Yellow-Billed Cuckoo - Photo by Karin Addis
Wisconsin poet Phyllis Wax selected two winners for the September Poetry Challenge.
WINTER SERENADE
It is true, I tried to meet her in dreams
at some appointed tryst.
One night, in winter’s killing cold,
I was a bird
in a labyrinth of tangles.
There I sang to her lit window
with a bird’s unblinking vigilance,
my song like weightless, airborne wings,
pinions rowing a river of thermals.
Perched on a budless twig,
my favourite post,
my every note was a preened plume.
My songs were such
they would have pierced the heart
of any human.
And so I flew up, to sing on her sill
and she, hearing my song
looked out, alight with surprise,
as if she had never seen a man
become a bird.
~ Jim Newcombe
The judge wrote, “What I loved about ‘Winter Serenade’: both the narrator and his song (in this dream) were described as birds. I especially liked the song as "pinions rowing" and a "preened plume."
The other winning piece is an ekphrastic poem, in response to this painting:
Pheasants
and Plovers
Still Life with Pheasants and Plovers, by Claude Monet, 1878.
The birds so neatly presented
in their winter feathers—
greens and golds and rusts—
robes given by some loving hand,
simply for the looking,
could not reach down to stop
the dog from pointing
nor the silent waiting
nor the sudden rise of birds
in a whir of snow and frantic feathers,
nor the spray of shot
filling the gray air
nor the unseen hand
who dressed these birds
and placed them on a shroud
simply
for the looking.
~ Michael Escoubas
Previously published by the author in Monet in Poetry and Paint, Copyright ©2018.
Phyllis Wax wrote, "‘Pheasants and Plovers,’ is a thoughtful, subtle narrative, with an interesting analogy at the end.”
Congratulations
to Jim Newcombe. a newcomer to the Poetry Challenge, and Michael Escoubas, a
repeat winner. These poets retain copyright on their poems.
Bios:
Michael Escoubas began writing poetry for publication after retiring from a 48-year career in the printing industry. Encouraged by his mother at a young age to read widely and to fall in love with words, he grew to love their shapes and sounds. Michael's poetry has appeared in a range of venues. He has published four books of poetry: Light Comes Softly, Monet in Poetry and Paint, Steve Henderson in Poetry and Paint and Little Book of Devotions: Poems that Connect Nature, God and Man. All of Michael’s titles are available either on amazon.com or from the author’s personal inventory. Michael is a member of the Illinois State Poetry Society, and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. He is editor and staff book reviewer for Quill and Parchment, a 20-year-old literary and cultural arts online poetry journal.
Jim Newcombe, the son of a librarian and a Rolls-Royce manager, was born and raised in Derby in the heart of the English midlands before uprooting to London in 2006. He is essentially self-taught and has been passionate about words and pictures since earliest boyhood, being able to recite hundreds of poems by heart. He can be contacted at: jim@jimnewcombe.co.uk
Phyllis Wax writes in Milwaukee on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. From her office window she observes the birds and butterflies in their seasonal migrations. Social issues are a focus of her work. Among the anthologies and journals in which her poetry has appeared are: Rhino, The Widows’ Handbook, Birdsong, Spillway, Peacock Journal, Surreal Poetics, Naugatuck River Review, New Verse News, Portside, Star 82 Review. She can be reached at poetwax38@gmail.com.
© Wilda Morris
