March Challenge Winner

The challenge for this month was to write a poem somehow inspired by a photograph I took in Mexico. The photo took the winning poet's imagination to the farmer's market in Lawrence,Kansas.

Congratulations to Sondy Sloan.

Farmers’ Market

No matter how tight the month,
I snap my clutch closed
around 40 bucks, squirreled away for Saturdays:
March till November;
sun or spit.

At dawn, I board the empty bus
to the center of my small city,
two totes rolled up under my arm.
I covet the 6 am sunrise as if it
were my own wee weekend hour.

Hopping off at New Hampshire
I mosey over to Massachusetts Street.
Two blocks-o-parking-lots
feature Flora and Fauna:

chicks and chorizo;
carrots and catfish;
begonias and buffalo;
emu and eggs.

Pigeons and peppers;
tomatoes and tulips;
potatoes and pumpkins;
feta and figs.

Stalling at Saturday morning stands—
eyes widen, nose inhales the newest crops;
I feel the fresh of Farmer’s Market…
I taste the week awaken,
on Saturday morn.

~ Sondy Sloan

Copyright to this poem remains with the author.

Did this poem awaken your hunger for some of the foods mentioned, or hungry for the sights provided by a farmer's market?

The next challenge will be posted on April 1, the first day of National Poetry Month. It might be your month to be the winner!

© 2012 Wilda Morris

March Poetry Challenge

Instead of providing poems as inspirations for the March Poetry Challenge, I'm providing a photograph I took some time ago. You are invited to let the photo take you where it will, and write the poem it inspires. Use your creativity!


The March Poetry Challenge

Read these directions carefully! The poetry challenge for March is to write a poem inspired by the photo above. Your poem may be inspired by the entire photo or some part or aspect of the photo. You may write a formal poem or free verse. If formal, please specify the form. The deadline is March 15. Poems submitted after the March 15 deadline will not be considered.

Copyright on poems is retained by their authors.

Due to formatting restrictions on the blog, all poems should be left justified. As much as I would enjoy a fruit-shaped poem, I am unable to publish indentations, shaped poems or even extra spaces between words or phrases.

Poems published in books or on the Internet (including Facebook and other on-line social networks) are not eligible. If your poem has been published in a periodical, you may submit it if you retain copyright, but please include publication data.

How to Submit Your Poem

Send your poem to wildamorris[at]ameritech[dot]net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for [dot]. Be sure provide your e-mail address. Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog if it is a winner, so be sure that you put your name, exactly as you would like it to appear if you do win, at the end of the poem.


© 2012 Wilda Morris