ANNOUNCING THE WINNERS of the Ekphrastic Poetry Contest held in September 2009


The staff and curators of GotPoetry thank all the participants for making this contest a huge success. We look forward to your participation again in our future contests.

taking the third place is

doragoner


I stare at the produce before me,
and I'm caught thinking hard;
my tongue poking out the corner of my mouth
I hold each item in my hands,
weighting it carefully.

I'm suddenly struck by a memory;
when I was only seven
and my mother and I would come to this market
I'd watch, holding onto her beige skirt
as she weighted each piece of vegetable and fruit.
Then she'd raise each to her nose,
sniffing gently to see if they were fresh.

I place the crisp apple in my basket,
thinking of all the times we'd come here
a smiling and waving kid would greet the cashier
with her friendly, bucktoothed grin
reaching for the shiny apple the clerk would always give her.

I smile and close my eyes,
walking up the the grey haired clerk,
remembering with fondness when I was younger
and I hand him the money,
telling him to keep the change.

we have a tie for the second place

The Farmers' Wares
Huberjack

A little bit of countryside
enhances urban atmosphere,
as each and every weekend morn
the farmers and their wares appear.

They've driven far to bring their goods,
been wide awake since four o'clock,
fresh fruits and shiny vegetables,
their very best, from private stock.

While supermarkets volumes need
the harvests of the largest crops,
the smaller farms and dairies thrive
on growers' pride and country shops.

Enhancing urban atmosphere,
the farmers and their wares appear.

AND

Passing the Market
JPerry1980

18 September 2009

Yelena rubs her aged hands against the potato,
feeling the roots digging against the rough potato skin,
smiling to herself as she imagines the okroshka,
the scent of simmering the potatoes and red onions.

Apples, not like the tree in grandpapa's field,
here are Granna Smith, Liberty, varieties of all shapes.
"Look at all these beautiful apples," she says to herself.
Though she speaks it aloud, no one listens to her words.

Oranges, worth their weight in gold in the Motherland,
tropical spiny balls of taste and sweetness,
she cannot help but frown as she was 60,
before the taste of the dripping juice touched her lips.

Turnips and rutabagas and lettuce and, goodness, the peppers,
delicacies that will be served for food without the appreciation,
though she remembers all too well from youth,
to consider every bite and taste not knowing when the next would be.

She imagines herself as a child,
tasting her grandpapa's botvinya, wetness of kvass,
standing in the kitchen with him, as he gently observed her,
"Careful cutting, dear Lena, the taste is within the roots!"

The world has moved onward,
though she believes that grandpapa would weep with her,
now standing at just the entrance to the market,
people staring strangely at her, an old woman, this is all they see.

For Yelena, it is enough to look over with dismay,
all this wonderful food, all these markets,
but what good is all of it presented here,
without the sweat and hard-work to achieve it?

She has forgotten the family recipes within her age,
but those many scents and tastes remain with her,
for within a peaceful Thursday morning at the market,
an old woman momentarily found her childhood again.

THE WINNER

How To Read a Calendar
HSTeech


Time is measured in the ripening. Seconds fill the minutes fill the hours fill the boxes lined up in sevens- sevens stacked in fours-until we turn the page and under the red spectrum rays of this tilted planet, we are brought, willingly and not, into our hue.

Time is measured in the ripening. Flower to fruit, green to yellow, yellow to red, rung by rung we climb into the mantle of our sex until beauty is beneath us, nothing more than an upturned box on which we stand tip-toed to grasp at wisdom hanging pendulous and heavy on the vine.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS. The karma points have been transferred.

Thank you to all the participants.

Thank you to our judges Bogeyman, Loisseau, RZS, Zbird and Brennan.

What Bogeyman has to say on the winning poems:

third place winning poem - a nice nostalgic piece

The Farmers' Wares – A nice sonnet.

6. Passing the Market – a very touching poem and the one I can relate to, having grown up in that part of the world.

How To Read a Calendar – very nice use of metaphors. The last image is memorable – I like this poem a lot!

What loisseau has to say:

The Farmers' Wares - a fine modern sonnet that fits the photograph very well.

6. Passing the Market - a really well written story poem; each stanza a vignette that captures the reader.

third place winner - Another fine story poem.

What Brennan has to say:

Doragoner - a short story its path, but a wonderful memory captured with a great use of words and mental pictures. a great piece.

Huberjack 2nd - This was a fantastic use of rhyme and it flowed perfectly, Very impressed with the inspiration based on the photo.

Jperry 2nd - This was a very imaginative and beautiful piece it was long and well thought out. A memorable and perfect ending

HSTeech 1st - Fantastic metaphors and I especially liked the way one flowed through another creating a chain.. well done on this piece and your win!

Finally.. all poems entered though varied where all credit to the poets who penned them. A Special congratulations to the winners! you all wear your awards with pride!

Bren

Zbird's comments on the winning poems:

The third place poem has no title, but I think I would call it A Memory or Days Gone By. This is a really sweet poem and I loved the way it took us back with nostalgia to a simpler time and one memory of his/her youth. Very nice.

I enjoyed The Farmers Wares for the descriptive way it pulled us into the picture. The words made it come alive with activity and smells and I enjoyed the sonnet form.

Passing the Market is a very sweet nostalgia piece.

How to Read a Calendar stood out in it’s uniqueness in the use of metaphors and going outside the box of not just writing about what was seen in the picture, but finding something different. A beautiful write!

Thanks all, and congrats to doragoner, jack, and J! It was a challenging picture!

Congrats to all who who placed
i enjoyed each poem as well

Thanks for all the nice comments and congrats to the other winners, especially first place winner, HSTeech! Well deserved.

Jack

Andrea, Jack, and Raye: The work here is wonderful. This was really enjoyable as a contest to see the different styles of writing presented from each author. Really enjoyed every person's work here and look forward to participating and enjoying these types of contests again in the future.

-- j.

I agree - they are wonderful pieces - congrats to all the winners!


Steph

Congratulations! These were fun to read! mamta---can we have a new contest? I need motivation! :0

very soon.