Matias Chambers, Colombia's National Honour, September 2026
Matias Chambers wrote the highest-scoring poem from Colombia in the Writory International Poetry Contest, September 2026: The Good Curse, scored 67 out of 100 by the blind judging panel across five published criteria. The poem was read in English (Latin script).
The Good Curse
The Good Curse April 2026 They call it cancer but I don’t live by the stars, And sensitivity is dull and overused by many. Delicacy cowers by the flames of too much fire, Too much rage at the world, and ifs and whys galore. Anything is something and something else to love, To love so much it aches and hurts just to feel. Things are only things but they carry weight of meaning, And meaning not of value, but from where they came, from whom. And therefore come the people, goddamn, lovely people. The old man I cry for but saw just for a second; That lady could’ve killed before, but I don’t know, so why not love her? And look at them, who are they? For my sake I hope they’re happy. And things break and people’s smiles sometimes falter, A tiny crack, a tiny frown, how I cry and burn with anger. We scare with our reactions; they’re repulsed and staring, So hit the walls and yell that it’s the curse of caring. The small things hurt the most, for the big I sometimes worry, Because then I cannot shed a tear. Why? Is it too much to carry? They call you selfish and materialist, self-centred, sparky danger, When you’re already in heaven after dying for a stranger. Little carer, little thinker, please don’t cry, And love them all and love it all, it’s anything but weakness. Born in June, beneath the crab - who knows? The stars may speak the truth. Your shell is hard but underneath you swim in tears.
Every country's leading poet each month is named on the September 2026 National Honours. The contest is open to poets in Colombia and everywhere else: enter the current round, and every poem receives a score out of 100 and a certificate.