The Poems that Didn't Win

I submitted these poems to the Linda Ogle Russ Writing Contest at the Spring Literary Arts Festival and much to my chagrin, they didn't win. I love them too much to just weep silently, so I'm putting them here on the blog for all to share. The theme for this year's festival was "Inspriation, Imagination, Illumination."

Even Unto the Word

In the firmament of inspiration

New stars birth themselves from the

Struggles of a woman, a man: Rosa

Parks; Harvey Milk; Bob and Jeannie Graetz.

In the firmament of inspiration

Resides the path

Even unto the Word.

In a reality that is

More real than real

Art takes shape. From the

Great and fertile void froths forth an

Inflorescence of the

New.

Even unto the Word.

Into the darkness a flash:

Lightning

Lucidity

Until which everything was fixed

Mirror reflects

Insight flames

Neon, hums and moans

Even unto the Word.

The Wander Woman

Tootle toot toot, here comes the wander woman

In her denim trousers patched over with blue velvet

And fluttering scarves pinned to her scarlet shirt—

A rainbow of butterflies.

Here comes the wander woman, tootle toot toot,

With her box of smellful powders she always carries by

And her stained glass shards in a satin bag

And her tootle flute held to her mouth,

Scents and colors and sounds.

The wander woman stops

And drops her box and bag upon the ground

And gathers round her the young, the young at heart.

The bag of glass is passed, and the box of smellful powders,

And each chooses with great impulse.

Then the wander woman toots her tootle flute, toot toot,

And the young, the young at heart,

Hold the shards to the sun

And fling the smellful powders,

And dance to the rhythm of the colors

And sing to the smell of the music

And inhale the notes of the song.

The wander woman’s song on her tootle flute

Turns color into sound into scent

Into laughing into breathing into seeing

Into vision into knowing into Now.

And the wander woman smiles and packs up

And wanders on...

Moments Inspire

Sitting in a tin can

Atop an explosion

Step out onto the moon

Neil Armstrong

Girls can do anything

Girls are the future

Let’s work with the girls

Karen Freberg

Come out into the light

I’m here to recruit you

I am someone you know

Harvey Milk

“Move or I calla cops”

“You may do that”

The world changed on a bus

Rosa Parks

Sign this document

Even though you may hang for it

Redefine freedom

Thomas Jefferson

What will my verse be?

Fighter? Writer? Agent of change?

I won’t be around to see.

I am me.