August 2022 Winners: Bee Poems

Photo by Wilda Morris

While preparing to post the winners this month, I noticed that the automatic spell checker on my computer objected to making “honey bee” and “bumble bee” two words each. I was about to ask the winning poets if I could change those words in their poems but decided to do a little research on the topic.

It appears that, despite the usage recommended by many dictionaries, entomologists insist that honey bee SHOULD be two words because a bee is not honey. In contrast, “yellowjacket,” “dragonfly,” and “silverfish” are each one word, because a yellowjacket is not a jacket, a dragonfly is not a dragon, and a silverfish is not a fish. I decided to side with the entomologists—and the poets.

Bees turned out to be a popular subject, so judging the contest was difficult. E. Kadera, this month’s judge, selected first- and second-place winners and one honorable mention. Here is the winning poem.

 

Are Kisses Sweeter Than Tupelo Honey?

bee hives, heavy with resplendent summer,
hang honey from myriad roofs of the comb.

in this subdivision of golden-walled houses,
pollen-laden residents
and groundskeepers dressed
like Kendo masters,
dance around sweetness
and one another.

pre-hive to palaces of sweetness,
its workers carted by truck,
lugged to these farms
like so many prisoners in stripes,
not locked up
but limited by fertile radii
of flight paths,
to stick close, to pollinate
cantaloupe vines, lemon trees, buckwheat, almonds,
apples, onions, broccoli, avocado
and carrot crops.

every honey hive’s 12,000 angels of agriculture
hum in C-sharp below middle C,
each devotee devoting an entire lifetime
to turn out 1/12 of a teaspoon
of nuanced lavender flower or orange blossom,
transforming pre-digested nectar in wax cells
into nature’s perfect food,
a recipe field-tested for 10 million years
freshly cured by the fanning of wings.

~ Cynthia Gallaher

This poem was previously published in Cynthia’s poetry collection Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs & Spices, The Poetry Box, Portland, 2019.

Kadera explained her selection of his poem for first place by saying, “I liked the imagery used, from ‘heavy with resplendent summer,’ to ‘Kendo masters.’" She also liked" hives as ‘palaces of sweetness,’ bees as ‘prisoners in stripes,’ and the ‘12,000 angels of agriculture’ humming in ‘C-sharp.’  All the way down to the tiny amount of honey generated by one bee in a lifetime. Honey both ‘field tested for 10 million years’ and “cured by the fanning of wings.’” The poem is both poetic and informative.

 

The Bees
            How many bees are there in a day?
                                     ~Neruda

We stood together
beneath the crab apple’s
wide umbrella: Listen, you said,
let’s not leave anything out–
And so we faced each other,
in that green afternoon light, paying
attention– the bees’ rhapsody 
swelled above our heads
like wishes, like shooting stars.

~ M.J. Iuppa

This poem was first published in Untitled Country Review.

The judge liked the epigraph, and commented on the “concise beauty” of the poet's “words and images.” This poem was selected for second place.

Poets retain copyright of their poems.

 

Honorable Mention:

Martin Rocek for “Carpenter Bee” - Kadera’s comments for Martin: “Thank you for poetically setting the record straight regarding the carpenter bee. “

 

Bios:

Cynthia Gallaher, a Chicago-based poet, is author of four poetry collections, many with themes, including Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs and Spices, and three chapbooks, including Drenched. Her nonfiction/memoir/creativity guide Frugal Poets’ Guide to Life: How to Live a Poetic Life, Even If You Aren’t a Poet won a National Indie Excellence Award. 

M.J. Iuppa’s forthcoming fifth full length poetry collection from Kelsey Books, The Weight of Air, will be published soon. Her chapbook of twenty-four 100-word stories, Rock. Paper. Scissors. is in the queue at Foothills Publishing.  For the past 33 years, she has lived on a small farm near the shores of Lake Ontario. Check out her blog: at mjiuppa.blogspot.com for her musings on writing, sustainability & life’s stew.

After getting an M.Div., E. Kadera enrolled in a D.Min program in community development/activism. This was due to the environmental destruction we are experiencing through climate change. Much of her poetry reflects her love and concern for our natural world. She has been published in The Avocet: Journal of Nature Poetry.

Martin Rocek is a professor of physics studying supersymmetry and string theory at Stony Brook University in New York, and enjoys reading and writing poetry. He was born in Prague, and came to the United States in 1960.

 

 

© Wilda Morris

 

 

 

May 2022 - Winning Dream Poems

 

A Woman Asleep by a Fire
by Quiringh van Brekelenkam
1600s

From among the interesting dream poems submitted this month, the judge, Barbara Eaton, selected the following poem for second place:

Falling Asleep

Curling into a
question mark
eyes shuttered
lips pursed
hands empty.

Dropping through
long dusty shafts
down into dank cellars.
Leaving behind faded day.

That last cup of sunlight
pouring from fingertips.
Lulled by rattling trains,
sighs of motors.

Bringing nothing but
memory into night.
Now I will untie knots
tear off wrappings
opening wide
bundles of dreams.

~ Joan McNerney

Barbara Eaton explained her choice by saying that “the images of falling asleep were tangible and at the same time fresh.  I like the idea of unwrapping dreams like gifts.”

 

For first place, she selected the following:

The Signature of Dreams

I dreamt of holding a book called the “Signature of Dreams”
in my hands, it was as slim a volume as a poetry collection,
its pages, heavily underlined, annotated with marginalia.
I was told not to just riffle through it, but keep it,

Read it, add more notes. Upon awakening, I googled the title.
Nothing appeared. Could it at least be the title
of a poem? What signature was this referring to,
this Signature of Dreams?

Was it my own stamp placed on dreams night after night,
an approval, a signing off? Was it the signature of
my mother’s dreams placed inside my fetus
as I developed in her womb?

Is this signature like a genetic code of dots
connected by a nocturnal fountain pen, dreaming
of my son and grandson,
and unto the seventh generation?

With God signing the bill of lading, who said through the Bible
our lives are not our own, are we not bought and paid for?
Or is this signature of dreams a chaotic cursive
smeared pennings of our struggles under sunshine,

Along with those atoss on a moonlit pillow?
There is a signature on my birth certificate, signed by a stranger,
and one later at my death, also by a stranger,
why not one for my dreams, signed by myself?

The known unknown signatory of the invisible pen,
with the nightly authority
to approve the changing and charged
image gallery of one’s own creation.

~ Cynthia Gallaher

The judge said, “I found the central image, a book of dreams, to be interesting and original.  Well done.  The longer I live, the more I realize 'our lives are not our own.'  A profound observation.”

 

An honorable mention was awarded to Jake Cosmos Aller for his poem, “Dream Girl True Love Story.” Eaton said, “I like the improbability of the story.  It's both touching and amusing.”

Congratulations to Cynthia, Joan and Jake! Each poet retains copyright of his or her own poem.

Come back on June 1 for a new challenge.

 

Bios:

John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller is a novelist, poet, and retired  U.S. Foreign Service officer, Before joining the U.S. State Department, Jake taught overseas for eight years, and served in the Peace Corps. He grew up in Berkeley. His poetry blog can be found at https://theworldaccordingtocosmos.com.

Barbara Eaton is a semi-retired community college instructor of English.  She holds a Ph.D. in Shakespeare and Medieval Literature from the University of Maryland and is named in Who's Who in America. She has published poems in a number of literary journals.

Cynthia Gallaher, a Chicago-based poet, is author of four poetry collections, many with themes, including Epicurean Ecstasy: More Poems About Food, Drink, Herbs and Spices, and three chapbooks, including Drenched. Her nonfiction/memoir/creativity guide Frugal Poets’ Guide to Life: How to Live a Poetic Life, Even If You Aren’t a Poet won a National Indie Excellence Award. Visit her Linktree account: https://linktr.ee/cynthiagallaher.

Joan McNerney’s poetry appears literary magazines such as Seven Circle, Dinner with the Muse, Poet Warriors, Blueline, and Halcyon Days.  Her work is also found in Bright Hills anthologies, Poppy Road Journals, and Poets' Espresso Reviews.  She has four Best of the Net nominations.

 

 

© Wilda Morris