Overjoyed to report that my first book Light into Bodies has been selected as the winner of the 2016 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry and is forthcoming from University of Tampa Press! More information here.
Showing posts with label first book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label first book. Show all posts
Thursday, August 18, 2016
Light into Bodies wins the 2016 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry
Overjoyed to report that my first book Light into Bodies has been selected as the winner of the 2016 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry and is forthcoming from University of Tampa Press! More information here.
Sunday, September 27, 2015
An Interview with Poet Karen Paul Holmes
Winter trees reveal a drop off
inches from the road’s thin shoulder.
Some teachings call this universe an illusion:
We all share a dream, a nightmare really,
where we’re separate beings.
- from "Scenic Bypass, Blue Ridge Mountains" by Karen Paul Holmes
* * *
Karen Paul Holmes is the author of a poetry collection, Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press 2014). Formerly the VP of Communications at a global financial services company, Karen is now a freelance business writer, poet and writing coach. In support of writers and audiences, Karen founded and hosts the Side Door Poets critique group in Atlanta and Writers’ Night Out in the Blue Ridge Mountains. She received an Elizabeth George Foundation emerging writer grant in 2012 and has studied with poets Thomas Lux, Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar, William Wright, Kevin Young, and Carol Ann Duffy, among others. Publishing credits include Poetry East, Atlanta Review, Caesura, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol 5: Georgia, and Stone, River, Sky (Negative Capability Press). She grew up in Michigan and has an MA in musicology from the University of Michigan.
* * *
[This interview was conducted via email in August 2015.]
KPH: First of all, thank you for this interview, Nancy. I appreciate your interesting questions.
Untying the Knot is a memoir in poetry. Sometimes mad, sad, funny, and/or forgiving, the poems recount the sudden end of my long-time marriage and the healing process.
In Untying the Knot, what is one of more crucial or important poems for you personally? Why?
KPH: I find it extremely difficult to describe nature, and therefore not much of my poetry does this. I workshopped this poem with Dorianne Laux at the Sarah Lawrence Summer Seminar, which gave me the confidence to include it in the book. Lines in the poem came to me on a walk, and I really did get hit on the head by acorns. It was an unusually beautiful day but in the midst of the stunning beauty, I was stunned by sadness. That’s how grief works, doesn’t it? One of the reasons the poem is important for me personally is that it reflects my belief that joy can always be found in the present moment – uncovering it is not always easy but we always have the option of choosing joy, or at least peace.
Fall
Despite the wind
poplars hang on to their leaves.
They catch the light and flutter like gilded eyelids,
jiggle like coins on a belly dancer’s hip scarf.
Whitecaps jostle my dock,
lake darker than the sky.
Those distant mountains, dusty-red with autumn,
recall Sedona’s rocks,
but green grass and willows speak
of lush Appalachia.
Joy surges
mixed with the old longing: that need to share.
The cherry tree over there—blooming
and showing orange foliage at the same time—
must be as confused as I am
since the gusty lusty breath of Catherine
blew away the colors of my marriage,
forced the black and white of divorce.
Suddenly, a shower of acorns bounces
off my head, knocking me back
into the windy, sunny present.
When Untying the Knot was published, it being your first full-length book, were there things you thought would happen, yet didn’t? unexpected things that did happen?
KPH: I guess you never know how you’ll feel when you actually have the book in your hands. I’m a recovering perfectionist, and I tried very hard not to second guess myself about what poems should have been deleted and/or edited more, but I did do that a bit and even started to question whether the whole thing was crap.
I didn’t know how strange it would feel going public. I felt bare naked, and I still cringe a little thinking of how much of my personal life I revealed, and also that of my ex and his girlfriend. But people praised me for being so honest with my feelings. Because of that honesty and because most people have gone through some kind of loss, people really related to the book -- poets and non-poets, men and women. That reaction was a pleasant surprise. It was also an affirmation of my intent to write poetry that touches people in some positive way.
I see you have a degree in musicology. If you were a musical instrument, which one would you be? Why?
KPH: Could I be the tune instead? I’d like to be a melody that lingers in the memory… in a good way.
When do you remember first being interested in poetry? Was there a mentor who encouraged you?
KPH: In about 6th grade, I created an illustrated journal of poems I liked for a school assignment. I still have it. Richard Wilbur’s "Boy at the Window" is in it, and I remember being absolutely touched by the poignancy of that poem. Then in 8th grade, I won some sort of poetry contest. That teacher, Miss Darby, and also my inspirational 12th grade English teacher, Mrs. Schwartz, are my friends on Facebook so I’ve happily been able to thank them for their influence on my life.
When you write, do you imagine a reader? If so, what type of reader?
KPH: The angel on my shoulder imagines a sympathetic reader who feels just like I do about things. The devil on the other shoulder thinks about a strict critic who expects perfection. In my first draft, I try to keep that devil out.
Tell us about "Writers’ Night Out". Is it a reading series? What prompted you to start it?
KPH: Once I started reading my poems in public (the first time was in front of the then Poet Laureate of N. Carolina, Kathryn Stripling Byer), I became an open mic junkie. I live in Atlanta but spend many weekends in the mountains. Up there, I started attending a Wednesday morning “Coffee with the Poets” with open mic. I decided to start "Writers’ Night Out" to give working folks a chance to come, and also to make it more of a date night on a Friday night. In the small mountain towns, there are a lot of writers and also a lot of tourists looking for interesting things to do. It is a monthly event, open to the public. We feature a poet or prose writer for about 20 minutes and then an open mic. Audience size ranges from 10-35 people—couples and singles—from four counties. We get 5-12 people reading at the open mic, often including really good writers/readers in their 70s and 80s and sometimes college kids. Many of us meet for dinner beforehand. We have featured some pretty well known writers from North and South Carolina and Georgia.
Finally, what advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
KPH: Keep at it. Share and get feedback. I wrote for years, but kept everything in a notebook for no one but myself. While that was satisfying, what really made poetry a special part of my life was sharing my work, having it critiqued, and working to make it better. My poet friends are now some of my best friends. There’s nothing better than being in a community of like-minded people. And that’s how I met you, Nancy. Thanks again for wanting to spend this time with me.
KPH: The angel on my shoulder imagines a sympathetic reader who feels just like I do about things. The devil on the other shoulder thinks about a strict critic who expects perfection. In my first draft, I try to keep that devil out.
Tell us about "Writers’ Night Out". Is it a reading series? What prompted you to start it?
KPH: Once I started reading my poems in public (the first time was in front of the then Poet Laureate of N. Carolina, Kathryn Stripling Byer), I became an open mic junkie. I live in Atlanta but spend many weekends in the mountains. Up there, I started attending a Wednesday morning “Coffee with the Poets” with open mic. I decided to start "Writers’ Night Out" to give working folks a chance to come, and also to make it more of a date night on a Friday night. In the small mountain towns, there are a lot of writers and also a lot of tourists looking for interesting things to do. It is a monthly event, open to the public. We feature a poet or prose writer for about 20 minutes and then an open mic. Audience size ranges from 10-35 people—couples and singles—from four counties. We get 5-12 people reading at the open mic, often including really good writers/readers in their 70s and 80s and sometimes college kids. Many of us meet for dinner beforehand. We have featured some pretty well known writers from North and South Carolina and Georgia.
What are you working on now?
KPH:I’m a little scattered. I’m writing miscellaneous new poems as the inspiration hits. But I’ve got two books about 90% complete and can’t seem to say “Okay, done, time to send to a publisher.” One centers on family poems about the melding of my dad’s culture (Macedonian) with my mom’s (Russian/Irish settled in Australia) in the U.S.Finally, what advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
KPH: Keep at it. Share and get feedback. I wrote for years, but kept everything in a notebook for no one but myself. While that was satisfying, what really made poetry a special part of my life was sharing my work, having it critiqued, and working to make it better. My poet friends are now some of my best friends. There’s nothing better than being in a community of like-minded people. And that’s how I met you, Nancy. Thanks again for wanting to spend this time with me.
Karen Online
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karenholmespoetry
- Simply Communicated (author website): http://simplycommunicated.com/home
- Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/kpaulholmes
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pub/karen-paul-holmes/6/83/202
- Poets and Writers Directory: http://www.pw.org/content/karen_holmes
A sampling of Karen’s poems on-line:
Monday, September 1, 2014
Poetry Manuscripts: 1st-Book Poetry Contests
If you've written your first full-length (48 pages or more) poetry manuscript and are considering submitting it to contests, this page might be of use to you. Here is a partial list of first-book and first / second book contests for poetry manuscripts that are open to poets writing in English. Some caveats:
1913 Press, 1st book contest, 1913 Prize for First Books
* 2015 winners: Laura Vena, X/She: Stardraped and Andrew Wessels, A Turkish Dictionary
* 2014 winner: Leif Haven, Arcane Rituals from the Future
* 2013 winner: Jane Lewty, Bravura Cool
* 2012 winner: Scott McFarland, O, Human Microphone
Cider Press Review,1st or 2nd book contest, CPR Editors Prize
* 2015 winner: Susan Azar Porterfield, Dirt, Root, Silk
* 2014 winner: Sarah Estes, Field Work
* 2013 winner: Laura Donnelly, Watershed
* 2012 winner: Susan Laughter Meyers, My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass
Cleveland State University Poetry Center,1st book contest, First Book Award
* 2015 winner: Leora Fridman, My Fault
* 2014 winner: Siwar Masannat, 50 Water Dreams
* 2013 winner: Chloe Honum, The Tulip Flame
* 2012 winner: Rebecca Gayle Howell, Render / An Apocalypse
U of Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies, 1st book contest, Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize; limited to Latino/a poets in the United States, occurs every two years
* 2015 winner: n/a
* 2014 winner: David Campos, Furious Dusk
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: Laurie Ann Guerrero, A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying
Unicorn Press, 1st book contest, First Book Contest
* 2015 winner: Stephen Lackaye, Self-Portrait in Dystopian Landscape
* 2014 winner: Hastings Hensel, Winter Inlet
* 2013 winner: Martin Arnold, Earthquake Owner's Manual
Waywiser Press, 1st or 2nd book contest, The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize
* 2015 winner: Austin Allen, Pleasures of the Game
* 2014 winner: Jaimee Hills, How to Avoid Speaking
* 2013 winner: Geoffrey Brock, Voices Bright Flags
* 2012 winner: Shelley Puhak, Guinevere in Baltimore
- The URLs provided below were accurate when I entered the information, but they might not be so now.
- Be sure to read the guidelines carefully for changes in
- status. It may no longer be a first-book contest.
- restrictions. I've tried to identify any limitations and restrictions, such as the contest is offered only in certain years or requires that the poet be from a certain area. That said, a publisher may have since changed or added restrictions.
- Most, if not all, of the contests below charge a submission fee.
1913 Press, 1st book contest, 1913 Prize for First Books
* 2015 winners: Laura Vena, X/She: Stardraped and Andrew Wessels, A Turkish Dictionary
* 2014 winner: Leif Haven, Arcane Rituals from the Future
* 2013 winner: Jane Lewty, Bravura Cool
* 2012 winner: Scott McFarland, O, Human Microphone
ABZ Press, 1st book contest, First Book Award, starting in 2014, accepts submissions every other year.
* 2014 winner: Pamela Davis, Lunette
* 2013 winner: Jean McDonough, Traceries
* 2012 winner: Melissa Tuckey, Tenuous Chapel
* 2014 winner: Pamela Davis, Lunette
* 2013 winner: Jean McDonough, Traceries
* 2012 winner: Melissa Tuckey, Tenuous Chapel
Academy of American Poets, 1st book contest, Walt Whitman Award; limited to citizens of the United States
* 2016 winner: Mai Der Vang, Afterland
* 2015 winner: Sjohnna McCray, Rapture
* 2014 winner: Hannah Sanghee Park, The Same-Different
* 2013 winner: Chris Hosea, Put Your Hands In
* 2012 winner: Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture
Black Lawrence Press, 1st book contest for poems or short stories,
* 2015 winnter: Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Matria
* 2014 winner: short-story winner
* 2013 winner: KMA Sullivan, Necessary Fire
* 2016 winner: Mai Der Vang, Afterland
* 2015 winner: Sjohnna McCray, Rapture
* 2014 winner: Hannah Sanghee Park, The Same-Different
* 2013 winner: Chris Hosea, Put Your Hands In
* 2012 winner: Matt Rasmussen, Black Aperture
Black Lawrence Press, 1st book contest for poems or short stories,
* 2015 winnter: Alexandra Lytton Regalado, Matria
* 2014 winner: short-story winner
* 2013 winner: KMA Sullivan, Necessary Fire
BOA Editions, 1st book contest,
* 2015 winner: Derrick Austin , Trouble the Water
* 2014 winner: Devin Becker, Shame | Shame
* 2013 winner: Geffrey Davis, Revising the Storm
* 2012 winner: Ryan Teitman, Litany for the City
Briery Creek Press, 1st book contest, Liam Rector First Book Prize for Poetry
* 2014 winner: B. A. Goodjohn, Bone Song
* 2013 winner: Natalie Giarratano, Leaving Clean
* 2012 winner: Greg McBride, Porthole
* 2015 winner: Derrick Austin , Trouble the Water
* 2014 winner: Devin Becker, Shame | Shame
* 2013 winner: Geffrey Davis, Revising the Storm
* 2012 winner: Ryan Teitman, Litany for the City
Briery Creek Press, 1st book contest, Liam Rector First Book Prize for Poetry
* 2014 winner: B. A. Goodjohn, Bone Song
* 2013 winner: Natalie Giarratano, Leaving Clean
* 2012 winner: Greg McBride, Porthole
Carolina Wren Press, 1st or 2nd book contest, Carolina Wren Press Poetry Series, accepts submissions every other year (in 2011 for a 2012 winner, in 2013 for a 2014 winner, etc.)
* 2014 winner: Charles Wyatt, Goldberg – Variations
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: L. Lamar Wilson, Sacrilegion
* 2014 winner: Charles Wyatt, Goldberg – Variations
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: L. Lamar Wilson, Sacrilegion
Cave Canem, 1st book contest, Cave Canem Poetry Prize; limited to African-American poets
* 2015 winner: Donika Kelly, Bestiary
* 2014 winner: Rickey Laurentiis, Boy with Thorn
* 2015 winner: Donika Kelly, Bestiary
* 2014 winner: Rickey Laurentiis, Boy with Thorn
* 2013 winner: F. Douglas Brown, Zero to Three
* 2012 winner: Dexter Booth, Scratching the GhostCider Press Review,1st or 2nd book contest, CPR Editors Prize
* 2015 winner: Susan Azar Porterfield, Dirt, Root, Silk
* 2014 winner: Sarah Estes, Field Work
* 2013 winner: Laura Donnelly, Watershed
* 2012 winner: Susan Laughter Meyers, My Dear, Dear Stagger Grass
Cleveland State University Poetry Center,1st book contest, First Book Award
* 2015 winner: Leora Fridman, My Fault
* 2014 winner: Siwar Masannat, 50 Water Dreams
* 2013 winner: Chloe Honum, The Tulip Flame
* 2012 winner: Rebecca Gayle Howell, Render / An Apocalypse
Coconut Books, 1st book contest,
* 2013 co-winner: Alexis Pope, Soft Thread
* 2013 co-winner: Tyler Gobble, More Wreck More Wreck
* 2012 winner: Ji Yoon Lee, Foreigner's Folly: A Tale of Attempted Project
* 2013 co-winner: Alexis Pope, Soft Thread
* 2013 co-winner: Tyler Gobble, More Wreck More Wreck
* 2012 winner: Ji Yoon Lee, Foreigner's Folly: A Tale of Attempted Project
Copper Nickel, 1st or 2nd book contest,
Crab Orchard Review, 1st book contest, First Book Award; limited to citizens and permanent residents of the United States
* 2015 winner: Charif Shanahan, Into Each Room We Enter Without Knowing
* 2014 winner: Gregory Kimbrell, The Primitive Observatory
* 2015 winner: Charif Shanahan, Into Each Room We Enter Without Knowing
* 2014 winner: Gregory Kimbrell, The Primitive Observatory
* 2013 winner: Noel Crook, Salt Moon
* 2012 winner: Tarfia Faizullah, Seam
Elixir Press, 1st book contest, Antivenom Poetry Award
* 2015 winner: John Estes, Sure Extinction
* 2014 winner: Lisa Bickmore, flicker
* 2013 winner: Kirun Kapur, Visiting Indira Gandhi’s Palmist
* 2012 winner: David Ray Vance, Stupor
* 2015 winner: John Estes, Sure Extinction
* 2014 winner: Lisa Bickmore, flicker
* 2013 winner: Kirun Kapur, Visiting Indira Gandhi’s Palmist
* 2012 winner: David Ray Vance, Stupor
Four Way Books, 1st book contest, Intro Prize in Poetry; contest appears to be offered every other year in even years (2012, 2014, etc.)
* 2014 winner: Rajiv Mohabir, The Taxidermist's Cut
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: David Daniels, Clean
Kelsey Street Press, 1st book contest, First Books by Women Writers; limited to female poets
* 2015 winner: Jennifer Pilch, Deus Ex Machina
* 2014 winner: Jasmine Dreame Wagner, Rings
* 2013 winner: Sabrina Dalla Valle, 7 Days and Nights in the Desert (Tracing the Origin)
Kore Press, 1st book contest, First Book Award; limited to female poets
* 2015 winner: Zayne Turner, Body Burden
* 2014 winner: Monica Ong, Silent Anatomies
* 2013 winner: Jen McClanaghan, River Legs
* 2014 winner: Rajiv Mohabir, The Taxidermist's Cut
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: David Daniels, Clean
Kelsey Street Press, 1st book contest, First Books by Women Writers; limited to female poets
* 2015 winner: Jennifer Pilch, Deus Ex Machina
* 2014 winner: Jasmine Dreame Wagner, Rings
* 2013 winner: Sabrina Dalla Valle, 7 Days and Nights in the Desert (Tracing the Origin)
Kore Press, 1st book contest, First Book Award; limited to female poets
* 2015 winner: Zayne Turner, Body Burden
* 2014 winner: Monica Ong, Silent Anatomies
* 2013 winner: Jen McClanaghan, River Legs
Kundiman, 1st book contest, The Kundiman Poetry Prize, limited to Asian-American poets
* 2015 winner: Rajiv Mohabir, The Cowherd's Son
* 2014 winner: Janine Joseph, Driving Without a License
* 2015 winner: Rajiv Mohabir, The Cowherd's Son
* 2014 winner: Janine Joseph, Driving Without a License
* 2013 winner: Lo Kwa Mei-En, Yearling
* 2012 winner: Cathy Linh Che, Split
New Issues, 1st book contest, New Issues Poetry Prize
* 2016 winner: Courtney Kampa, Our Lady of Not Asking Why
* 2015 winner: Sawnie Morris, Her, Infinite
* 2014 winner: Abdul Ali, Trouble Sleeping
* 2013 winner: Kerrin McCadden, Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes
* 2012 winner: Marni Ludwig, Pinwheel
* 2016 winner: Courtney Kampa, Our Lady of Not Asking Why
* 2015 winner: Sawnie Morris, Her, Infinite
* 2014 winner: Abdul Ali, Trouble Sleeping
* 2013 winner: Kerrin McCadden, Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes
* 2012 winner: Marni Ludwig, Pinwheel
New Rivers Press, 1st or 2nd book contest, MVP (Many Voices Project) Competition
* 2015 winner: Carol Kapaun Ratchenski, A Beautiful Hell
* 2014 winner: unknown (unable to find who won)
* 2013 winner: Julie Gard, Home Studies
* 2012 winner: Brandon Krieg, Invasives
* 2015 winner: Carol Kapaun Ratchenski, A Beautiful Hell
* 2014 winner: unknown (unable to find who won)
* 2013 winner: Julie Gard, Home Studies
* 2012 winner: Brandon Krieg, Invasives
Omnidawn, 1st or 2nd book contest, 1st/2nd Book Prize
* 2015 winner: Jennifer S. Cheng, House A
* 2014 winner: Margaret Ross, A Timeshare
* 2013 winner: Eric Ekstrand, Laodicea
* 2012 winner: Robin Clarke, Lines the Quarry
* 2015 winner: Jennifer S. Cheng, House A
* 2014 winner: Margaret Ross, A Timeshare
* 2013 winner: Eric Ekstrand, Laodicea
* 2012 winner: Robin Clarke, Lines the Quarry
Pavement Saw Press, 1st or 2nd book contest, Transcontinental Poetry Award [This contest appears to be defunct.]
* 2014 winner: n/a (contest suspended for 2014)
* 2013 winner: unknown (unable to find who won)
* 2012 winner: Ethan Saul Bull, Shut Off the Flowers
* 2014 winner: n/a (contest suspended for 2014)
* 2013 winner: unknown (unable to find who won)
* 2012 winner: Ethan Saul Bull, Shut Off the Flowers
Persea Books, 1st book contest, Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, limited to female poets who are American citizens
* 2015 winner: Kimberly Grey, The Opposite of Light
* 2014 winner: Susannah Nevison, Teratology
* 2013 winner: Leslie Shinn, Inside Spiders
* 2012 winner: Allison Seay, To See the Queen
* 2015 winner: Kimberly Grey, The Opposite of Light
* 2014 winner: Susannah Nevison, Teratology
* 2013 winner: Leslie Shinn, Inside Spiders
* 2012 winner: Allison Seay, To See the Queen
Perugia Press, 1st or 2nd book contest, Perugia Press Prize, limited to female poets
* 2015 winner: Jenifer Browne Lawrence, Grayling
* 2014 winner: Corrie Williamson, Sweet Husk
* 2013 winner: Gail Martin, Begin Empty-Handed
* 2015 winner: Jenifer Browne Lawrence, Grayling
* 2014 winner: Corrie Williamson, Sweet Husk
* 2013 winner: Gail Martin, Begin Empty-Handed
Poetry Foundation, 1st book
contest, Emily Dickinson Poetry Prize, limited to poets who are at least 40 yrs old and American citizens; contest is not offered every year
* 2017 winner: Kristen Tracy, Half-Hazard
Red Dragonfly Press, 1st book contest, The David Martinson - Meadowhawk Prize
* 2015 winner: Susan Cohen, A Different Wakeful Animal
* 2014 winner: Francine Sterle, What Thread?
* 2013 winner: Chad Hanson, Patches of Light
* 2015 winner: Susan Cohen, A Different Wakeful Animal
* 2014 winner: Francine Sterle, What Thread?
* 2013 winner: Chad Hanson, Patches of Light
* 2014 winner: Jeffrey Tucker, Kill February
* 2013 winner: unknown (unable to find who won/unsure if there was a contest that year)
* 2012 winner: Marci Rae Johnson, The Eyes the Window
Switchback Books, 1st or 2nd book contest, Gatewood Prize; limited to female poets
* 2014 winner: Cyrstal Curry, But I Have Realized It: A Motivational Poem in Little Arcs
* 2013 winner: Morgan Parker, Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night
* 2012 winner: Stefania Heim, A Table that Goes on for Miles
* 2013 winner: unknown (unable to find who won/unsure if there was a contest that year)
* 2012 winner: Marci Rae Johnson, The Eyes the Window
Silverfish Review Press, 1st book contest, Gerald Cable Book Award
* 2014 winner: Robert Hunter Jones, Winter Garden
* 2013 winner: Randolph Thomas, The Course of the Telling
* 2012 winner: Raphael Dagold, Bastard Heart
* 2014 winner: Robert Hunter Jones, Winter Garden
* 2013 winner: Randolph Thomas, The Course of the Telling
* 2012 winner: Raphael Dagold, Bastard Heart
Switchback Books, 1st or 2nd book contest, Gatewood Prize; limited to female poets
* 2014 winner: Cyrstal Curry, But I Have Realized It: A Motivational Poem in Little Arcs
* 2013 winner: Morgan Parker, Other People's Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night
* 2012 winner: Stefania Heim, A Table that Goes on for Miles
Tebot Bach, 1st book contest, Patricia Bibby First Book Award
* 2016 winner: Ephraim Scott Sommers, The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire
* 2015 winner: Ezra Feldman, Habitat of Stones
* 2014 winner: David Ebanbach, We Were the People Who Moved
* 2013 winner: Erin Malone, Hover
* 2012 winner: Myles Gordon, Inside the Splintered Wood
* 2016 winner: Ephraim Scott Sommers, The Night We Set the Dead Kid on Fire
* 2015 winner: Ezra Feldman, Habitat of Stones
* 2014 winner: David Ebanbach, We Were the People Who Moved
* 2013 winner: Erin Malone, Hover
* 2012 winner: Myles Gordon, Inside the Splintered Wood
The American Poetry Review, 1st book contest, Honickman First Book Prize; limited to citizens of the United States
* 2015 winner: Alicia Jo Rabins, Divinity School
* 2014 winner: Katherine Bode-Lang, The Reformation
* 2013 winner: Maria Hummel, House and Fire
* 2012 winner: Tomás Q. MorÃn, A Larger Country
* 2015 winner: Alicia Jo Rabins, Divinity School
* 2014 winner: Katherine Bode-Lang, The Reformation
* 2013 winner: Maria Hummel, House and Fire
* 2012 winner: Tomás Q. MorÃn, A Larger Country
Trio House Press, 1st or 2nd book contest, Trio Award; limited to poets residing within the United States
* 2016 winner: Mary Cisper, Dark Tussock Moth
* 2015 winner: Carolyn Hembree, Rigging a Chevy into a Time Machine and Other Ways to Escape a Plague
* 2014 winner: Bradford Tice, What the Night Numbered
* 2016 winner: Mary Cisper, Dark Tussock Moth
* 2015 winner: Carolyn Hembree, Rigging a Chevy into a Time Machine and Other Ways to Escape a Plague
* 2014 winner: Bradford Tice, What the Night Numbered
* 2013 winner: John W. Evans, The Consolations
* 2012 winner: Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Gold Passage
Tupelo Press, 1st or 2nd book contest, Berkshire Prize for a First or Second Book
* 2015 winner: Patrick Coleman, Fire Season
* 2014 winner: Jenny Molberg, Marvels of the Invisible
* 2013 winner: Amy McCann, Yes Thorn
* 2015 winner: Patrick Coleman, Fire Season
* 2014 winner: Jenny Molberg, Marvels of the Invisible
* 2013 winner: Amy McCann, Yes Thorn
U of Pittsburgh Press, 1st book contest, Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize
* 2015 winner: Miriam Bird Greenberg, In the Volcano's Mouth
* 2014 winner: Nathan Marshall, Wild Hundreds
* 2013 winner: Sarah Rose Nordgren, Best Bones
* 2012 winner: Kasey Jueds, Keeper
* 2015 winner: Miriam Bird Greenberg, In the Volcano's Mouth
* 2014 winner: Nathan Marshall, Wild Hundreds
* 2013 winner: Sarah Rose Nordgren, Best Bones
* 2012 winner: Kasey Jueds, Keeper
U of Massachusetts Press, 1st book contest, Juniper Prize for Poetry; consideration of 1st-books occurs only during odd-numbered years (2013, 2015, 2017, etc.) for winners named in even-numbered years (2014, 2016, 2018, etc.)
* 2015 winner: n/a
* 2014 winner: David Kutz-Marks, Violin Playing Herself in a Mirror
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: Brandon Dean Lamson, Starship Tahiti
* 2015 winner: n/a
* 2014 winner: David Kutz-Marks, Violin Playing Herself in a Mirror
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: Brandon Dean Lamson, Starship Tahiti
U of Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies, 1st book contest, Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize; limited to Latino/a poets in the United States, occurs every two years
* 2015 winner: n/a
* 2014 winner: David Campos, Furious Dusk
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: Laurie Ann Guerrero, A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying
Unicorn Press, 1st book contest, First Book Contest
* 2015 winner: Stephen Lackaye, Self-Portrait in Dystopian Landscape
* 2014 winner: Hastings Hensel, Winter Inlet
* 2013 winner: Martin Arnold, Earthquake Owner's Manual
Waywiser Press, 1st or 2nd book contest, The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize
* 2015 winner: Austin Allen, Pleasures of the Game
* 2014 winner: Jaimee Hills, How to Avoid Speaking
* 2013 winner: Geoffrey Brock, Voices Bright Flags
* 2012 winner: Shelley Puhak, Guinevere in Baltimore
Wick Poetry Center, 1st book contest, Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize
* 2015 winner: Leah Osowski, Hover Over Her
* 2014 winner: Matthew Minicucci, No Epithets
* 2013 winner: Oliver Bendorf, The Spectral Wilderness
* 2012 winner: Michael Mlekoday, The Dead Eat Everything
* 2015 winner: Leah Osowski, Hover Over Her
* 2014 winner: Matthew Minicucci, No Epithets
* 2013 winner: Oliver Bendorf, The Spectral Wilderness
* 2012 winner: Michael Mlekoday, The Dead Eat Everything
Yale University Press, 1st book contest, Yale Series of Younger Poets
* 2015 winner: Noah Warren, The Destroyer in the Grass
* 2012 winner: Will Schutt, Westerly
Zone 3 Press, 1st book contest, First Book Award; contest appears to be offered every other year in even years (2012, 2014, etc.)
* 2015 winner: n/a
* 2014 winner: Ashley Seitz Kramer, Museum of Distance
* 2015 winner: Noah Warren, The Destroyer in the Grass
* 2014 winner: Ansel Elkins, Blue Yodel
* 2013 winner: Eryn Green, Eruv* 2012 winner: Will Schutt, Westerly
Zone 3 Press, 1st book contest, First Book Award; contest appears to be offered every other year in even years (2012, 2014, etc.)
* 2015 winner: n/a
* 2014 winner: Ashley Seitz Kramer, Museum of Distance
* 2013 winner: n/a
* 2012 winner: Karen Skolfield, Frost in the low area
* 2012 winner: Karen Skolfield, Frost in the low area
If you want a list with more information than what is provided above, check out one of these fine resources:
- a list of presses with open readings for full-length poetry manuscripts at Linebreak, the blog of Tom Holmes (editor of Redactions)
- NewPages, a wonderful literary-journal and writing portal
- Duotrope, an online service that provides, among other things, a database of almost every journal and an application that allows you to track your submissions. (Duotrope charges a fee. I subscribe to Duotrope and find it a bargain for the price.)
Friday, May 9, 2014
Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope by Frank Montesonti
Frank Montesonti
Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope
Barrow Street Press
http://www.barrowstreet.org/By the numbers
ISBN ISBN 978-0981987675
Publication: 2012
Total pages: 83
Number of poems: 36
__________
I met Frank Montesonti last spring when he was a featured reader at the First-Sundays Readings and Open-Mic here in Bloomington, Indiana. Frank is a one-time Hooiser who attended Indiana University. He now lives in Los Angeles and teaches creative writing at National University. After hearing him read from his book Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope, I immediately purchased it. After reading the book, I knew I wanted to review it and am delighted to share this review with you here.
Also, I had the opportunity to interview Frank. Click here for the interview and to learn more about him. Frank has since published a second book. It’s a book of erasure titled Hope Tree (HOw to PrunE Fruit TREEs). I’m looking forward to reading it!
—Nancy Chen Long
Also, I had the opportunity to interview Frank. Click here for the interview and to learn more about him. Frank has since published a second book. It’s a book of erasure titled Hope Tree (HOw to PrunE Fruit TREEs). I’m looking forward to reading it!
—Nancy Chen Long
__________
(This interview was conducted via email in January 2014 and was first posted in Poetry Matters.)
Overview
Frank Montesonti’s debut full-length book of poetry Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope, winner of the 2011 Barrow Street Book Prize chosen by D.A. Powell, has much to recommend it. It's filled with emotionally-charged poems that embody the human condition: ambiguity, ambivalence, the simultaneous holding of contradictions, the greater and lesser strains of beauty that frequently attend sadness. The language is often witty and clever, the tone at times sarcastic or glib. While some of the poems are humorous, taken as a whole, the mood tends to be one of sadness or despair. These are poems that grapple with issues of sobriety, trust, love and not love, God, loneliness, science, and culture, all the while exploring and challenging what we hold to be real.
The title of the book has an exuberant wordiness that brings to mind Walt Whitman. And simply glancing through the book, one can see the celebratory length of the Whitmanian line. Most of the poems lean towards a longer line; some of the poems extend into prose and could be said to approach the lyric essay. Although there are strong prose-like elements in some of the poems, those who are looking for a definitive narrative arc, a straight-forward story, won’t find one. In Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope, there is no unifying narrative that imposes order and creates understanding. Instead, there is much of the postmodern in these poems: an indeterminacy that marshals the reader into active participation to fill in gaps and craft his own meaning out of the text, notions of hyperreality in which one is unable to tell the difference between reality and a simulation of reality, an emphasis on the visual, the view that language shapes our reality, and a self-reflexivity that highlights its own artificiality, such as a poem that lets the reader know that it knows it’s a poem, at times breaking the fourth wall, in which the speaker of a poem addresses the reader directly.
There is an intriguing disjointedness and fragmentation to Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope—various images, scenes, and language that at first blush might seem unrelated, but collectively form a satisfying whole. I experienced the thirty-six poems, with their varying degrees of disjointedness, like scenes in a movie—not a linear sort of movie, but more like a montage of images and scenes that taken together form a cinematic-like experience. This cinematic thread, which includes film-related diction, references, and allusions, is one of the organizing forces of the book.
Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope is an impressive and poignant book. Satisfying on a first read, it also amply rewards repeated readings. The poems are deeply layered, rich with metaphors, allusions, and multiple meanings. Each time I return to a poem, it's like a present being unwrapped—I discover something new.
A Closer Look
Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope is an impressive and poignant book. Satisfying on a first read, it also amply rewards repeated readings. The poems are deeply layered, rich with metaphors, allusions, and multiple meanings. Each time I return to a poem, it's like a present being unwrapped—I discover something new.
A Closer Look
To give you a better idea of what you might find in Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope, we'll take a mini-tour through it using the cinematic aspect as a map: First, we'll take a brief look at the opening poem, which establishes a cinematic reading of the book. Then we'll turn to one of the prose-like poems, one that involves the film The Wizard of Oz. The third poem we'll look at is one with shorter lines in stanzas; it involves the film It's a Wonderful Life. We'll conclude with the last poem, which reinforces, as well as closes, the cinematic reading.
The first poem of the book, “The Incalculably Long Geometry of Sobriety,” is set in winter ("November always starts out this way"), with a speaker who is wrestling with sobriety ("A week since my last drink. The falling from the high blue"), who is probably in Chicago ("apartment staircases in Chicago.") So within the first few lines, we encounter some of the motifs that help stitch the book together: winter/cold, sobriety, the Midwest, and the color blue. (The full text of this poem can be found in the interview, which is here.)
The book's motifs combine to support its various subjects, and in this first poem, two notable subjects are introduced: loneliness (“O Loneliness. / I love the staged heartbeat of a Coke shouldered from the machine”) and loss:
Out there in the snow is a kid in a blue sweater with a head full of bronze gears
who is trying to grasp the incalculably long geometry
of loss and life. I’ll miss him too.
The various subjects in the book in turn form the foundation for what I believe is the theme of the book: a questioning of reality, an assertion that life feels like an imitation, like something less than. In the third stanza, we encounter the start of the groundwork for that theme and an invitation to a cinematic reading:
who is trying to grasp the incalculably long geometry
of loss and life. I’ll miss him too.
The various subjects in the book in turn form the foundation for what I believe is the theme of the book: a questioning of reality, an assertion that life feels like an imitation, like something less than. In the third stanza, we encounter the start of the groundwork for that theme and an invitation to a cinematic reading:
… You feel like a movie,
rapping on someone’s door,
then you’re in a movie;
you could swing the camera around and watch the brickwork of snow.
It's likely that the poem is a monologue, so the 'you' in the above snippet is the speaker talking to himself. When the speaker says he feels "like a movie," he could mean that he feels like watching a movie. However, if we let the words stand on their own, he could be saying that he feels like an object...like a movie. When taken together with the line that he's *in* a movie, the speaker calls into question the reality of his life at that moment, and in the doing, he starts the groundwork for the theme.
The next poem on our brief cinematic mini-tour is “Quitclaim of the Wizard of Oz.” It also questions what we hold to be real. “Quitclaim of the Wizard of Oz” is one of the longer, prose-like poems. In it, Montesonti hijacks the movie The Wizard of Oz and beams it into his own universe. The Wizard appears to be the speaker in the poem. Since a quitclaim is a renunciation of any legal claim to rights, at this point the title seems to suggest that the Wizard has given up his rights to the Land of Oz. The first few sentences of the poem read like a script. The first stanza suggests that the Wizard and Dorothy are not in Oz, but perhaps are in their mutual home state of Kansas or somewhere in the Midwest:
The next poem on our brief cinematic mini-tour is “Quitclaim of the Wizard of Oz.” It also questions what we hold to be real. “Quitclaim of the Wizard of Oz” is one of the longer, prose-like poems. In it, Montesonti hijacks the movie The Wizard of Oz and beams it into his own universe. The Wizard appears to be the speaker in the poem. Since a quitclaim is a renunciation of any legal claim to rights, at this point the title seems to suggest that the Wizard has given up his rights to the Land of Oz. The first few sentences of the poem read like a script. The first stanza suggests that the Wizard and Dorothy are not in Oz, but perhaps are in their mutual home state of Kansas or somewhere in the Midwest:
Edge of reaped cornfield. Stood there. Dorothy jump cut-materialized and ran into my arms. “What happened to the scarecrow?” she asked. “You were the scarecrow,” I replied.
“I knew all along,” she said, brushing back her hair.
While the beginning of the first stanza is script-like and suggests a movie, we learn in the second stanza that the Wizard is also talking to someone, a ‘you’, which suggests that the poem is also an epistle or an address to someone who isn't there:“I knew all along,” she said, brushing back her hair.
Dear Anonymous, There are small blue tornadoes in my eyes when I read your poems about the outlines of socks on your floor. Your poems entitled “Depression in a Suitcase.”
The specificity of the second stanza—'your' poems, the socks on the floor, stating the poem’s actual title—all point to a particular, known person, despite the Wizard calling that person 'Anonymous'. In addition, the Wizard seems to know about other poems in this book. For example, the part about the "outlines of socks on your floor" could be a reference to the poem "A Time to Sing in Airports," which comes later in the book and mentions the speaker's socks on the floor. The Wizard ask questions of, and addresses, this anonymous person throughout the poem, for example:
Would you trade your lion for courage?
Dear Anonymous, If I were a soldier I’d be a bad soldier because I wouldn't die for anyone or myself. May I digress? Black T-Bird blacking out. Yellow maple tree unzipped. Mattress, independent on hardwood floor.
…
First you’ll miss banana shakes in the summertime; then you’ll learn we’re voices trapped under language.
…
Dear Anonymous, If I were a soldier I’d be a bad soldier because I wouldn't die for anyone or myself. May I digress? Black T-Bird blacking out. Yellow maple tree unzipped. Mattress, independent on hardwood floor.
…
First you’ll miss banana shakes in the summertime; then you’ll learn we’re voices trapped under language.
…
In the fourth stanza, we learn that the Wizard is also a poet ("the light from the poem I wrote about watermelons") and that the Wizard in this poem-version of the story is probably living with Dorothy ("the artificial womb of the bathtub, Dorothy's bare feet out of cuffed jeans; she sat on the edge of the bed, crossed her legs, and spread out her toes.") Given that the Wizard is a poet, given that the anonymous 'you' is also a poet, given that the Wizard has information about other poems in the book, all of these 'givens' together support the idea that the Wizard is either addressing the poet who wrote the poem, or the Wizard is the poet who wrote the poem. So we have the poet speaking as an alternate version of himself (as the Wizard) and we have the speaker, the Wizard, who is speaking to an alternate or separate version of himself (i.e., the poet). This circularity creates ambiguity with respect to speaker and addressee. It has the effect of conflating the role of the Wizard in this poem-film with the personhood of the poet in 'real life'. What is real merges into make-believe and vice versa.
Before leaving this poem, I'd like to spend some time with the last two stanzas:
This is the talking I find significant, talking more like clothing. The broken, frozen reeds of cornstalks, the pale yellow sun struggling to lower its temperature below the silos.
Would you give it all up to go home?
I want to linger here with the simile "talking more like clothing" because it is a simple example of the richness of Montesonti's metaphors, similes, juxtapositions, and other methods of comparison that transfer meaning and attributes. The simile "talking more like clothing" draws me in as I consider talking that is more like something you slip on and off, as something you can leave in a heap on the floor, or wash clean and put away, talking as something you choose to put on in order to form an identity or project a persona, talking as something you wear to protect yourself from being naked and exposed, talking as something wordless.
Lastly, the question that ends the poem "Would you give it all up to go home?" is an example of the multiple meanings that Montesonti layers into his poems. The landscape depicted in the stanza (the "broken, frozen reeds of cornstalks" and the silos), along with some of the other location-descriptors in the poem, suggest that the Wizard and Dorothy could be back home in Kansas. If they are already in Kansas, then the question at the end of the poem could be asking the Wizard if he would give up what was considered home (Kansas) in order "to go home." In this case, asking the question conveys the feeling that home is wherever he is not. However, in the poem, the Wizard and Dorothy also meander to Greece and possibly to Chicago. If they're not in Kansas and are moving around, then asking the question at the end conveys the feeling that home is unattainable. At the same time, if we read the poem as the poet speaking as the Wizard speaking to the poet, then 'home' takes on a more metaphorical meaning, one that is not necessarily a place.
The third poem on our brief cinematic mini-tour, “A Flock of Iagos Waiting in the Wings," is one of the poems that appears in shorter-lined stanzas and is an excellent example of Montesonti's use of allusion, ambiguity, and juxtaposition. First, the title. Through the name 'Iago', Montesonti invokes both what some would call high and low culture: Iago in the title alludes to the the charismatically-cloaked Machiavellian character in Shakespeare’s Othello. Iago also alludes to the parrot in Walt Disney’s cartoon TV series and films Aladdin. While both manifestations of Iago have unsavory characteristics, Shakespeare’s Iago is malevolent—Disney’s not so much, more of a trickster character rather than an evil one. If we have in mind Shakespeare’s Iago, it sets the stage for the menacing undercurrent of the poem, especially in connection with the word ‘flock’, which, while meaning a large number, also summons the image of a flock of evil birds. However, if we have in mind Disney’s Iago, then it sets the stage for something comical as we imagine a flock of mischievous cartoon birds. The word 'flock' also hints at a church congregation, giving a slight religious tint to the understanding of the title, an understanding that also presages the biblical references and allusions in the poem.
At the start of the poem, we find the speaker standing on a bridge in Indianapolis “getting covered with coils of snow,” contemplating the 1946 American Christmas movie classic It’s a Wonderful Life, and the alternate world that would have existed had the main character of the movie, George, never lived—how George’s home town would have ended up “… constricted financially, then choked / out by cheap neon from the luminous / vices.” The image of the speaker of the poem on bridge echoes the scene in the movie where the lead character George stands on a bridge in the snow on Christmas Eve contemplating suicide. The movie title It’s a Wonderful Life takes on a sense of irony as the speaker tells us he “feels like Lucifer in a tree” that this alternate harsh, George-less world would never come to be “just because George renege[d] on his wish” to die.
The speaker's consideration of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life is immediately juxtaposed with science, as the speaker starts talking about a science article: “I read this article / about some scientists who theorized / twenty ways the world might end.” This juxtaposition seems to turn from the elusive fantasy of the movie to hard fact. But that turn turns out to be elusive as well, because according to the speaker, the last scientific theory is that “Someone wakes up / and finds it has all been a dream.” The speaker acknowledges with glib sarcasm: “Yes, this trick / is cheap soap opera tripe, but who says / we live in an expensive universe?” There is humor in this ironic turn to science that really isn’t science, a darker humor rooted in cynicism.
The speaker of the poem continues the extension into science with a story he saw on the science TV program NOVA about a man afflicted with Capgras delusion. The man "believed / all his loved ones were carbon-copy imposters.” The speaker recounts that the man “didn't think his parents / were reptiles in rubber suits or Iagos waiting in the wings ... / they just weren't them.” While the poem says that the parents are not “Iagos waiting in the wings,” the title says the opposite, that this poem is about “a flock of Iagos waiting / in the wings.” Here, we have family members who are not family members, a poem that says the parents are not Iagos waiting in the wings, while title says they are. This sort of ambiguity disorients the reader with respect to what is real and what is not.
On the heels of the NOVA show, the speaker returns to standing on the bridge, there in the slush of traffic:
I’m not thinking of doing anything drastic;
I'm just watching the light from the nearby power
plant occasionally coil in a divot of water,
shine like a scale, and then disappear.
Those last two stanzas leave the reader with a final imprint of the snake that has been slithering all through this poem in images and allusions—Lucifer, coils of snow, the alternate universe that "like a snake unhinges its jaw"—as well as in diction, for example “constricted,” “snake-oil salesman,” “the brief venom of visual exultation,” “reptiles in rubber suits,” and the "legless" moonlight and snow.
Related to the image of the serpent, one last comment before we move on: Like other poems in the book, this poem contains biblical references and allusions, both directly through Lucifer and indirectly through Iago, which loops in Shakespeare's Othello, considered by some to be an allusion to the biblical creation story in which Desdemona is Eve, Othello is Adam, and Iago, the serpent that deceives them.
We'll conclude our cinematic jaunt through Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope with the last poem of the book, which has the delightful tongue-in-cheek title “Gratuitous Voice-Over at the End of a Film, Reflecting on the Tribulations of the Plot and Coming Finally to an Epiphany.” The poem is told in the first person, and being a voice-over to a film, I imagine the speaker saying the opening lines out loud, as he watches himself row across the lake:
Then I realized, rowing across the lake
that even if Mother leaves the sanitarium
and they build another aviary and free the bullfinches
The humorous tone of the title spills over into the beginning of the poem and those first few lines have the feel of parody. The first twenty-six lines form one long sentence, a string of collaged images and scenes that feel less and less parodical until we reach the final images of that sentence:
winter rain cutting through tree branches,
all this inevitable turning in my life,
a tornado kicking out shreds of a barn,
or an icebreaker ship rolling like an oily bell.
The last six lines of the poem clinch the cinematic reading of the book with a final, parting shot:
It’s as if there’s a camera that pans out farther
and farther until you question what holds it.
Then I realized, rowing across the lake,
there’s so little to keep me from sinking,
just this small craft,
suspended above the consuming water.
This last poem, in which the speaker approaches his life as if it were a film, suggests that life/reality is something we construct, something we can't help but question; it evidences the postmodern container that holds the poems of this beautiful book.
Like the final poem, the poems in Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope demonstrate a skillful use of tone, juxtaposition, metaphor, and allusion. Montesonti carefully crafts images and language. He is a master of juxtaposition, metaphor, and layered meaning. The result is a book that engages the reader's heart and intellect as it takes us on a journey, an exploration of what is considered real. The book doesn't presume to give answers. Rather, it gifts us with an experience.
Then I realized, rowing across the lake
that even if Mother leaves the sanitarium
and they build another aviary and free the bullfinches
The humorous tone of the title spills over into the beginning of the poem and those first few lines have the feel of parody. The first twenty-six lines form one long sentence, a string of collaged images and scenes that feel less and less parodical until we reach the final images of that sentence:
winter rain cutting through tree branches,
all this inevitable turning in my life,
a tornado kicking out shreds of a barn,
or an icebreaker ship rolling like an oily bell.
The last six lines of the poem clinch the cinematic reading of the book with a final, parting shot:
It’s as if there’s a camera that pans out farther
and farther until you question what holds it.
Then I realized, rowing across the lake,
there’s so little to keep me from sinking,
just this small craft,
suspended above the consuming water.
This last poem, in which the speaker approaches his life as if it were a film, suggests that life/reality is something we construct, something we can't help but question; it evidences the postmodern container that holds the poems of this beautiful book.
Like the final poem, the poems in Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope demonstrate a skillful use of tone, juxtaposition, metaphor, and allusion. Montesonti carefully crafts images and language. He is a master of juxtaposition, metaphor, and layered meaning. The result is a book that engages the reader's heart and intellect as it takes us on a journey, an exploration of what is considered real. The book doesn't presume to give answers. Rather, it gifts us with an experience.
__________
[a poem from Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope]
Blackout Chef
I had a friend whose father,
every night after coming home
from looking for work,
would sit down at the kitchen
table and with medical accuracy
pour six shots of vodka
into six glasses and drink them
one per minute. Then he
would stand, open a bottle of wine
and start cooking in his little
basement apartment,
which he rented after the divorce,
until his memory lifted away.
Starved of himself,
he grew so hungry
he would prepare elaborate
meals: New York strip steaks
a perfect medium,
roasted lamb with rosemary
and mint, tomato
and cilantro gazpacho.
He must have staggered through
the bright aisles of the grocery
rooting around the crisper
for kale while Sheryl Crow
played overhead, or slurred to
the manager about the lack
of fresh tarragon. In his bright warm
kitchen with the snow piled
above the basement windows
in the winter months when the sun
would set at five p.m., he pulled his face
from the steam of the pots,
wrinkled in an expression
of joy in preparing things
that made sense, but the next morning,
he would wake to find it all there
untouched, gleaming on plates,
his night work, having appeared seemingly
from nowhere—from someone
who had the things he lacked in life:
taste, inspiration,
the power
to wake up the next morning,
someone else.
"Blackout Chef" was first published in Spork
* * * * *
All poems printed or quoted in this post © Frank Montesonti Blight, Blight, Blight, Ray of Hope (Barrow Street Press, 2012)
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