Welcome to BattleBorn Poetry!

An introduction to who we are and what we hope to do.

Original Image: A Knights Salute by Hazy Apple on Fine Art America

In November of 2023, the poetry community on Twitter X inspired the continuation of a movement that once sparked a fire in the hearts of hundreds. BattleBorn Poetry is the passion project of a collective we have affectionately come to call our “Battalion”. Comprised of some of the most valiant and talented voices in contemporary poetry, our Battalion ventures bravely into their darkest emotional places to bring forth the brilliant treasure that is a regal sense of self-worth.

On Fridays we post a call to action in the form of a prompt, with the only rule being (besides using the prompt word, of course) to aim for the heart – and don’t miss! This prompt word is selected by our latest Voice of Valor (aka VoV), which is an honor bestowed by a public vote. 

The VoV recipient serves the community by nominating two poems from the week’s battle which they believe are also worthy of the Voice of Valor title. This was originally three nominations, with the remaining two made by the BattleBorn Brass, and the community would then vote for the Voice of Valor from these five nominations. 

But as we approach our 40th battle, we have realized this system isn’t perfect. And so, we will be modifying the VoV process to better represent all members of our beloved Battalion. Going forward, the Voice of Valor and the BattleBorn Brass will each sacrifice one nomination. These two remaining nominations will now be selected using a lottery system. 

Names of participants will be placed into an application and chosen at random. We made this decision because we feel like any poet who has the courage to show up to battle and share a vulnerable piece of themselves is deserving of a chance to be recognized. Being that we are still in the very early stages of development, there will likely be further changes as we evolve.

On that note, another exciting change we have made is that we will now be hosting our battles on multiple platforms. At the moment, our battles take place exclusively on Twitter X (add link to twitter profile here). But, we have recently expanded to the Metaverse — Facebook, Instagram and Threads (add links here). This means that poets can submit their entries for the week using the #BornBattleReady hashtag on any of these platforms. 

In a collective vision for the future of BattleBorn Poetry, we would love to collaborate with other communities from around the globe – because we see purpose in inspiring one another to succeed while fostering camaraderie. We absolutely have plans to release more publications (downloadable AND physical) alongside our magnificent World Poetry Day feature, “Ink & Iron: An Annual Paean of Pride.”

Finally, we dream of a day when we can proudly say we’ve further assisted the mental health community with the healing power of poetry, while teaching tools and techniques to help overcome personal battles. These may seem like wild flights of fancy right now, but isn’t that what lofty dreams are meant to be? So, we invite you to join us as our Battalion elevates to the highest level, and pays tribute to the many triumphs we achieve together along the way.

Until next time, stay regal AF 🖤👑🤍