I have just rewritten the following poem, a habit I have, so that I almost never think my poems are finished. But, if you have the same habit, stop it! Send in that poem — or the other, or even the other — to the annual Naomi Cherkofsky Memorial poetry contest! And, tell your friends to do so, too. (Click the poetry contest tab of this blog for the info.)
Many of you have come to the annual reading, held the third Saturday in April, and you know what a great time we have. The winners of the contest read first, followed by an open mic. Please spread the word. It’s a sad truth, but newspapers are no longer spreading the word the way they did in the good old days. Readership is way down, and they are grappling with survival.
We need you, therefore, to tell everyone about the contest.
Here’s the poem I was telling you about, which has actually been published in a Mass State Poets anthology in a slightly different rendition. I’m sure you can do better! Pull out your pens, your computers, your thinking caps, and get going!
Dusk in Winter
By Cathryn Keefe O’Hare
The sky – blue, white.
The ground, etched in black macadam.
The houses cramped by
the big mall and the little malls
that grew up nearby.
……..
Still, the twiggy branches of the trees
surge
and the crisp clarity
of the ebbing day
pulsates with a swirl
of black birds billowing
in a pointillist arc,
alighting on a naked
maple, swooshing
up suddenly as though
the winter god shook them
off its solemn simplicity,
tickled them into replays
of their aerial vivacity
……..
While in the west
the sun blushes madly
in a last attempt
to brighten the day
…….
and the birds flock,
and flock again
before hiding somewhere
in the star-struck night.
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