Poetry – Page 8 – Poetry Society of Michigan

Annual Contest Winners for 2021

Published on August 23, 2021August 25, 2021 by Editorial Staff

Category 1: Margo LaGattuta Memorial Award: Judge: Joy Gaines-Friedler

1^st I’d Have Painted Him in Altenburg,… Lynn Pattison, Kalamazoo, MI
2^nd Antinomy Thom Porter, Woodhaven, MI
3^rd Reverie at Slack Time Dr. Emory Jones, Iuka MS
HM Premonition Lori Zurvalec, Grosse Pointe, MI

Category 2: Chancellor’s Prize: Judge: Eric Torgersen

1^st How Will I Find Absolution Diana Hart, Kalamazoo, MI
2^nd Current Resume Art Curtis, Bellaire, MI
3^rd You Don’t Know Colleen Alles, Grand Rapids, MI
HM The Girl with a Green and a Brown Eye Nadia Ibrashi, Troy, MI

Category 3: Founder’s Prize: Judge: Russell Thorburn

1^st Michigan State Fair 1960’s Roberta Brown , Royal Oak, MI
2^nd Skinny Dipping at Cranbrook Janice Zerfas, Eau Claire, MI
3^rd Leaving Tawas, July 3rd Christian Belz, Pontiac, MI
HM New Buffalo Cassandra Caverhill, Ann Arbor, MI

Category 4: Barbara Sykes Memorial Humor Poem: Judge: Elizabeth Kerlikowske

1^st You Probably Are One Too Laura Sweeney, Bloomington, IL
2^nd Learning to Sit Ann Weil, Ann Arbor, MI
3^rd Shifting Gears Milton Bates, Marquette, MI
HM Not Yet Robotic Robert Erlandson, Birmingham, MI

Category 5: George Dila Memorial Prose Poem: Judge: Robert Fanning

1^st Toad Dawn McDuffie, Detroit, MI
2^nd Home Visit Patricia Barnes, Wyandotte, MI
3^rd Churned Terry Jude Miller, Richmond, TX
HM Sea of Stars Simon A. Thalmann, Kalamazoo, MI

Category 6: Nature: Judge: Alinda Wasner

1^st Wingbound II: Elegy Shy of Lamentation Barbara Saunier, Marne, MI
2^nd Call Winter Home Patricia Barnes, Wyandotte, MI
3^rd Swarm Warning Iris Underwood, Leonard, MI
HM Japanese Maple Diana Dinverno, Troy, MI

Category 7: Love: Judge: Sue William Silverman

1^st The World Will Always Welcome Lovers Barbara Saunier, Marne, MI
2^nd What Her Eyes Did Randy K. Schwartz, Ann Arbor, MI
3^rd Bringing Late Lorraine Jeffery, Orem, UT
HM A Sort of Love Poem John Jeffire, Macomb, MI

Category 8: Music: Judge: M. L. Liebler

1^st Song and Dance Nadia Ibrashi, Troy, MI
2^nd Music Ellen Lord, Charlevoix, MI
3^rd The House That Jack Built Sold On Jazz, Diana Cornell, Spring Lake, MI
HM Player of Player Pianos, a Love Poem, Sophia Rivkin, Southfield, MI

Category 9: Loss: Judge: Zilka Joseph

1^st New Widow Ellen Lord, Charlevoix, MI
2^nd Mothers Claire Scott, Oakland, CA
3^rd Noise Trek Janice Zerfas, Eau Claire, MI
HM there, then David Fitch, Lathrup Village, MI

Category 10: Women and Science: Judge: Diane DeCillis

1^st Fluids Leak Like Rivers Nadia Ibrashi, Troy, MI
2^nd I Am a Standard Candle Janice Zerfas, Eau Claire, MI
3^rd Brushstrokes and Stars Carla Dodd, Waterford Township, MI
HM Peggy Whitson Patricia Barnes, Wyandotte, MI

Congrtulations winners and thank you to all who entered!

Three Poems by Steve Williams

Published on May 1, 2021 by Editorial Staff

Great Lake / Mary Jo Stich

Published on May 1, 2021 by Editorial Staff

GREAT LAKE

We know it’s there
beyond the fringe of trees

We hear it lap the shore
lick grains of sand erasing
our footprints

Wracks pile against rocks
white with gull guano

Each wave rinses clean
each bird replenishes

Mary Jo Stich / Denmark, Wisconsin

Poetry Prompt

Published on April 23, 2021April 23, 2021 by Editorial Staff

Today I”m going to jot a poem down without a lot of thinking. I’m going to choose one word (probably something nature but for sure a noun) and use it as much as seems prudent in the poem. Then I’m going to the dictionary like Harryette Mullen and look up my noun. When I find out, I’m going to count 7-10 nouns away in either direction and find a substitute for the chosen noun. I’ll go back to my poem, substitute it and see if there are any interesting lines or phrases that work. Perhaps it changes everything for the better. Perhaps it’s stupid. You won’t know til you try.

Two Short Poems by Steve Williams

Published on April 11, 2021 by Editorial Staff

Looking Glass / Steve Williams

Published on April 7, 2021 by Editorial Staff

Formed in the cauldron of life
out of limestone, soda, and sand,
at our best, we are pieces of glass.

Far more useful than diamonds
which flash in the light, are the windows
and lenses that clarify sight.

While mirrors are attractive, and at first
glance us please, they can distort
and may often deceive.

There’s no higher calling, than, when held
in good hands, you brighten the vision
and help understand.

So if you open a wall, magnify small, bring
something far up closer, you make good use
of the time you possess,

And so does the person who finds you,
who chooses to leave this world wiser,
and thus might forever be blessed.

Steve Williams / Munith, Michigan

The Parade / Radhika Iyer

Published on April 2, 2021November 3, 2022 by Editorial Staff

The Parade

Shattering winter’s biting chill
is the songbird’s sonorous trill.

Piercing through it’s white landfill
is the ruby tulip, ready to kill.

Ransacking its icy rill
is the graceful swan’s orange bill.

Infecting its very spill
is the sun ray’s most treasured skill.

Niggling at its dreary shill
is the eternal hope’s cheery pill.

Generating a brand new will
is nature’s way to March uphill.

Radhika Iyer / Detroit, Michigan

Crane / Nina Craig

Published on April 2, 2021November 15, 2023 by Editorial Staff

Crane (Ajijaak)

Her fine long legs, careful step by step
cross marsh and bog in slow dance
feeding on sweet morsels that rise
to greet sun and their demise.

A sound, she listens – one leg poised midair
towering above, still art – a comma,
a question mark buried in mud, messages
etched into the inner flesh of birchbark

still held by the curve of riverbanks
still layered with our relatives’
dust and their tarpaper shacks
still remembered by Ajijaak.

Nina I. Craig / Kalamazoo, Michigan

Spindrift / Laurence W. Thomas

Published on March 18, 2021 by Editorial Staff

Spindrift suggests stuff blown onto beaches, beaches of discovery in one’s mind. When these poems show a squirrel, a fish, birds, a beggar, an Irish pub, or a dish we see these as metaphors which conjure up ideas or feelings from our own familiarity with them. A poem that begins as an abstraction, like an enemy or peace or patience, becomes objectified. Spindrift is comprised of whatever little gems might be found along the shore, examined closely to become part of the reader’s experience. These jottings of spindrift take off from that experience like going to an airport when you want to be someplace else – or like poems which say one thing when they mean another.

Published by Atmosphere Press, 2021. 124 Pages, ISBN 163649532X
or purchase from Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

aaLarryThomas Laurence W. Thomas is the founding editor of Third Wednesday Magazine. He has been around long enough to know the sting of rejection and the salve of acceptance. His shelves are lined with his own publications as well as the works of many other poets. He Chancelor Emertus of the Poetry Society of Michigan.