The World's Game - A Poetry Competition

The World's Game - A Poetry Competition

• Open to Grades 3-12 

• Deadline: October 1, 2026

About the Competition

This summer, kids around the world watched the World Cup. In celebration, and in anticipation of the 2027 Super Bowl and 2028 Olympics, students from across Los Angeles are invited to write and share a poem about soccer—the world's game!

Every culture plays. Every neighborhood has a field, a parking lot, a stretch of beach. Poetry is how we make the personal universal, and soccer already does that better than almost anything. We want to read your poem about the game, the moment, the memory that only you could write.

Competition Guidelines

• Open to all City of Los Angeles students in grades 3–12
• Poems must be 20 lines or fewer of original, unpublished work
• One poem per student; any form or style welcome
• Teachers may submit the best 3 poems per class to the contest (with the included parental consent forms for students under 18)
• Students may also self-submit (with the required parental consent forms if under 18)
• All submissions must include the student’s name, grade, and school

What Winners Receive

Judges will select at least one winner from each level: elementary, middle, and high school. Winning poems will be published online by the Los Angeles Public Library. Winners will also be invited to read their poems in person at a City event. Selected winning poems may be featured in a video shared by Get Lit - Words Ignite, a recipient of the Library of Congress Literacy Award.

Judges

• Brian Sonia-Wallace, Poet Laureate, City of Los Angeles: Founder of RENT Poet & author of The Poetry of Strangers. Brian has written poems for more than 10,000 strangers and believes: everyone needs a poem.

• Collin Kim, Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate: Senior at Harvard-Westlake School and a creative writing instructor at Los Angeles Public Library locations. Collin believes in democratizing literary education and leads workshops for elementary students, bringing poetry to young writers across L.A.

• Samantha Rios, Former Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate: Current Pasadena City College student, Get Lit Player, and Teaching Artist who has touched hearts across the nation. From the Grammy-considered album “If I Awaken in Los Angeles” to students in classrooms, she shares how words can shape lives.

Partners

• Los Angeles Public Library · Get Lit — Words Ignite · City of Los Angeles Poet Laureate program

Submit Your Poem

Teacher Lesson Plan: The World’s Game Poetry Competition

Writing a Sports Poem

• Grade Levels: 3–12 
• Time: 45–90 min 

Objectives 

Students will use a personal memory to write an original poem of 20 lines or fewer (5-10 lines is great!). They will practice the move from specific image to larger meaning, a cornerstone of strong creative writing at any age.

The Lesson — Step by Step

1. Warm-Up: The Memory Minute (5 min)
   Ask students to close their eyes and think of a specific moment involving soccer, or any sport or game. It could be playing, watching, or even a conversation about the game. Give them 60 seconds of silence to let the memory surface, then have them jot down 3–5 quick words or images they saw.
2. Read the Example Poem(s) Aloud (5–15 min)
   Read "The Goal" by Brian Sonia-Wallace. Ask students to listen first — no reading along. Then read it a second time and discuss the questions provided. 
3. Teach the "Zoom" Move (5 min)
   Explain that great poems start small and specific (a beach, a friend named Jader, the color orange) and then zoom out to something larger. In "The Goal," the soccer game becomes about belonging, about being home. Ask: What could your moment zoom out to? If your moment is about soccer, what else is it about?
4. Drafting (20–25 min)
   Students write their own poems. Encourage them to start mid-action, no need to introduce the scene. "Our feet kicked up sand"—we're already there. Remind them: 20 lines maximum, any form. Silence is a gift here. Let them write.
5. Share & Submit (10-20 min)
   Invite 2–3 volunteers to read aloud, or have the whole class share. If needed, start with pair shares. Celebrate specificity: when a student mentions a real place, a real name, a real smell—note it. Then collect poems for each class and choose the top 3 per class (teacher choice or student vote) to submit via the form linked on the competition flyer. Note that keen students may also self-submit!

Differentiation Tips

• Grades 3–5: Use the scaffolding box to structure lines before drafting the full poem.
• Grades 6–8: Challenge students to include a surprising turn—a moment where the poem shifts direction.
• Grades 9–12: Encourage risk: experiment with form, line breaks, or a second language if that's part of their experience.

How to Write Your Poem

Your poem should feel like a window into a moment, a place, a feeling that is entirely yours. Here is a simple structure to follow:

Tips for Writing Poems

• Start specific. Begin with a real memory, such as a game, a goal, a field, or a person. Paint the picture with concrete details: What did it smell like? Who was there? What were your feet doing?
• Zoom in. Slow down to one moment. A single touch, a single sound.
• Zoom out. What does that moment mean? What does soccer mean in your life, your family, your city, your world?
• Find your title last. It might be the thing the poem is secretly about.

Example Poem

The Goal by Brian Sonia-Wallace: Poet Laureate, City of Los Angeles

Our feet kicked up sand
as the orange sky made the water
a reflecting pool, waves calm
as we splashed the soccer ball
through the surf, tangling, shrieking
English, Spanish, some third language
you speak with your feet, swearing
like we'd just learned how.

Jader knew how to dribble
but I was bigger. Neither of us
was keeping score. The goal
was the size of the ocean. Sunset
lasted forever. Then, it was dark.
We were a long way from home.
Mentira. We were there already.

Notice: the entire poem comes from a single memory. The title holds a double meaning. The ending surprises by contradicting itself—but that contradiction creates a new meaning.

Discussion Questions

• This poem has two meanings for its title: What is the literal goal in the poem? What other kind of goal might the poet be referring to?
• The poem is written in English but includes one word in Spanish: Mentira (it means "a lie" or "no way"). Why might the poet have made that choice? What does it add?
• The whole poem comes from a single memory. What's a memory of yours— on or off the field—that could inspire a poem?
• The poem says the poets were "a long way from home," and then immediately says "We were there already." What changed between those two lines?

Example Poem #2

Extra Time by Collin Kim, Los Angeles Youth Poet Laureate

The city is laid as flat as a game board. 
We watch the World Cup final 
as our TV squints under the California sun.

During the game, we kicked balls out in the backyard as the game’s eternal blare became the cheer of the crowd. 
I never left that afternoon.

The grill smokes through the second half 
As paper plates carne asada, galbi short ribs, and tamales 
balance on my knees.

Somebody’s grandmother calls for the fouls 
Before the referee does.

Then, the screen is swallowed by static,  
and Uncle smacks the antenna like a drum 
until the field flickers back on, and we breathe.

For ninety minutes, the world is one backyard, 
our entire planet holds this same breath, 
And the backyard is the whole world.

Discussion Questions

• The poem ends by flipping its own line: "the world is one backyard" becomes "the backyard is the whole world." What's the difference between those two ideas? Why end the poem this way instead of just picking one?
• The poet mixes foods from different cultures—carne asada, galbi short ribs, tamales—all balanced on one plate. What is the poem saying about the backyard, and who's gathered in it, through this detail?
• The poem says "I never left that afternoon"—even though the poet is clearly still there, in the present, writing about it. What do you think that line means? Have you ever had an afternoon like that, one that seems to stay with you?
• Both "The Goal" and "Extra Time" use a soccer game to talk about something bigger than soccer. What is each poem really about, underneath the game?

Scaffolding: Draft Your Poem

Use these prompts to gather your material before you write.

• My Memory: Where were you? Who was there? What did you see, hear, or feel?

• One Specific Detail: Pick one small thing you can see clearly in the memory: a color, a sound, a name.

• What It All Means: Why does this moment matter? What does soccer mean to you —or to your family, your neighborhood, your world?

• Ask a Question or Pose a Negation (advanced move): If you’re stuck in a poem, ask a question or tell us the opposite of what you just told us (“We were a long way from home/we were already there”)—poetry can live in a question, or the space between one truth and its opposite, where both can be true.

CA ELA Common Core Alignment: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3–12.3 (Narrative Writing) · CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3–12.4 (Craft & Structure: Word Choice) · CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.3–12.4 (Presentation of Knowledge) · CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3–12.4 (Production & Distribution of Writing)

Teachers may submit the top 3 poems for each class, or students may submit them themselves. Note that parental approval forms are required for youth under 18. Submit poems (or submit on behalf of students) via the competition form: Submit Your Poem · Include: student name, teacher name, grade, school name, parental approval