Students in grades K-12 from Nebraska and Iowa are invited to submit works of poetry on the theme of Memory. Selected poems will be set to music and premiered during a public concert in May, 2026.

The Opera Omaha Poetry & Music Project is a statewide program run in partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective to amplify the voices of youth poets, both urban and rural, across Nebraska and Iowa. Over the last 8 years, more than 1000 poems have been submitted to the Poetry & Music Project. These poems varied in topic, but one thing was very plain to see and that is the young writers in our region have both immense talent and unique perspectives.

This year, we welcome your poems on memories — big and small — that made an impact on you, forever changed you, that are worth reliving, that are so delicious you want to gift them to others. Your mind is magic! We can’t wait to read about the unique way it sorts information and makes powerful, meaningful memories.
If you need inspiration, check out the project prompts.

Submission Guidelines

• Open to all K-12 Students in Nebraska and Iowa
• Students may only submit one (1) poem
• All work must be original
• Poems should be in Google Doc or Word file format
• Poems should be in Times New Roman, Helvetica, or Arial font
• Poems may be in any structure, but may not be more than 150 words long
• Poems should not be more than 1 page in length
• Poems submissions should not include images
• Poems can be submitted via the online submission form
• Poem Submission Deadline: November 30, 2025

Submission Instructions

Poems may be submitted via the online form

The following prompts will help you explore and share your memories and hopefully inspire you to write something that a composer can bring to life.

Memory Museum

Memories so delightful you wish you could hang them in a “you” museum!
Listen: Stephanie Pacheco’s “Where I’m From”
Read: Nikki Giovanni’s “My First Memory (of Librarians”)
Make a quick list of 10 of your favorite things. Like Stephanie, you might remember a beloved field trip. Like Nikki, you might think about how much you love your neighborhood library.
Reread your list, item by item, and pause when one of the beloved items makes you feel something - a jolt of joy, warmth, or hope. Choose the item you’re most excited about and write a poem that tells your reader about the first time you experienced that item: the first time you ate a twist cone at Zesto’s, the first time you remember making your mom laugh so hard she snorted, the first time you realized how far you could kick a soccer ball.
Level up! Be sure to use your five senses (sight, taste, touch, sound, smell) to make that first-time-feeling come alive for your reader!

Memory Interrupted

Exploring what happens to our memories when they work differently than our friends’ memories, don’t work as well as they once did, or get stuck playing on loop.
Listen: a poet from Lincoln East High School (7:48)
Read: Michael Kleber-Diggs’s “It’s a Pagoda Dogwood”
Our memories sometimes work differently than we expect them to. Our brains might hold onto a small, insignificant detail (the name of our childhood friend’s cat) we wish we could download and replace with something more helpful (a math equation we really need to memorize for an upcoming quiz).
Experiences like being autistic, sustaining brain damage, chronic stress, or having anxiety, depression, or OCD can impact our memory function, too. However your memory works is beautiful, dynamic, and unique - something to acknowledge, honor, and celebrate!
Like the poet from Lincoln East High School, you might want to write about the rhythm of your memory, how it gets stuck on a certain idea (like how tasty spaghetti sounds for dinner) and loops and loops and loops. Like Michael Kleber-Diggs, you might think you should be able to remember things you just can’t (like the name of that one park, or song, or the kind of car your best friend always picks you up in.)
Write about a memory that keeps slipping through your fingers, or write about a memory that keeps getting stuck in the folds of your brain.
Level up! Be sure to use your five senses (sight, taste, touch, sound, smell) to make sure your reader can share this memory, too!

Memory Speak

Memories have their own language, their own way of communicating with us, and often take us by surprise.
Listen: a duet from Team Urban Word NYC
Read: Gary Soto’s “Earth Day on the Bay”
Have you ever accidentally kicked an empty can of Diet Coke down the sidewalk and wondered about the person who drank it? Have you ever experienced a memory in a language other than English? Memories come to us in different “languages,” sometimes literally (like the teen poets from Team Urban Word NYC) or figuratively (like the sneaker in Gary’s poem).
Write about a memory that connects you to someone else. Think about things we inherit, like your grandfather’s watch, or your sister’s crooked teeth, or the stranger who signed in ahead of you at the doctor’s office and held the same pen you’re now using to write your name. How does memory keep us connected to each other? To our neighborhood? To our world? If you’re a multilingual writer, you may write this poem - or parts of it - in your home language.
Level up! Be sure to use your five senses (sight, taste, touch, sound, smell) to make sure your reader tastes the sour cherry slushie you’re telling us about or sees the gumball pink sunset you’re watching!

Memory Collector

Some people collect stamps, rubber bands, or dinosaur bones, but you collect memories!
Listen: Harrison Boe’s “Becoming Strangers”
Read: Joy Harjo’s “Memory Sack”
Sometimes we don’t realize something important to us is about to become a memory - the last time we see a friend on the playground before they change schools, the last time our babysitter comes over because we’re now old enough to stay home alone.
You are a Memory Collector - write about the last memory you have of the popsicle before it fell to the hot July sidewalk and became a puddle. Or the last song on the new album before you realized it was over. Or the last chapter of the book you couldn’t put down and didn’t know was already reaching its conclusion.
Like Joy, gather these memories and put them in your Memory Sack. In 150 years, an archaeologist will stumble upon the sack, brimming with your experiences. Where will they put them? What will the news stories say about their discovery? What will your great-great grandchildren learn from them?
Level up! Like a scientist, be sure to use your senses (sight, touch, sound, smell) to make sure your reader understands the importance of this discovery!

The Opera Omaha Poetry & Music Project is a statewide program run in partnership with the Nebraska Writers Collective. Now in its 9th year, the Poetry & Music Project connects student writers and their words with composers to create original scores and explore the connections between poetry and music. Students are invited to submit poems for the project, and free Poetry & Music writing workshops are available in the fall. Professional composers select poems that move them from a robust collection of writing submitted by young writers in grades K-12 and create original music inspired by the selected poems. This program culminates in public performance of the selected poems -now songs- with the poets, their families, and community partners in attendance so they can see the fruits of labor that come from this season long project.

All submitted poems will be printed in the Poetry & Music Project book which will be distributed to all poets, teachers, concert audience, and available online. The Poetry & Music Project book is also available in the Omaha Public Library’s collection.

Opera Omaha and Nebraska Writers Collective offer FREE writing workshops. Facilitated by Nebraska Writers Collective Teaching Artists, these FREE, in-class workshops aim to teach participants how to add musicality to their writing. Instructors explain a variety of poetic devices such as meter, rhyme, metaphor, and personification and show how these devices are used in poetry, modern music, and opera classics.
The workshops add a layer of understanding for students who are interested in participating in the Poetry and Music Project. Workshops can be adapted to various classrooms but are best suited for students in 4th grade and above.

September 2025 | Submissions Open
October & November 2025 | Writing Workshops led by NWC
November 30, 2025 | Poem Submissions Close
December 2025 | Composers Select Poems
January 2026 | Poets of Selected Pieces Notified, Composers Writing Time
March/April 2026 | Music Workshop with Composers and Poets of the Selected Pieces
May 9, 2026 | Poetry & Music Project Concert

The Poetry & Music Project is produced in partnership with Nebraska Writers Collective. The NWC helped identify the theme and created prompts for the Poetry & Music Project, and NWC Teaching Artists designed and facilitated poetry workshops for over 200 middle and high school students across Nebraska.

Additional project partners include American Opera Projects who helped identify project composer Sidney Boquiren, and alum of their Composers & the Voice project.

The Poetry & Music Project is supported in part by Humanities Nebraska, Nebraska Arts Council, and The Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

For More Information
Contact: Lauren Medici | Opera Omaha Director of Engagement Programs
Lmedici@operaomaha.org | 402-346-7372