was to judge for the Rabindranath Tagore Award! Tagore was a man of deep altruistic, creative, and spiritual gifts, and it’s gratifying to see Gopakumar Radhakrishnan keeping Tagore’s torches lit to honor a new generation of poets. Gopakumar Radhakrishnan and his organizers attended meticulously to the double blind process, and all entries were treated with the greatest care and respect.Many blessings to all the contestants past, present, and future. Their submissions show the true range of their hearts and spirits, and that is a gift to us all.

Lois P. Jones is a poet, editor, radio host for KPFK's Poets Café in Los Angeles and co-host of the long running Moonday Poetry Series.  Her awards include the Bristol Poetry Prize (2016), the Tiferet Poetry Prize (2012) and the Liakura Poetry Prize.  Her poems have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize in poetry in 2016 and 2017.  Jones' first collection of poems, Night Ladder, is Glass Lyre Press’s 2017 Book Award winner.  She has work published or forthcoming in anthologies including New Voices: Contemporary Writers Confronting the Holocaust (Vallentine Mitchell of London); The Poet’s Quest for God (Eyewear Publishing), Wide Awake: Poetry of Los Angeles and Beyond (The Pacific Coast Poetry Series), and 30 Days (Tupelo Press). Some publications include Narrative, American Poetry Journal, One, Tupelo Quarterly, The Warwick Review, Tiferet, Cider Press Review and Tinderbox Poetry Journal.

Susan Rogers considers poetry a vehicle for light and positive energy. She is a lawyer, artist and a practitioner of Sukyo Mahikari, a spiritual practice promoting positive thoughts, words and action. Her poetry is included in numerous anthologies and journals including, Altadena Poetry Review, California Quarterly, Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace, Kyoto Journal, Light on Light Magazine. Meditations on Divine Names: Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Pirene’s Fountain, Saint Julian’s Press, San Diego Poetry Annual: The Best Poems of San Diego, Tiferet.  She has featured at readings at  many locations in southern California including galleries, museums, bookstores and botanical gardens and has also participated in readings in Ojai, San Francisco and Santa Fe. Her poem “The Origin is One” was made into a short film by Yoshikazu Ysa. Watch the film at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzPA9zeC0Qc The Origin Is One was also performed at the televised Akigami Ice Festival in Gifu, Japan. She was interviewed on KPFK by Lois P. Jones and nominated for a Pushcart in 2013 and 2017. She is co-editor for the forthcoming haiku anthology A Sonic Boom of Stars and in 2019 was filmed reciting her poetry for Tim Tipton’s variety TV show Rhyme Without Reason.  Listen to her poetry at:  https://www.loispjones.com/susan-rogers/

MARGO BERDESHEVSKY, a poet and a visual artist, born in New York city, often lives and writes now in Paris. Her latest poetry collection, “Before The Drought,” is from Glass Lyre Press, (September 2017.) (In an early version, it was finalist for the National Poetry Series.) Berdeshevsky is author as well of 'Between Soul & Stone,' and 'But a Passage in Wilderness,' (Sheep Meadow Press.) Her book of illustrated stories, 'Beautiful Soon Enough,' received the first Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Award for Fiction Collective Two (University of Alabama Press.) Other honors include the Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America, a portfolio of her poems in the Aeolian Harp Anthology #1 (Glass Lyre Press,) the & Now Anthology of the Best of Innovative Writing, numerous Pushcart prize nominations. Her works appear in the American journals: Poetry International, New Letters, Kenyon Review, Plume, The Collagist, Tupelo Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Southern Humanities Review, Pleiades, Prairie Schooner, The American Journal of Poetry, Jacar—One, Mānoa, Pirene’s Fountain, Big Other, among many others. In Europe and elsewhere her works have been seen in The Poetry Review (UK) The Wolf, Europe, Siècle 21, & Confluences Poétiques, Recours au Poème, LevureLittéraire. A multi-genre hybrid “Square Black Key,”and a new collection of poems, “It Is Still Beautiful To Hear The Heart Beat” wait at the gate. She may be found reading from her books in London, Paris, New York City, Los Angeles, Honolulu, or somewhere new in the world. Her “Letters from Paris” may be found in Poetry International, here: https://poetryinternationalonline.com/category/letters/letters-from-paris/

… For more information, kindly see here : http://margoberdeshevsky.com

About Rabindranath Tagore Award

"I was very pleased to be asked to be one of the judges for the Rabinranath Tagore Award...to make selections based on high standards for excellence in poetry and commitment to our shared world."