September 2011
Winning Poems:
Featured Reader & Judge: Marjorie Wolfson
First Place:
Sensitivity Training
by
Donna Westbrook
Assignment--
Compare and contrast
the
following:
the feeling of knowing
someone you love is dying ·
with
the feeling of knowing
you are;
the similarity
between
being abandoned
in a familiar place
and being exiled
to a
foreign one;
the difference between standing still
on a
railway platform
as the love you thought
you would only release
with your last breath
leaves the station
and moving with studied
steps
to board the train alone;
Identify the textures
of
each experience
and then describe
what it is we forget
when we
cannot feel
another’ s pain.
Second Place:
After the
Storm
by Stephanie Goldstein
A late March snow
Weighs down
the pines
Bowing limbs in an archway
Along this toss and turn road
Past
frosted sheets on rooftops
Speckled with jewels of light
We
drive, quiet as angels
Along this hushed up road
We drive past
covered meadows,
Past the fork in the road
To our place in the
feathered fir trees
Tucked deep off the yawning road
Honorable Mention:
Kissing Julia J
by
R. Baylor
"Kisses," Julia offers softly,
Our lips have just
now drawn apart — '
Mine it seems a little crossly,
As they’ve
taken hers to heart —
“Stir lubricious chords in me,
As
though by uncanny prescience
Know what soon my need will be
And so
draw upon my essence.”
As she murmurs, hands are busy, ,
First
at her clothes, then at mine,
And with a zest that leaves me dizzy,
Move
on at speed — only to find,
Though, moistly, she runs true to
form,
We’d best employ to see us through,
Since my response
exceeds the norm,
An extra, well-placed kiss or two.
Honorable Mention:
REVEILLE
by
Riva Dunaief
Morning, cold, and we didn’t want
to leave soft
quilts, sheets
warmed by cocoon bodies.
Your steps made the floor
tremble .
and your voice pulled us
out of bed, shivering.
Unwilling
feet touched
icy linolermi, but
we obeyed your call to start
the
day, sit at our enamel table
set with white ceramic bowls
and
unmatched silver spoons.
Under the double boiler,
we heard gas
hiss, a match
rasp, the flame pop,
and cereal begin.
We
warmed our hands
over thick gray oatmeal,
steam clouds soothed
cheeks
still creased with sleep.
Morning, and we remember
you
and warm oatmeal,
and how your strong steps
made the floor
tremble.
Honorable Mention:
Unfamous
Poets
by John Vincent Palozzi
The best of life comes way too
late for some.
Rewards fall flat upon their grave. Their drum
beats
loud to call the ghosts. Those living still
will find them in a
place among the numb.
What once was warm releases to the chill.
Their
color washes down under their hill
and all their love releases to
the void
a promise that their voice can not fulfill.
And so
their joy and hope has been destroyed
by what they always strived but
to avoid.
And now their poems are scattered on the waves
and of
their gills they find themselves devoid.
But think not that in
vain they went to graves
or suffered all their lives as thoughtless
slaves
for even if their best came way too late
the poems they
wrote are floating on the waves.
Special
Contest: Rubai
The Art of Gentleness
by Shirley
Kent
The art of gentleness begins with light,
a glow of self
forgiveness. To unite
our inner fears with deep humility
and
kindness, we make peace so hearts shine bright.