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Penthesilea
(1862), by Gabriel-Vital Dubray (1813-1892).
East façade of the
Cour Carrée in the Louvre palace, Paris.
Photo © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons
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In February, 2018, I used my poem, “Wanting to See the Amazon,” as one
of three prompt poems encouraging poets to make use of ancient myths in their
poetry. This month—the month of Valentine’s Day—I’m using that same poem as a
prompt, but in a different way. It is a poem about two people—a man and a
woman, in this case—who look at things in different ways. The name “Amazon”
elicits different responses from the man than intended by the woman, leading to
a communication problem. Perhaps it happened this way because Cupid was playing
tricks on the narrator.
Wanting to See the Amazon
When I say I
want to see the Amazon, he assumes
I mean the
statue of Penthesilea in the Louvre.
He’s thinking
perhaps of the exposed breast,
legs bare
from boot top to kneecap. He’s thinking
warrior.
Woman. I’m thinking river. Rainforest.
He says Achilles
killed her, removed her helmet,
was so
stunned by her splendor his heart stopped.
He says
Achilles wept for love that might have been.
The river
flows not from tear ducts but tributaries.
It’s not salt
water but fresh. It shoves sediments
out to sea.
It has no sword. While I think
of the
Amazon’s mouth opening into the Atlantic,
he thinks of
the Aegean Sea and the sneering lips
of the statue
or sensuous lips of the lifeless woman
lifted by
Achilles. He says the Amazons originated
in Pontus. I
say the waters flow from peaks
in the
Peruvian Andes. He lies on the love seat
pondering the
sad end of Penthesilea. I order tickets
to tour
Brazil and Peru, not Paris or Pontus.
~ Wilda
Morris
After Hours, 29 (Summer 2014), p. 8.
The February Challenge:
The challenge
for February is a poem where two persons with different gender identities make
different assumptions or express different points of view. Avi Difranco is quoted
as having said that “in the ‘he said she said’ sometimes there’s some poetry;” look for poetry there. Perhaps you won’t report dialogue,
but just make it plain in another eay that the different assumptions of people in your poem
lead to communication problems. Some humor is preferred, but not required.
Your poem 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. Note that the
blog format does not accommodate long lines; if they are used, they have to be
broken in two, with the second part indented (as in the poem “Lilith,” one of
the November 2018 winners). 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 February 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. 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 “February 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. If the poem has been published
before, please put that information UNDER the poem also.
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.
© Wilda
Morris
