MM's IBPC Nominations for May Competition Options

[Psyche]

I would like to nominate Snow's poem SADness for May's IBPC. It's a deftly handled and beautifully worded piece for this fairly common winter condition. I like the way Snow has begun the poem with the swallows congregating for their flight to Africa's sunny climes, and the envy it implies.
Then the poem ends with the return of swallows building their nests, and happiness jolting the affected person out of her gloomy couch.

Hugs, Syl***

SADness by Eira Needham


Tinged with melancholy,
chilled September air
tumbles with
desiccating foliage.
Sun weakly embraces blues
and sadness settles
into a crumpled carpet.

Restless swallows congregate,
trilling on telegraph wires.
I watch them flock
to sun baked Africa;
long wings undulate
until they dot the horizon.
Sucked into their void,
I yearn for their return.

Decreased daylight spills
into long sombre nights:
a body clock disturbance.
I slouch through stark winter
transformed into a couch potato,
pigging out on starchy foods.
Hedgehogs hibernate beneath
last season’s wrinkled sheets,
while I intermittently snooze
shrouded by a stratus duvet.

Springtime brings illumination
winking through dense woods.
I’m lifted, listening to swallows
twitter in the reeds … I sing.

Wrapped in sun’s warm shawl
I’m cosseted -- a bud ready to bloom.

This post has been edited by Cleo_Serapis: May 9 09, 08:16

Reason for edit: 3rd revision

[Psyche]

Hi all,

I would like to nominate Steve's poem "A Gray Area". I consider it extremely clever and deftly worded. The 'elephant' is still with us, and I'm glad Steve brought up this issue so poetically.

Hugs, Syl***


A Gray Area by Stephen Pray


No one notices his presence,
pretending nonexistence.
Even I, who know better,
refuse that patch of gray
seen in peripheral vision.

Talking in hushed tones
as if he wouldn’t hear,
his ears are huge,
how could he not?

And each endearing step
sends shudders through my bones.
As in his dance,
he gracelessly pounds the floor.

In the shocking silence
that ripples back and forth
through the room,
I hear him snuffling at canapés and petit fours.

Perhaps their red-rimmed eyes block the view,
or maybe as a child only I know…
the elephant is there.


This post has been edited by Cleo_Serapis: Apr 27 09, 19:13

Reason for edit: Revision update

[Cleo_Serapis]

What a FAB nomination!!

I hadn't read this one before - will need to do so in the crit forum!

Excellent - PM sent to Steve...

[Eisa]

Well nominated Syl -- I was just about to nominate this myself, it is so clever!!!
I second this one!!

Snow

[Eisa]

I would like to nominate Lightning Bolt by Psyche (Syl) I have chosen it for it's vivid descriptions and the realisation that this devastation might have been caused by one thing -- a cigarette butt!
Well written Syl.


Lightning Bolt by Sylvia Maclagan

In a flash,
voracious walls
of weaving flames
swallow coniferous forests.

Fireballs arching
over brooks and waterfalls
ignite woodsheds, barns, homes.
Goats agonize
in russet glades,
their coats burning bright
under orange heights.

Darting flares
trigger new conflagrations,
whistling through
brittle undergrowth
cowed by enduring drought.

Ravens swoop
over towers of smoke,
gauging nature’s insatiable guts.

Hydroplanes hover
above holocaust,
resembling paper projectiles
flung by fools.

Midget mortals
defying the inferno
retreat from their trenches.
Goliath gobbles
buttress and bulwark,
sandbanks and hoses,
bolts over black belted roads,
ultimately succumbs to Patagonian
chain of mountain lakes.

A colossus has drowned
but will be reborn
in arcane arcs
over time’s infinite flow.

Moon sheds serpentine rays
on leagues of smoldering Andean
slopes and valleys.

A child cries.
Its mother prostrates herself
on warm cinders of her home.

I peregrinate in frenzied silence
as tears sear my heart,
a bulk of pungent pine cones
coddled in my hapless hands.

A bolt of lightning...
or a tossed cigarette butt?

By Psyche

© Sylvia Maclagan, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2009.

This post has been edited by Cleo_Serapis: May 30 09, 07:01

Reason for edit: Revision update

[Eisa]

I would like to nominate A Seed by Larry. This is a beautifully written sonnet from a very original idea.
Well done Larry

A Seed

Here in my Mother’s heart I lie asleep,
sweet shelter from Her minion’s icy breath,
I wait beneath Her umber skin. Too deep
to hear that song; a howling dirge of death

for those, wind kissed. Light’s portals ever close!
No more to feel the sunshine’s warming touch
the coming showers carry down to those
as fortunate as I. New life is such

a precious gift. Each Spring I’m born anew
to feed the butterflies… bless eyes of men
who venture near my home. Those lucky few
that see my face, dew washed, in forest glen

are like my Mother’s heart which shelters me.
A seed of thought, kept safe in memory.

[Eisa]

I would like to nominate Movement by Moonlight by Sekhmet (Leo). This had me sitting on the edge of my chair from beginning to end.
Outstanding writing, Leo.

Movement by Moonlight.

The harvest mouse,
fearing the first bite
of Autumn frosts,
searches
fruitlessly.
Fleet - she lurches, shrivel boned,
between the shaven stalks of wheat.
Seeking out the
final gleanings,
sharp, beneath her hurrying
feet.

With luminous eyes,
tail twitching,mute,
the barn-yard cat -
Pouncing!
Her gaping
jaws announcing her intent.
Bright fatal flash of un-sheathed claws.
She skyward leaps,
feints in the air,
but mouse-less, lands with empty
paws.

On starlight dusted
wings, the Snowy Owl
blinks slowly - once.
Then glides
noiselessly.
Unseen - she slides, talons poised,
her amber eyes keen, unblinking,
Sharp focused on
one quaking mouse.
She downward stoops – her killing -
clean.

[Eisa]

Thanks for the nomination Syl

Hugs Snow

[Cleo_Serapis]

Permission PM sent (perhaps we can hold this poem off to the following month)?

[Cleo_Serapis]

Permission PM sent (perhaps this one can also be held to next month depending on the repsonses I receive from the other poets who have noms this month) and this nom is 1 day late for the May cut-off...

[Cleo_Serapis]

Permission PM sent

[Cleo_Serapis]

Thanks Larry - got your PM. Let's see who is definitive for this month and possibly hold this off to next.

I'll keep you posted!

[Cleo_Serapis]

Thx Leo - got your PM - let's see how the final three for this month work out - is your poem "ready" to go (just in case)?

Glad to hear you would be quite happy for it to be held over until next month... (Larry responded in kind the same as well).

TTY in a few days!
~Lori

[Guest_ohsteve_*]

Thank you Sylvia and Eira very much for this nomination, I accept it very humbly.
Steve

[Guest_ohsteve_*]

Congradulation on your Nomination to the IBPC on this poem. I knew it was very good, and am very glad Snow gave it the nod for entry into IBPC.
Steve

[Sekhmet]

Dear Eisa - Thank you so much for nominating, 'Movement by Moonlight' to the IBPC.
I am deeply sorry for not thanking you sooner - but because this is my first nomination, it was completely unexpected. I had no idea how or why nominations happened, or even what they meant. I have only just discovered that it was you who actually made the nomination - so Thank You!
Gratefully,
Leo

[Psyche]

I've changed the title to "LIGHTNING BOLT...", as well as tweaked the finale....

Any objections, please let me know!

Hugs, Syl***