Congratulations again to the winners of the 2011 Naomi Cherkofsky Memorial Contestaward. We were blessed that so many of the winners were able to attend the NSPF meeting and open mic in honor of National Poetry Month last Saturday, April 16, at the Beverly Public Library. Awards went to:

1. Lee Eric Freedman of Swampscott won first place for his poem “I Salute Myself,” a whimsical re-interpretation of Whitman’s “Song of Myself” retold from this unique poet’s musical dynasticism. We’ll see if we can’t get his permission to publish the piece here.
2. Suellen Wedmore, of Rockport, earned second place for her poem “At Foley Stadium: Afghanstan-Bound”, as well as an honorable mention prize.  With her own son having served overseas on three tours, Wedmore says she penned her winning poem after reading a newspaper article regarding a gathering of hundreds of supports who gathered in Worcester’s Foley Stadium last year as a send-off for more than 600 service members in what the Boston Globe called “the largest deployment of Massachusetts National Guard troops since World War II.”
3. C.H. Coleman, of Salem, earned third place for his poem “Absolute Last” which imagines the procreations efforts of the last man and woman on the planet and bizzare prediciament of needing assistance. Coleman, like Wedmore, also earned an honorable mention.

Additional honorable mention prizes were given to Diane Giardi, of Gloucester, for her poem “As Snow Falls”, Claire Keyes, of Marblehead, for “Sanctuary”, Richard Samuel Davis, of Byfield, for “Heaven to Heaven”, Maryellen Letarte, of Lunrnburg, for “Dragonfly”, and to Lucille Morgan Wilson of Des Moines, IA.

Don’t forget, the next NSPF meeting will be held Saturday, May 21, 11 a.m., at the library!