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| Photo by Wilda Morris, taken at The Clearing, Ellison Bay, Wisconsin | . |
This
month, I asked both William Marr and Alan Harris, authors of example poems
posted with the challenge, to judge the submissions separately. Each picked a
different first place poem. Here are the two winners:
Long ago
One afternoon in early
spring
we walked this road as
shadows
deepened in surrounding
woods.
Mourning Doves in the
distance
called out their tender
message,
robins had returned.
Bird song accompanied our
steps
as they constructed their
nests.
A cloud passed over
and there was a moment of
silence
as you pulled out loose
tufts
of your thick, dark hair,
tucked them under the
rough bark
of your favorite oak tree.
This was before the chemo
failed,
before you called out
as breath left your body,
before missing you began.
You were the friend
I wanted to grow old with,
share memories
on days like this.
As I walk this road
today,
again, I hear mourning
doves,
a madrigal of robins,
chickadees, sparrows.
I pass your favorite tree
and think of how the nests
are made stronger with
your hair.
~Doris Bezio
William
Marr commented, “The vivid
memory of a long-ago early spring afternoon reinforces the poetic feeling
of emptiness and sadness when "you" are missing from the scene
of this spring day, except for some loose tufts of hair.”
Here
is the poem that tied for first place:
From Kites and Spring, Memories Rise
Two or three parts assembled easily,
mostly light, mostly right.
That's enough to stoke
a memory for me,
this one-- of kites in Spring:
balsa wood spines
strung with diamond masts,
twined knots thin
enough to snare a fish
whorled tight
around small hands.
There two or three of us,
scruffy, out-of-school-uniform
kids in weekend clothes.
Spring,
season of unbuttoned jackets, which
might spin into wings.
It would be a while before any of
us would fly, and so we flew kites.
Outside, where spring's indifferent
skies were unfolded canvases for
an art that couldn't stand still.
We'd watch each other,
every launch a prelude before
the risky climb, the power lines,
then the slow waltz into the
rooftops'
empty spaces, kingdoms where
chimneys
and nighthawks ruled. Always,
we felt twine notch wrinkle thin
ribbons in our palms. Always we
kept control panels in hand,
let our kites dance with
whatever defied the ground.
Until suddenly they were downed.
Spun into scraps,
divvyed up by wind among
Spring's prong-like trees,
bushes bereft of blossoms,
or onto fire escape landing shelves.
We were left with scraps, and it's
the scraps that are in each of
us
memory bits that you
must assemble yourself.
~ Sheila Elliott
Alan
Harris said, “The poem “From Kites and Spring,
Memories Rise” is alive with original and vivid imagery.” As examples, he
mentioned, “We felt twine notch wrinkle thin/ribbons in our palms,”
and "kingdoms where chimneys and nighthawks ruled.”
Second place goes to a haiku (as is traditional, this haiku
has no title):
stark naked branches
reach out, waiting to be clothed
in flecks of spring green
~ Marjorie Pagel
Third
place winner is another free verse poem:
Assurances of Spring
When March appears on the
calendar,
I check the feeder on my
pine tree
for signs of returning
robins.
Ibis descend on our
greening lawn
their long, curved bills
aerating
the packed ground
in search of emerging
insects.
Crocus, azalea, iris, forsythia
pop up along lawn’s fringes
punctuating gray, rainy
April days with flashes of fuchsia
purple, yellow, white.
But it’s only when I can put
asparagus,
tender peas, greens, ramps,
and strawberries on our dinner
table that I am assured spring
is truly here.
For I have eaten of its glory.
~ Joan Leotta
This
month, due to having two judges, we also have a fourth place Poem:
Spring Blue
In the heart of the nation
no ocean
so I carve time to indulge
in the widest blue I know:
bluebells blooming
in the woods,
only for a short time
since branches above
show tiny yellow-green
petals-of-leaves
which in this overdue
warmth will enlarge quickly
masking sunlight feeding
this sea of blue,
stealing my ocean,
leaving me once again
on dry land.
~ Marilyn Peretti
Spring Blue was posted on LinkedIn.com, April, 2018.
Congratulations to each of the
winning poets! The winning poets retain copyright on their own poems.
Bios:
Doris Bezio is a poet/experimental artist, who has a lifelong love affair
with books and learning. She has attended writers’ conferences at
Wheaton College, Illinois Wesleyan as well as classes at UW-Fox Valley
UW-Oshkosh with Ellen Kort, Laurel Mills and others and her poetry has been
featured in calendars and other publications.
Sheila Elliott
is a poet, writer and active participant in many Chicago area literary
organizations including Poets and Patrons.
Alan
Harris retired from a
22-year career with Commonwealth Edison, in which he had served as a computer
programmer, systems analyst, computer trainer, and Web developer. Between 1982
and 1995 he privately print-published ten books of poems and aphorisms for
friends and family. These books and all subsequent poetry collections are now
on the Web at Noon
Out of Nowhere - Collected Poems.
His books in PDF format are downloadable at PDF Books.
Alan is a past president of the Illinois State Poetry Society and currently
maintains the ISPS Web site while residing in Tucson, Arizona.
Joan Leotta is a
writer, journalist, author, essayist, and story performer whose stories
and poems often deal with food. You can download a
mini-chapbook of her poems at
https://www.origamipoems.com/files/Books%20/2016/Joan_Leotta_-_Dancing_Under_The_Moon_2016R.pdf and
learn more about her work at
www.joanleotta.wordpress.com and
on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Leotta-Author-and-Story-Performer/188479350973.
William Marr has
published 23 volumes of poetry (two in English and the rest in his native
Chinese language), 3 books of essays, and several books of translations. Chicago Serenade
is a trilingual (Chinese/English/French) anthology of his poems published in
Paris in 2015. Some of his poems are used in
high school and college textbooks in Taiwan, China, England, and Germany.
Marjorie
Pagel has been
impatiently waiting for spring to arrive in Franklin, Wisconsin. She is the
author of The Romance of Anna Smith and Other Stories, available on
Amazon.
Marilyn Peretti,
of Chicago suburbs, grew up in Indianapolis, and loved the woods of Brown County
where her father was born. Now she immerses herself in woods of Morton
Arboretum, seeking varied fungus on logs, focusing on them for watercolors. She
exhibits at Morton with the Nature Artists Guild. Recipient of a Pushcart
nomination, she is published in Kyoto Journal, Grey Sparrow, Journal of
Modern Poetry, Talking River, New Verse News, California Quarterly, Snowy Egret,
and others.
© Wilda Morris
