October Poetry Challenge - Your Favorite Month

"June is mine" ~ Carolyn Bailey     Photo by Wilda Morris

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, autumn officially started on September 22, a little over a week ago. I love the autumn months. I think October is my favorite month, though May comes in a close second. Each part of the year has its own beauties and its own challenges. What is your favorite time of year? Can you narrow it down to one favorite month?

Last Friday evening at Nature at the Confluence in South Beloit, Illinois, I participated in a reading of poems from a brand new book of nature poems published by the Natural Land Institute (https://www.naturalland.org/). Carolyn Bailey got a lot of appreciative chuckles from the audience as she read her poem about the month of June.

The Abduction of June

I’ve decided to take the month of June.

   The rest of you can have July through May,

   but June is mine.

   June, when birdsong lilts the air

   and the weeds pull easily, when

   wind is a breath and wet grass is warm.

You can parcel the others among you.

   May, for instance, when violets emerge

   and ferns uncurl, is quite a bit like June.

I’ll keep June, when the air is fragrant

   with the scent of peonies and roses.

Some of you might like July, hot enough

   to ripen bananas overnight, and humid enough to curl hair.

I’ll stay in June, hunting butter-colored iris

   wild by the river.

August is up for grabs, when marigolds bloom

   and bats nip mosquitos at twilight.

Back in June, I’ll be watching the robin weave

   her nest on the porch light.

The fall months can go to you who like leaves

   in hot colors…raking them and bagging them.

As for me, I like the green leaves of June

   and the breeze that sways the branches

   without dropping a single leaf.

All of you cozy-by-the-fire people can have

   the winter months, sharing of course,

   with the sledders and the skiers.

   There’s plenty for all. The winter months

   go on and on and on.

I think it’s not too much to ask

   for this one little month, when I’m

   leaving you eleven others.

I’m taking it anyway. It’s mine:

   the reed call of doves, soft air

   like cobwebs on my skin and

   the sun bright enough, finally,

   to bleach the laundry.

~ Carolyn Bailey

This poem is from Natural Voices: Celebrating Nature With Opened Eyes (Rockford, IL: Natural Land Institute, 2018), p. 3.

As Carolyn finished reading the poem, I immediately thought it would make a wonderful prompt poem, and she graciously gave me permission to use it.

The October Challenge:

So what is your favorite month, and how might you turn you love for that month into a poem that others would enjoy reading and/or hearing read? That is the challenge for October.

Your piece may be free verse or formal. If you use a form, please identify the form when you submit your poem.

Title your poem unless it is a form that does not use titles. Single-space and don’t use lines that are overly long (because the blog format doesn’t accommodate long lines). Read previous poems on the blog to see what line lengths can be accommodated.

You may submit a published poem if you retain copyright, but please include publication data. This applies to poems published in books, journals, newspapers, or on the Internet.

The deadline is October 15. Poems submitted after the deadline will not be considered. There is no charge to enter, so there are no monetary rewards; however winners are published on this blog. Please don’t stray too far from “family-friendly” language (some children read this blog). No simultaneous submissions, please. You should know by the end of the month whether or not your poem will be published on this blog. Decision of the judge or judges is final.

The poet retains copyright on each poem. If a previously unpublished poem wins and is published elsewhere later, please give credit to this blog. I do not register copyright with the US copyright office, but by US law, the copyright belongs to the writer unless the writer assigns it to someone else.

If the same poet wins three months in a row (which has not happened thus far), he or she will be asked not to submit the following two months.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send one poem only to wildamorris[at]ameritech[dot]net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for “dot”). Put “October Poetry Challenge Submission” in the subject line of your email. Include a brief bio that can be printed with your poem if you are a winner this month. Please put your name and bio UNDER the poem in your email.

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.

Poems may be pasted into an email or sent as an attachment (no pdf files, please). Please do not indent the poem or center it on the page. It helps if you submit the poem in the format used on the blog (Title and poem left-justified; title in bold (not all in capital letters); your name at the bottom of the poem). Also, please do not use multiple spaces instead of commas in the middle of lines. I have no problem with poets using that technique (I sometimes do it myself). However I have difficulty getting the blog to accept and maintain extra spaces.

Poems shorter than 40 lines are generally preferred but longer poems will be considered.

Bio:

Carolyn Bailey was born in Southern California, but moved to the Midwest when she married a man from Rockford, Illinois. Sixty years of living in the Midwest have taught her to appreciate the gift of its seasons.

© Wilda Morris