November 2022 Poetry Challenge: November Poems

 

November by Ludovico Mattioli
(Late 17^th Century)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Here it is November again. Halloween is past and the end of the year is just around the corner. But November has a character of its own—a character that depends, of course, on what part of the globe you live on. In the U.S.A. on November 1, the baseball season is ending, with the World Series overlapping the early stages of the football season. Many families are thinking about Thanksgiving, often celebrated with the traditional roast turkey and with pumpkin pie.

I have read that when General Dwight D. Eisenhower was commanding the allied forces in Europe during World War II, some Europeans were surprised when he asked for pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner. Evidently, pumpkin was considered a peasant food, not fit for a big celebration. But maybe they hadn’t eaten pumpkin pie, pumpkin coffeecake, pumpkin bars, pumpkin cheesecake, etc., etc. I wonder if those same people would consider chili a peasant food? I think of it as a “comfort food,” one especially good for the cooler weather we experience in November.

I found two poems about November—not about Thanksgiving or football. Both were written by poets from Wisconsin. Enjoy their take on November, and they decided how you would write about this month.

I Like November

I like the grey and woody way
November leaves a filigree of trees
stripped and spare
untidy tatters at their feet
            Let it go

I like the grey and weary way
November hunkers down
to stubble in exhausted fields
            Give it a rest

Spring is so insistent
Summer so full of itself
Fall tries to feed everyone
but not November
November says
            Give it a rest

Make soup
with what’s left
from the harvest
Find a good book and light a fire
            It’s almost dark

~ Elizabeth Harmatys Park

from Theater of Seasons. Used by permission.

 

November Bargain

If I could, I would bargain for a day
like this November day at any time,
when I can grasp the sun with fingertips,
feel it throbbing through my marrow.

If I could but catch again the last
warm breeze, jostle it from
where I stand to the dog whose nose
advises him that reprieve is brief,
and he would forward it to jack o'lanterns
hanging on to autumn, their fixed smiles
of astonishment appropriate to this day.

For another day like this I would suffer
the scratch of branches as they etch
their signatures upon my seasoned soul
marking me as offering.

~ June Nirschl

from Slightly Off Q. Used by Permission

 

Some On-line Resources for November Poems:

The “Interesting Literature” website has a list of what it considers the best poems for November. To read an entire poem, click on its title. https://interestingliterature.com/2019/10/the-best-poems-for-november/.

Discover Poetry has 21 November poems to recommend at https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/november-poems/.

 

The November Challenge:

The challenge for this month is a poem on the theme of November. Your poem may be literal or metaphoric, serious or humorous. It can be for children or for adults. It can be about the month as a whole, or about some specific November holiday, activity, or experience. Be creative! Note that the blog format does not accommodate shaped poems or long lines; if a poem has long lines, they are used, they have to be broken in two, with the second part indented (as in the poem “Lilith,” one of the May 2018 winners), or the post has to use small print. Note, too, that long poems are at a disadvantage.

Poems could be disqualified if the guidelines are not followed. Submit your poem by November 15.

1-Title your poem unless it is in a form that discourages titles.

2-Single-space.

3-Whether you put your poem in the body of your email or in an attachment, please put your submission in this order:

Your poem

Your name

Publication data if your poem was previously published

A brief third-person bio

Your email address – it saves me a lot of work if you put your email address at the end of your submission.

4-Please keep the poem on the left margin (standard 1” margin). Do not put any part of your submission on a colored background. No colored type. Do not use a fancy font and do not use a header or footer.

5-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. Poems already used on this blog are not eligible to win, but the poets may submit a different poem.

6-The deadline is midnight, Central Time Zone, November 15. Poems submitted after the deadline will not be considered. There is no charge to enter, so there are no monetary rewards. Winners are published on this blog.

7-Please don’t stray too from “family-friendly” language (some children and teens read this blog).

8- No simultaneous submissions, please. You should know by the end of the month whether or not your poem will be published.

9-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.

10-Decision of the judge or judges is final.

11-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.

12-Send one poem only.

How to Submit Your Poem:

1-Send your poem to wildamorris4[at]gmail[dot]com (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for “dot”). The poem must respond in some way to the specific challenge for the month.

2-Put “November Poetry Challenge Submission” FOLLOWED BY YOUR NAME in the subject line of your email. 

3-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.

4-Poems may be pasted into an email or sent as an attachment or both (Doc, Docx, rich text or plain text; 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 capital letters); your name at the bottom of the poem).  Put everything in the order listed above.

6-Also, please do not use multiple spaces instead of punctuation 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 preferred.

 

Bios

June Nirschl has been a resident of Door County since 2000. She has been fortunate in finding a flourishing community of poets. Her career included teaching high school English and serving as a municipal clerk.

Elizabeth Harmatys Park is a past recipient of the Jade Ring First Poetry Prize awarded by the Wisconsin Writers Association. Her poetry has been published in journals, anthologies, and the Wisconsin Poetry Calendar. Park writes with Authors Echo in Burlington, WI.

 

 

Poets retain copyright for their own poems.

 

© Wilda Morris

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 2022 Winner - River Poem

River Scene (1840-18600

Théodore Rousseau

National Gallery of Art, London

All over the world, there are people who love rivers, especially those who live close to river banks. Some people like to fish, some to boat. Some find peace sitting on the banks of a river, just watching the water flow by. Some sit and contemplate the statement by Heraclitus that you can't step into the same river twice. Others like to sketch or paint the river scene. Some people have had the misfortune of having their homes flooded by a raging river. Some love to watch and listen to a river running over rocks or falling down a cliff, or delight in the way a major river becomes a delta as it approaches an ocean shore. Some of the variety of responses to rivers showed up in the submissions this month.

Congratulations to Preeth Ganapathy, winner of the October Poetry Challenge, and to the two poets, Christy Schwan and Hemminger who were awarded honorable mentions.

Here is the winning river poem:

Boat Safari

The long endless road—
unpeopled, holds the weight of the sky
and the scent of the mountains.

Ponds emerge unexpectedly on the sides,
green and brown,
turn blue, tinged with the colour of dawn.

The temple glows
in the calm light of its reflection
on the backwaters.

The clouds smoke up in the mist,
the music of crickets
ring through half-formed dreams.

The gossip of ten ashy woodswallows
settles on the wingspan of silence.
 
The lake is sprinkled
with barren leafless trees—
their tips housing families
of Indian cormorants
that spread out their black feathers
under a new-born sun.

The conversations of a lonely hill mynah
echo through the islands,
the jungle,
the water,
the wind.

The ripples peter out
and calm settles on the waters
like mist thawing
in tune with the slow-paced music
of the crocodile bark tree.

~ Preeth Ganapathy

This poem has been previously published at The Tiger Moth Review. Preeth Ganapathy retains copyright on her poem.

The judge, Marcyn Del Clements rightly guessed that this poem came from India. She commented, “There are nice nature descriptions in this one, which led us upriver, (perhaps in India? or a nearby Asian country?), gave the impression of the feel of the tour, the dreamy quality.”

Marcyn Del Clements’s comments on the Honorable Mention Poems:

"The Yellow Banks" by Thomas Hemminger:  It is sweet and simple, concrete and flowing.  An easy dialogue that came from the heart.  The rhymes contributed to its musicality.

"Kayak Contemplation” by Christy Schwan:  Here is another slow river piece, allowing time for meandering thoughts.  I like the feel of the river pulling the little boat down, without having to paddle, or struggle against the forces of wind and tide.  You are there, in the poem, so still that a dragonfly could take you as a resting pad.

BIOS:

Ten years now a widow, Marcyn Del Clements is grateful both her daughters are living fulfilling lives on their own.  She rattles around in a big house, tending some fifty koi and goldfish in her swimming pool converted to a swimming pond.  Since Marcy never conquered iambic pentameter, she found happiness writing Japanese short forms.  Overjoyed lately, when she discovered Haibun and Tanka Tales, she thinks she’s found her métier.

Preeth Ganapathy is a software engineer turned civil servant from Bengaluru, India. Her works have been published in several magazines such as The Tiger Moth Review, The Ekphrastic Review, The Sunlight Press, Atlas+Alice, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Mothers Always Write, and elsewhere. Her microchap 'A Single Moment'- has been published by Origami Poems Project.

Thomas Hemminger is an elementary music teacher living in Dallas, Texas with his wife and son. As a music teacher, Thomas writes many songs and poems for his classroom but none of his work is yet published. His personal and professional hero is Mr. Fred Rogers, the creator and host of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Being the son of an English Language Arts teacher, Thomas grew up surrounded by prose and poetry. Furthermore, his mother’s love of verse, and her own talented pen, impressed a deep love for the art within him. Away from the classroom, Thomas enjoys spending time with his family going hiking, camping, and fishing when the North Texas weather permits.

Christy Schwan is a native Hoosier author/poet living in Wisconsin. She's a rock hound, wild berry picker, wildflower seeker, astronomy studier, and quiet sports lover of kayaking, canoeing, snowshoeing and loon spotting. Her work has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Museletter, Ariel Anthology, 8142 Review, 2022 and 2023 Wisconsin Poet's Calendars, and Bramble Lit Mag.

Thank you to Marcyn Del Clements for judging the poems.

Come back in a couple of days for the November Challenge.

 

 

© Wilda Morris