July Poetry Challenge Winners - Garden Poems

Photo by Lisa Morris

Judge Connie Walle says she looked for the “wow factor” as she read submissions for the July Poetry Challenge. And she found it. As third place, she selected a poem of six short lines per stanza, focused literally on the vegetable garden:

Zucchini Bread

Silver sky warns rain

Basket in hand

I rush to the garden

Red tomatoes

past their prime

glow amber

Thirsty leaves

cling to sleeves

Sticky fingers sort

twist, tug

until I’ve collected

enough

Cucumbers long gone

allow dandelions

to dwell

in dried out pools

The garden is done

I say aloud

Always more zucchini

One long as my arm

hides among stems

strong as celery ribs

shreds to exactly

three cups

~ Barbara Toboni

For second place, Walle picked a somewhat less literal poem written in tercets, a poem that suggests that it is gardens, not fences, that make good neighbors.

History

is what we keep rereading into months,

decades, the unremembered squares of years

fenced between us, crabgrass, brown-edged lilacs;

is what we memorize like dog-eared almanacs,

or blandly hopeful seed packs

flattened in bottom drawers;

is what—across rusting shelves in backyard sheds—

become our snippets of care and compost,

stacked rectangles of warning. And yet,

we make good neighbors, two yards of well-

mowed yearning, tamed gardeners still coveting

each other’s most unruly seasons.

~ Marjorie Maddox

“History” was published in True, False, None of the Above © 2016.

The first place poem, in free verse, takes the prompt in a different direction. The poet draws on astrology as well as the garden, as she writes a memorial poem, a poem that hints at more than it tells.

Martha’s Solar Return In Her Last Saturn Cycle

for Martha Courtot 1942-2000

Here we are, vining into each other at the end of your 55 between sky and earth,

Weaponized reasons could have detained us at the border, kept us from this

party, this knowing, this sustaining of the will to

play, persist, presume to go out to the garden

yet again, in spite of joints and

bones protesting at the bending down, the carrying of water;

in spite of all inside that whimpers, “What’s the use? There’s bound to be too much sun or

rain, or if the seed should make its miracle of fruit

there’s bound to be a critter faster than myself, to steal it away.”

Look at our poems – see how we’ve chronicled the tooth marks left by

denizens of realms we never wanted to believe in

and don’t remember beckoning into our mulchy beds - yes, there’s reams

of evidence against the garden party.

Martha, I love you for your will, your

amendments to the soil, your tending of the

roots, the way you mark the seasons, the uninvited guests,

the starts that went to seed, the times you turned away, the volunteers, the

heirlooms harvested. I love you for your fierce face and for

all the times you turned around

again.

~ Barbara Ruth

Congratulations to the winning poets. Remember that they own copyright to their poems, so please do not copy and distribute the poems without their consent. And thanks to Connie Walle for serving as the July judge.

Bios:

Barbara Ruth says she is an old, arthritic, tree-loving, hypertensive, lesbian, epileptic, fibromyalgic Potowatomee, Ashkenazi Jewish, Welsh, chemically hypersensitive, neurodivergent daughter of Yemaya, spoonie, writer and photographer. She lives in San Jose, California USA in abundant poverty with one woman and one cat, both adorable. She is a repeat winner.

* * *

Sage Graduate Fellow of Cornell University (MFA) and Professor of English and Creative Writing at Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, Marjorie Maddox has published eleven collections of poetry—including True, False, None of the Above (Poiema Poetry Series); Local News from Someplace Else  (Wipf and Stock Transplant, Transport, Transubstantiation, (Yellowglen Prize); and Perpendicular As I (Sandstone Book Award)—the short story collection What She Was Saying (2017 Fomite), and over 450 stories, essays, and poems in journals and anthologies. Co-editor of Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania (Penn State Press), she also has published two children’s books with several forthcoming. For more information, please see www.marjoriemaddox.com.

* * *

Barbara Toboni is a writer, blogger, and poet. Her work has appeared in literary journals, and anthologies including Cup of Comfort, Sisters Born, Sisters Found, and The Beat Goes On. She is the author of two chapbooks: Undertow, published in 2011, and Water Over Time, published in 2013. Her website is http://www.barbarasmirror.com/.

Check back early next month for the August Poetry Challenge. You could be a winner!

© Wilda Morris

Winning Failure Poem - September 2012

The winning poem for September, a poem regarding failure, is somewhat mysterious. The poem can be read in several ways. I was tempted to explain how I read it, but will only say it looks to me as though an adult is apologizing for failure to adequately communicate something important to a child. I have one or two specific ideas, but decided not to express them here, since that might prejudice your own reading.

I will say, however that I like the poet's use of jacks in this poem.

Dear Agnieszka

I know it’s too late
to stop the wounds,
the hurt. The cow
is already out of the barn.
Before you were nine
all things should have
been spoken. The
lines tossed to you
light as jacks, and just
as sharp, bouncing
round your head, dribbling
into your heart.
But you know
I loved you and that
should count for something.

~ Connie K Walle

Ms. Walle retains copyright on this poem. She is a lifelong resident of Tacoma, Washington, and President of Puget Sound Poetry Connection which brings The Distinguished Writer Series to Tacoma monthly, now in its 23rd season.

Judges for September were Jim Lambert and Jacob Erin-Cilberto.

Jim lives lives with his wife of 47 years and two 28 year-old desert tortoises near Carbondale, IL. He is active in community theater. His poetry book "Winds of Life" was published in 2007.

Jacob lives and teaches in Southern Illinois. He has been writing and publishing poetry since 1970. His 12th and most recent book, Used Lanterns is available from Water Forest Press, Stormville, NY. Jacob has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry 2006-2008 and again in 2010.

Thank you to the judges, and everyone who entered the September challenge. Congratulations to the winning poet.

Return to this address on October 1 or 2 to find out what the October challenge will be.

© Wilda Morris 2012