Winning Poems October 2010
Featured Reader & Judge: Stepanie Goldstein
First Place:
By the Sea
by Cyndee Bowdoin
Waves crash on the shore
washing sand from buried shells
glittering jewels
reveal themselves to the few
who see beyond grit and grime
Second Place:
PARADISE LOST
by Cora Lee Palma-Hayden
I reflect my life in quiet repose
Tony Bennett croons The Very Thought of You
My soul immersed in transient clouds _
reminiscing bygone events and fond relationships
Clouds shift and change like life’s fleeting moments
Perry Como’s Feelings revealing memories of love and passion
Once again my life shifts and changes
Dqys of Wne and Roses contained - for now
Yanni calms my contemplation
tickling ivories like leaves dancing in the breeze
Clouds shit} and change in resonance
for Autumn’s nighttime reveries
Pink tinged clouds greet setting sun
Life goes on!
Honorable Mention:
Lost Love
by Shirley Kent
Convergence of souls
Beloveds heated embrace
Encircle no time
Passion only to cool, slips
Like powdery frost from bark
Honorable Mention:
A Year In A Day
by John Vincent Palozzi
In Spring I like morning waves
giving up their saltiness to the wind
as steaming sun climbs into my mind ─
chasing out last night’s dreams
In Summer the noon straight-up sun
burns away memories, like smelting iron,
leaving only pure thoughts ─ fire, earth, air, water
pointing me into the now
Autumn brings late afternoon
to cool my nerves, calm my muscles ─
active all day pursuing needs and desires
rushing out like children leaving school
But it is the Winter of night
that allows moon to pour magic
into my mind, inviting dreams
to sing poems from a different world
Special Contest Winner: Ballad
The Ballad of the Unfinished Villanelle
by Cyndee Bowdoin
Oh, villanelle! You vex my brain!
Your form I must forgo.
Another month has passed me by
and still the words won’t flow.
I can write pantoum, haiku,
sestina and sijo,
but you elude me, yet again.
The words just will not flow.
“It’s not that hard,” the poets say.
“Just inhale and let go.”
My meter gets all tangled up!
My tears begin to flow.
Each month, I swear I will succeed.
I’ll finish you and show
my efforts have not been in vain.
No more my tears will flow!
I’m persistent, if nothing else.
I’ll give it another go.
Once more I pick up my pen and
wait for the words to flow.
Another workshop and they say,
“so tell us – how’d it go?”
I shake my head and answer them,
“the words just will not flow.”
I know when I die, I’ll be met
at the black gates of Hell
by Satan, shouting as I approach,
“FINISH THAT VILLANELLE!”