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| National Contest Winners for August |
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| August National Contest Judge's statement by Gerald J. Zinfon I've done my best at choosing some reasoned means for selecting from among these many poems. Reason seldom helps, so many of the efforts submitted could reasonably find a place beside the finalists. Many of the poems were moving and/or impressive for their treatment of loss, love, wonder, thought. Finding poems that stand out as special requires more than and OTHER than reason. Especially difficult was ranking the top four. Each poem has some special quality that, while different from the others in subject, language, form or execution, shares a common characteristic that touches the reader as a shared piece of our common humanity: and how does one rank such unselfish sharing? A Postman Speaks in Late July - Here is a sweet-sad ambivalence of the elderly lady in repose (or is it something else?) on Linnet Street as we peer in the window with the postman. Getting there in the lines of the poem is a journey well documented through the collective images of the workaday world for this persona. Urban Smiles - Then we have the shared smile in the brief encounter of two "people watchers," observers of others and each other, captured in the setting of a brief train (commuters?) ride, again startlingly lucid through the evoking of real passengers with an economy of words also exploring the edges of artful ambivalence. Poem for Bob - "Bob" receives the lesson for reader/writer that the "creature" we call "poem" gives of itself to those who trust openly that the journey into perceiving occasioned by reading (or composing) transcends the ordinary. New Calculations - The poetry of thoughtful fun: This one moves around in language(s),numbers, history, and, yes, poetry, geography ?. So much in this four-stanza journey! The 10 poems that receive Honorable Mention reflect wonderfully varied interests and forms. All of these poems have something that captures and holds the reader. I have enjoyed reading these poems and have returned to many of them repeatedly. |
| August National Contest First prize "A Postman Speaks in Late July" June E. Foye Portland, OR. Second prize "Urban Smiles" Lynne A. B. Bennett Concord, NH Third prize "Poem for Bob" Jean R. Sampson Charlottesville, Va. Fourth prize "New Calculations" Yamile Craven Merideth, NH |
| Honorable Mentions 1) Marylin Lytle Barr Grahamsville, NY. 2) Yamile Craven Meredith, NH 3) June E. Foye Portland, OR. 4) Midge Goldberg Derry, NH 5) Ruth E. Harlow Bristol, NH 6) Anne Pierre Spangler Lebanon, PA 7) Anne Pierre Spangler Lebanon, PA 8) Mildred Taylor Ligonier, PA 9) P.M. Underhill Franconia, NH 10) Ian Veitenheimer Manchester, NH |