July Challenge Winner

Thank you to the poets who submitted "night poems" for the July Challenge.

Thank you, also, to the four judges, each of whom is a contributor to the Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar 2012. They are Doris Bezio, Susan Gibson, Charlotte Johnson and Mary Cleary Krauss. Selection of the winning poem was not easy, as evidenced by the fact that three different poems received first place votes.

Congratulations to Gail E. Goepfert, whose poem was selected as first by two of the judges and second by the other two.


Nightly in the Summer Garden

Let’s walk the plantation, she said--
such a grand name
for their early evening stroll
to admire all that she had planned
all that he had planted
to survey all that spoke
green in the summer garden.

Her words carried by fireflies
mingle with the garden perfume

Breathtaking lavender-
blues of the hydrangea blooms.

A pink gerbera daisy is poking
through its tunnel of leaves.

Look—violet clematis weaving
along the fence and
five buds on the tea rose--
I’ll cut one for the morning room.

Ivy just creeps across the cocoa beans
Honey, the impatiens need a drink.

Oh, we’d better go inside--
mosquitoes are starting to bite,
and you know how they love you,

and nightly, the door closes behind them.

~ Gail E. Goepfert
Poets published on this blog retain copyright to their poems.

Here are some of the comments made by the judges concerning this poem:

“I like this woman who loves her garden.”
“The shared conversation is a nice touch.”
“Love the phrase ‘all that spoke green’”!



If you are interested in purchasing the Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar 2012, go to http://wfop.org/ and click on the cover picture.




I will try to post the August Challenge on time, but it is likely to be delayed, due to the death of my mother.


© Wilda W. Morris

July 2011 Poetry Challenge

Night has long been a favorite subject of poets. Here are three old, serious poems about night, followed by a contemporary, whimsical poem of mine. The older poems are all rhymed and metered; mine is free verse. Each creates a different mood. Longfellow’s is more metaphoric than that of Wordsworth or Browning. Wordsworth’s has a somewhat pastoral feel, which Longfellow’s poem does not have. Browning’s poem is a narrative love poem. To what lengths will the poet (or his persona) go for a night tryst with one he loves?

My poem takes off from the idea found in children’s stories (books and movies) that the nursery toys come awake at night. I didn’t think children should have all the fun of imagining what might happen in the house after all the lights are out and the human beings are asleep.

The Sun Has Long Been Set

The sun has long been set,
The stars are out by twos and threes,
The little birds are piping yet
Among the bushes and trees;
There's a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes,
And a far-off wind that rushes,
And a sound of water that gushes,
And the cuckoo's sovereign cry
Fills all the hollow of the sky.
Who would "go parading"
In London, "and masquerading,"
On such a night of June
With that beautiful soft half-moon,
And all these innocent blisses?
On such a night as this is!

~ William Wordsworth



Hymn to the Night

I heard the trailing garments of the Night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!

I felt her presence, by its spell of might,
Stoop o'er me from above;
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,
Like some old poet's rhymes.

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,—
From those deep cisterns flows.

O holy Night! from thee I learn to bear
What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care
And they complain no more.

Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!
Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
The best-beloved Night!

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Meeting at Night

The gray sea and the long black land;
And the yellow half-moon large and low:
And the startled little waves that leap
In fiery ringlets from their sleep,
As I gain the cove with pushing prow,
And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;
Three fields to cross till a farm appears;
A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch
And blue spurt of a lighted match,
And a voice less loud, through joys and fears,
Than the two hearts beating each to each!

~ Robert Browning

The three poems above are all in the public domain. The poem below is copyright-protected.


Night Life

Here it’s not nursery toys
that come alive in the night
but clothes in the closet.
Your coveralls and my denim jacket
leap through the window
to rock on the porch swing.
They sidle over to the garden,
take nips from a bright red tomato
before joining neighbors
in a square dance.

One of your brown leather boots
gives a playful kick to my sneakers
which string along.
Didn’t you notice those footprints
leading out to the pasture?
All their eyes look skyward,
finding Cassiopeia’s Chair.
If the inside of your shoe is damp
in the morning, it may be milk
spilled from the Little Dipper.

Your Sunday suit slides
off the hanger, offers an arm
to my flowered silk dress
with the white lace collar.
They dine formally on prime rib
and baked potato, using our silver,
then waltz through the house.
Listen! Don’t you hear
the echo of Strauss?

© Wilda Morris

Published in Prairie Light Review (Fall 2008).

More Night Poems:

For more poems on the theme of night, go to http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20416
There you will find “The First Night,” by Billy Collins (from his book, Ballistics). To the left of the poem you will find links to other poems about night.

Other interesting night poems include:
* “Nativity,” by Li-Young Lee, in Book of My Nights
* “It’s Always Darkest Just Before the Dawn,” by Kay Ryan, in The Best of It: New and Selected Poems
*“After Dinner,” by Philip Levine, in A Walk With Thomas Jefferson
*“Night: December 15th,” by Alfred Dorn, in Flamenco Dance And Other Poems
*“Night,” by Kazim Ali, in The Far Mosque
*"At Night in the Everglades," by Robin Chapman, in The Only Everglades in the World

July 2011 Poetry Challenge:

The challenge for July is to write a poem about night. Does night bring you pleasure or fear? Does it elicit memory of a special occasion? How did you experience night as a child? Have you heard a child speaking about the night? Your poem may be formal or free verse. If using a form, please identify the form. The winning poem will be published on this blog.

Due to formatting restrictions on the blog, all poems should be left justified. Unfortunately I am unable to publish indentations or shaped poems.

Poems published in books or on the Internet (including Facebook and other on-line social networks) are not eligible. If your poem has been published in a periodical, please include publication data. Poems submitted after the July 15 deadline will not be considered.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send your poem to wildamorris[at]ameritech[dot]net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for [dot]. Be sure provide your e-mail address. Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog if it is a winner. The deadline is July 15. Copyright on poems is retained by their authors.

© 2011 Wilda Morris

June Challenge Winners

Colorado poet Katie Kingston selected “How to Make Blueberry Pie” by Peggy Trojan as winner of the June Poetry Challenge. Kingston said she chose this poem “because of the poet’s generous appeal to the senses and attention to dialogue. The poem is deeply rooted in a strong sense of place.” She added, “I thank the poet for giving me the opportunity to ‘Enter Quinton swamp at last year’s faded marker.’ It’s a place I won’t forget.”

Here is the winning “How to” poem:

How to Make Blueberry Pie

Enter Quinton swamp at last year’s faded marker.
Keep up with Pa, in his eighties and leading.
Deep in woods, where berries hang like grapes,
powdery blue, warm, kneel.

Listen. “When I was six we took the horses….
water got warm and butter melted on the bread….”
Pretend you never heard of the 1918 fire.
“Dad put us eight kids in a circle in the field ….
My pet ram was killed because he was burned black…”

When your pail is full, blindly follow Pa
through brush slapping your face. Have faith.
You come out right in front of the truck.
Admire the pickings. “By God, we did pretty good.”

Clean berries at picnic table under the pines.
Make crust while Pa makes filling.
Talk about how great berries were last year,
or was it the year before? “Man, it was just blue…..”

Let Pa slice it. “Gramma Uitto cut hers in four…..”
Put ice cream on your piece to cool it,
use a spoon for juice. Smack your lips and laugh
when Pa scrapes his plate, says again, “That’ll sell!”

~ Peggy Trojan

Kingston selected a second place poem also, “How to Rebuild a Head” by Bakul Banerjee, “for the poet’s originality and willingness to experiment with form while dealing with weighty subject matter. The framing reference to ‘cumin in the curry’ successfully creates a sense of the cyclical, a sense of entrapment which is key to the urgency in this poem."


How to Rebuild a Head

The husband smashed her head
against the mantle, the chart said.
Not enough cumin in the curry –
He complained and tried to pour
the hot soup from the stove on her
splashing part of it on himself
then escaping to seek his doctor
as she managed to run outside.
“It was her fault – should have kept
her mouth shut.” Her sister informed.


She laid on the freshly mowed lawn
in front of her fancy mansion.
The morning sun kissed her face
through the plum tree as it shed
purple flowers oblivious to the dog
barking next door. Paramedics came.


Construction
Deconstruction
Reconstruction
Iteration

Stabilize
Analyze
Anesthetize
Cauterize
Catheterize

Cut scalp
Pick fragments
Take pictures
Connect nerves
Drain brain


Months later, she returned
to the mansion promising
more cumin in the curry.

~ Bakul Banerjee

Winning poets retain copyright to their own poems. Do not copy without their permission.

About This Month's Judge:

Katie Kingston has published two award-winning chapbooks

• El Río de Las Animas Peridadas en Purgatorio, White Eagle Coffee Store Press, 2006, First Place White Eagle Coffee Store Press Chapbook Award,available from www.members.aol.com/wecspress .

• In My Dreams Neruda, Main Street Rag, 2005, Editor’s Choice, available at www.mainstreetrag.com .

Kingston, who has won a number of other awards also, is a recipient of the Colorado Council on the Arts Literary Fellowship in Poetry. Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals including Atlanta Review, Blue Mesa Review, Great River Review, Green Mountains Review, Hunger Mountain, Margie, Puerto del Sol, Nimrod, and Rattle.

You can learn more about Kingston at http://www.coloradopoetscenter.org/poets/kingston_katie/bibliography.html.

Watch for the July Challenge, which will be posted soon.

© 2011 Wilda Morris

June 2011 Poetry Challenge

Three example poems will provide inspiration for the June challenge: a “how to” poem. Each of these poems is quite unique. The first poem was inspired by the photograph by John Brunelli which appears above.


How to Build a Bedtime Story

All it takes is a flicker.
Someone to loosen the spigot of night.
The current will do the rest.

Or the wind ruffling colors
as two strangers approach
from opposite directions,
unaware of each other’s existence,
but destined to meet
where the road splits in two.

And the owl deep in his tree kingdom,
passing judgment in the dark.
Silent witness and executioner.

~Andrei Guruianu

From How We Are Now, Poems by Andrei Guruianu; Photography by John Brunelli (Vestal NY: Split Oak Press, 2010). All rights reserved. Used by permission of the author and photographer.
http://splitoakpress.com/


The second poem is rather whimsical. It was selected for inclusion in the Poetry 180 project designed by former Poet Laureate of the US, Billy Collins. Collins selected 180 poems, one for each day of the average school year, and recommended that they be read aloud to (and by) high school students. The poems were not to be analyzed in detail, but simply read and enjoyed.

How to Change a Frog into a Prince

Start with the underwear. Sit him down.
Hopping on one leg may stir unpleasant memories.
If he gets his tights on, even backwards, praise him.
Fingers, formerly webbed, struggle over buttons.
Arms and legs, lengthened out of proportion, wait,
as you do, for the rest of him to catch up.
This body, so recently reformed, reclaimed,
still carries the marks of its time as a frog. Be gentle.
Avoid the words awkward and gawky.
Do not use tadpole as a term of endearment.
His body, like his clothing, may seem one size too big.
Relax. There's time enough for crowns. He'll grow into it.

~ Anna Denise

from The Poets' Grimm: 20th Century Poems from Grimm's Fairy Tales (Ashland OR:
Story Line Press, 2003). © 2002 by Anna Denise.
All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of the author.

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/176.html


The third poem is of a more serious nature. It is from a collection of poems by an American poet (a Chicago native currently living in Wisconsin), who began visiting Amsterdam in 1960, and lived in Amsterdam from 1994-5 and 1999-2000.

How To Be An Immigrant

Arrive with a suitcase of dreams.
Wrestle with a language and strange sounds
not in your mother tongue,
be seen only as other.

Stand in a long line in the rain
hours before office for foreigners opens.
Red numbers flash on two screens
in a sea of cubicles, Kafka echoes.
One door opens, then another,
people disappear inside with police.

Know rejection by the native born
brushing aside your credentials.
Feel the pain of discrimination
for the beauty of your chestnut brown skin
even though the country professes
to need trained nurses like you.

Create a home of love in your family
the outside world never sees.
Adopt society’s labels – “zwart,” black
for schools where foreign tongues predominate
unconsciously soaking in derogatory
images of yourself and your loved ones.

Question, challenge if this country
values the strengths and dignity of every one.
Must you give up your dreams
for yourself and your children?

~ Judith Zukerman

From Amsterdam Days: a journey through poetry (McFarland WI: Community Publications, Inc., 2004). All rights reserved. Used by permission of the author.

You can contact Judith Zukerman through the following link:
http://www.bookthatpoet.com/poets/zukerman.html


June Challenge

The June challenge is to write a "How to" poem. The title should begin with those two words. It might be "How to Bake Bread," "How to End an Engagement," "How to Get a Job," "How to Teach a Toddler to Tie Shoes," "How to Jump Over the Empire State Building" - possibilities are endless! Be creative. The winning poem will be published on this blog.

Due to formatting restrictions on the blog, all poems should be left justified. Unfortunately I am unable to publish indentations or shaped poems.

You may write in free verse or use a form. If you write in a form, please specify the form used. Poems published in books or on the Internet (including Facebook and other on-line social networks) are not eligible. If your poem has been published in a periodical, please include publication data. Poems submitted after the June 15 deadline will not be considered.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send your poem to wildamorris [at] ameritech [dot] net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for [dot], and don’t leave any spaces). Be sure provide your e-mail address. Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog if it is a winner. The deadline is June 15. Copyright on poems is retained by their authors.

© 2011 Wilda Morris

May 2011 Challenge Winner

Congratulations to Kongyin, who won the May poetry challenge. This is the first time the same poet has won two months in a row. The consulting judge, Floridian David Roth, explained his decision, saying, “I suspect that it was the little bit of whimsy in the ending that appealed to my softer, gentler side.”


Marissa, Where Are You?

“Marissa! Marissa!
Where are you?”
Mom searched the bedroom.
“Ah, no, Marisa isn’t hiding in the wardrobe
as usual,
wearing my favorite white dress,
pretending to be the princess of the ball.”

“Marissa! Marissa!
Where are you?”
Mom examined the basement.
“Ah, no, Marisa isn’t riding her toy car
as usual,
hitting her dad's bookcase.”

“Marissa! Marissa!
Where are you?”
Mom rummaged around the bathroom.
Ah, no, Marisa isn’t hiding there as usual,
holding the glass jar, munching on candies stolen from the cupboard.”

“Marissa! Marissa!
Where on earth are you,
and where is my white dress
and your toy car
and the jar filled with chocolate almonds?”

Mom hurried into the playground
where children swing with excited screams.
Ah, what is this by the golden daffodils on the wet ground –
a dress no longer white,
a toy car stuck in the mud,
an empty candy jar?
And what else?
A little girl with messy braids
holding a slim daffodil,
whispering,
“Hush, Mama,
I’m listening to the story told by the daffodils. ”

~ Kongyin

Poets retain copyright of their poems.

Thanks to the consulting judge, poet and author David (not Lee) Roth, Roth began his personal journey of words during a late night online chat sometime in the mid 1990’s. He has since gone on to complete Forcas III, the epic story of the Klingon Bet’leH tournament set in the Star Trek: the Next Generation universe; poetry collections Sometimes I Hear Voices and Alice’s Goldfinch; Christmas Eyes, a poetry chapbook with a Christmas theme; and The Adventures of the Magnificent Seven, a series of stories in tribute to his children and grandchildren. His current project is Legends of Greenbrook Park, a whimsical childhood autobiography.

David lives and writes and blogs from the relative obscurity of New Port Richey, Florida, with the love of his life, Linda, their two fur children: Ms. Skittle and the Jazzy Cat; and his mother-in-law and her pet (Kelsey the Stink-dog).

Links

I have added some links, most recently a link to my poem, "Wild Roses," which appears in the current issue of A Prairie Journal, and a link to two Magnapoets anthologies in which my poetry appears.

The next poetry challenge will be posted on June 1.

© 2011 Wilda Morris

May Poetry Challenge

Spring has arrived and summer is on the way here in Illinois. Children don’t have to bundle up in boots, gloves and heavy coats to go outside with their friends. The playground beckons.

Sometimes we are nostalgic about playgrounds, as in the poem below:

The Playground

It happens every time.
I enter a playground
as if walking on hallowed ground.
Birds chirp, boys spring
from the jungle gym.
Little girls swing
like a fast spinning top.
Children go down
the slide in magnetic
attention, the joy
of the moment
their only thought.

If only I could
re-enter that world,
emerge anew
and let my past go.
I need to listen to the whispers
of yesterday’s ghosts,
let myself be tackled,
play freeze tag on the lawn.

With one big whoooosh
I could spring
into the frenzy of youth,
and remember how to dream
again.


~ Caroline Johnson

From Where the Street Ends A Poetry Chaptbook, Poetry by Caroline Johnson, Paintings by Darlene Norton (Jupiter Publishing, 2010), p. 19. © Caroline Johnson. Used by permission of the author.

A less nostalgic look at a playground, more specifically at a boy on a swing, is “Playground” by Adrian Mitchell. The poem was written during the invasion of Iraq, so the boy may be a boy in a war zone. It is also possible to imagine that the child is a homeless boy in North America. The poem is posted at http://www.poetryarchive.org/childrensarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=66.

Frank O’Hara looked back on the playground of his childhood in “Autobiographia Literaria,” another poem lacking in nostalgia. See http://poemelf.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/art-in-the-playground/.

You can find two playground poems for children at http://www.wtmelon.com/a12Poems.html. Another children’s poem, “The Dragon on the Playground” has been posted at http://www.poetry4kids.com/poem-67.html.

May Challenge

The challenge for May is to write a playground poem. Your poem can be literal or metaphoric (or both). You may reflect your experience as a child on the playground or share observations/reflections as you watch children play. You may want to focus on just one piece of play equipment, such as the slide, swing or sandbox. Visit a playground—literally or in your imagination—and let a poem emerge.

You may write in free verse or in a form; if you write in a form, please specify the form used. Specify if your poem is primarily for children or for adults. The winning poem or poems will be published on this blog.

Poems published in books or on the Internet (including Facebook and other on-line social networks) are not eligible. If you poem has been published in a periodical, please include publication data.

How to Submit Your Poem:

Send your poem to wildamorris [at] ameritech [dot] net (substitute the @ sign for “at” and a . for [dot], and don’t leave any spaces). Be sure provide your e-mail address. Submission of a poem gives permission for the poem to be posted on the blog, if it is a winner. The deadline is January 15. Copyright on poems is retained by their authors.


© 2011 Wilda Morris

April Challenge Winner

It is never easy to select the monthly winner. The poem selected this month is a very short, evocative poem one. The poet chose the first of the options listed for this month - a poem about a spring bulb flower.


tulip

A palm-folded tulip am I

under the moonlight on my knees,

quietly and sweetly facing afar,

praying for a secret dream.


~ Kongyin

Copyright of the poem is retained by the poet.

Kongyin's books, Gooby and the Dream-Walker and Sun Grass (both in English) have just been published by Kima Global in South Africa, and are sold on amazon.com. Her bilingual poetry collection, The Lantern Carrier, will be published this month by a Chinese press in USA.


Consulting judge this month was Caroline Johnson, Workshop Chair of Poets and Patrons of Chicago.


The next poetry challenge will be posted on May 1.


© Wilda Morris