It’s all too easy to be disconsolate if you have entered for a few poetry competitions and have not won a place. Always remember that a great many people enter these so your poem has to have some element that attracts it into the winners’ category. Check that you followed the stated rules for submitting to a particular competition. Okay, so you followed these exactly and you are sure your theme is an original one, as is the title and opening line. All of this can help you achieve your goal of becoming a winner.
So, what might have prevented your poem from being amongst the winners? Your poem merits careful scrutiny. Be totally honest with yourself. Was it a good enough poem to submit in the first place? Are you sure that the punctuation was correctly applied? Were the images you used strong enough? If a rhyme pattern or traditional pattern used was it followed regularly in lines throughout your poem?
Read the poem aloud. Yes I know you have done this several times, but this time listen to the lines slowly and carefully. Is it meant to be read with a sense of rhythm in the lines? Even a small juxtaposition of sounds can carry a rhythm. Repetition of short, sharp words in a line can create a fast pace, as in