Ode to a Dutch Pump / Becky Ventura
Category: Poetry
Poetry Contest
The Michigan based journal, Third Wenesday‘s annual poetry contest:
Poem in Which the Poem Works Very Hard to Identify Itself / Kristen Brace
This poem by Kristen Brace won the Barbara Sykes Memorial Humor Prize in PSM’s annual poetry contest. It appeard in the fall issue of Peninsula Poets.
Opposite the Direction We Are Traveling / Phillip Sterling
See Phillip Sterling’s poem, “Opposite the direction we are traveling” in 
From his book, Animal Husbandry.
Capture Theory / Joy Gaines-Friedler
Midland / Nancy Cook
Nancy Cook’s poem “Midland“, a response to the 2020 flood that made national headlines, was the winner of the Founder’s Prize in the 2020 poetry contest of the Poetry Society of Michigan.
Window / Patricia Barnes
Patricia Barnes of Wyandotte, Michigan is the winner of the Chancelor’s Prize in the Poetry Society of Michigan’s annual poetry contest.
Rust Belt / Randy K. Schwartz
Winner of the Margo LaGattuta Memorial Award in the Poetry Society of Michigan’s annual poetry contest is Randy K. Schwartz of Ann Arbor, Michigan. This poem and all of the other contest winners are featured in the latest edition of Peninsula Poets.
Travel Advice… / David Jibson
This poem was featured at the fall meeting of the Poetry Society of Michigan. It was a response to a prompt from Elizabeth Kerlikowske, the current president of the organization. “Write a poem giving someone advice… It could be an extended metaphor. And fun/clever/don’t even think of rhyming.”
Prompt: Writing from a Photograph
From girlswritenow.org contributed by Robin Church. Choose a photograph. Write a poem from the perspective of the character n it. Be sure to use details in the photo as images in the poem. Focus on creating a distinctive and and consistent voice.
Here’s an example from poet, Richard Blanco: Photo of a Man on Sunset Drive: 1914. (Full text of the poem here). Notice how Blanco describes a scene from a hundred years ago. From there, he goes on to tell us how this scene has changed. His poem is a time machine of sorts that carries us back and forth through time at the same location. This is a great way to build a poem around a photograph, going well beyond description of the photo itself.
Another technique is offered by poet and teacher, Steve Kowit in his book, In the Palm of Your Hand. He suggests a poem in three parts:
1) Describe briefly what is in the photo, focusing on just a couple of details.
2) Animate the photo by suggesting movement or other sensory input.
3) Enter the picture and interact with the objects or people in the photograph.
Here’s a poem demonstrating Kowit’s technique from The Ekphrastic Review that was written by one of our PSM members.
