October 2019 Winners - Portrait Poems

A Magnified Life

The challenge for October was to draw a portrait of someone with words instead of paints or camera. There were a number of interesting submissions. I sent the four I thought were best to Matthew Lawler, whose poem was used in the challenge this month, and he selected the following poem as the winner:

A Magnified Life

He experienced life through lenses,
first, a pair of black-rimmed kid specs,
then, a duck hunter’s telescopic sight at twenty,
swapped out for high powered binoculars at thirty,
to watch birds he appeared to love
more than humans.

That’s what ten-year-old me
thought of my uncle, the “bachelor”
a word whispered behind cupped hands
as if bachelor equaled “undesirable,”
but in his case simply meant
he hadn’t met my aunt yet.

He arrived every Monday at six for dinner,
with a fresh, squishy loaf of Challah,
a warm, welcome offering from the bakery
on his way to the subway station;
it wouldn’t be until we moved to the ‘burbs
that he required a car to make it to dinner on time.

He spoke in a quiet, yet forceful tone
always quick to share his views on issues
from the best flower arranging method,
to whether Communism is more desirable
then Democracy, because it lands us all
on the same economic playing field.

Marriage at fifty-two softened his hard edges,
mellowing out his need for constant debate,
choosing a thoughtful partner with multiple views
and interests, including his beloved bird watching;
her lens, attached to the front of her camera,
serving to chronicle their exploration.

Falling prey to Parkinson’s disease, my bird expert
uncle suffered his fatal decline at eighty-three,
tumbling from his wheelchair while birding,
a rather fitting end for one who led weekend
birding trips for old and new ornithologists,
a founding member of Bird Observer magazine.

The day of his funeral
Black Lives Matter demonstrators tied themselves
to barrels in protest, blocking the highway,
preventing some from saying their goodbyes.
On the way home, we couldn’t help but wonder−
through what lens would he have viewed such rebellion.

~ Elaine Sorrentino

The poem Lawler selected as second place is quite different. It deals with a character from history (you can look him up on Wikipedia!), and the poem is rhymed.

Alexander Pearce

Alexander Pearce, you won’t know the name

And you’ll gag when you find out his claim to fame

He was sent to Australia for steeling some shoes

According to Ireland’s 1819 crime news

Ended up in Port Author but got out on bail

Drunk and disorderly so it’s back into jail

Recalcitrant convicts were sent then to an isle

Just west of Tasmania in lieu of a trial

Escape from Tasmanian prison he did

Eight escapees in the wilderness hid

They fought to survive with no water or food

Leaving eight ruthless guys in a murderess mood

So they made a pact, these desperate guys

To use as a meal, the next guy that dies

And wouldn’t you know it, when it got down to two

Alexander Pearce knew just what he had to do

In a battle of wits and an axe in his hand

Alexander Pearce was the last standing man

He ate what he could and appeared healthy, well fed

When he was captured and to Port Author led

Although he confessed and told them the truth

He went right back to prison, they needed some proof

Ninety days later, he escaped once again

With a guy named Cox who he found couldn’t swim

So there by the river Cox met his fate

And Alex, poor guy, had some more on his plate

So when he was caught (this is where you might gag)

They found human flesh in his shoulder pack bag

He said hang me now for I can’t resist                         

The taste of man’s flesh from ankle to wrist

So they granted his wish and they hung the young lad

The story is true, the story is sad

He was young, he was poor, and he paid his dues

All of this from a poor kid needing shoes

~ Mike Dailey

Congratulations to Elaine Sorrentino and Mike Dailey for their winning poems. Please remember that the poets own copyright on their poems.

Congratulations to Mary Jo Balistreri (“Presenting the Carroll Sisters”) and Joe Cottonwood (“Don’t Mess with Martha”) whose poems won Honorable Mentions this month.

Honorable mentions go to Mary Jo Balistreri for “Presenting the Carroll Sisters” and to Joe Cottonwood for “Don’t Mess with Martha.”

Bios:

Mike Dailey is a well known poet in southeast North Carolina.  He lives near Sunset Beach with his wife of 47 years and the occasional visits with his daughter and two grandkids.  He has had three books of poetry published; one based on cancer treatments he underwent, one based on his 30 years working as a civilian analyst for the US Army, and a book of spiritual poems.  He is currently putting together a collection of children’s’ poems and looking for a publisher. Mike Dailey’s poetry can be serious, topical, or very moving but he is known more for his rhythm and rhyme poetry with a twist of humor.  He recently took over the leadership of a poetry group in Brunswick County promoting a revisit to poetry for those that left poetry behind back in their school days.

Matthew J. Lawler, a Chicago native, began writing raps in the 8^th grade. He has published in numerous journals including The Muscreabt, Caravel Literary Arts Journal, Unlost, Peeking Cat Magazine, and Eunoi Review, and in an anthology titled The Best Emerging Poets of Illinois from Z Publishing. His first full-length poetry collection, Concrete Oracles was published by Alien Buddha Press in 2018.

Elaine Sorrentino is Director at South Shore Conservatory in Hingham, MA, where she creates promotional and first-person content for press and for a blog called SSC Musings.  Facilitator of the Duxbury Poetry Circle, she has been published in Minerva Rising, Willawaw Journal, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, The Writers’ Magazine, The Writers Newsletter, Haiku Universe, and Failed Haiku. She has been a winner of Wilda Morris’s Poetry Challenge before.

© Wilda Morris