RockPaperPoem

 

RockPaperPoem

Issue 9 - The Contest Issue
August 2024

 

Editors’ Note

 

Dear RPP Readers,

Welcome to the RockPaperPoem Contest Issue!

It is our exceptional pleasure to present the winners of the first RockPaperPoem Poetry Prize Contest, as well as all the talented finalists who competed. We thank everyone who entered the contest, and deeply appreciate the wonderful response we received.

Congratulations to Prize Winners Diane LeBlanc, Dion O’Reilly, and Jeanne Wagner, and to Finalists Zoe Boyer, Kevin Burris, Ellen Devlin, Suzanne Edison, Charity Everitt, D. Walsh Gilbert, Scott Lowery, Lexi Pelle, David B. Prather, Jean Prokott, Ellen Rowland, Mary Specker Stone, and Lisa Zimmerman.

Before you begin to sample this issue, read contest judge Danusha Lameris’ beautiful accolades for the three prize-winning poems, and then spend time with all 18 poems.

Thanks again for your continued readership and support as we continue to expand the offerings from RockPaperPoem!

The Editors

From Danusha Lameris:

“A Brief History of Greed”: This poem had me at pasqueflowers and antelope––with its naming. I love a poem that asks me to wallow in the mud, to consider tree bark and fireweed. To contemplate, in a riff on loss, that “What happens to a lonely body/ is its own history of greed.” This is a poem gone feral, that meanders along the banks of memory and lost plans, alongside quartz and moose, the icy creek. That does, and doesn’t try to recover what has been lost.

“Post Anthropocene”: There are countless ways to ponder our own fate, and I am drawn to the way this poem does it, with language like “jackal-mouthed, gospel-wild, razor wire.” We are invited to see a world without us, one in which we do not even know the names of what comes next. But also to imagine creatures “cleaned of reason,” incapable of the complex thought that might allow a species to destroy itself.

 “Sometimes My Tinnitus Is a Whisper from the Past”: It’s magic when a poem takes an ordinary task and turns it into an act of strength the way this poem does. “I know, now, /how hard the body works to give beauty/ its moment in time,” the speaker of this poem tells us, referring to the mother, “pressing out the past” as she irons a sheet, this common act done in a style that paints her as a heroine, a survivor.

 

Image Credits:

A Brief History of Greed - "Miner’s Cabin and Forest" Composite by Deborah Goschy
Photo 1 "Miner's Cabin": https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Miner%27s_Cabin,_Chicken,_Alaska.JPG License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Photo 2 "Forest" Image Author: USDA photo by Lance Cheung https://www.rawpixel.com/image/3259497/free-photo-image-forest-rainforest-wood License: CC0 1.0 Universal
Post Anthropocene - "Ruin_decay_castle_masonry_building_architecture-721123.jpg" Image Author: unknown https://pxhere.com/en/photo/721123 License: CC0 1.0 Universal
Sometimes My Tinnitus Is a Whisper from the Past - Photo of the painting "Two Ironing Women" by Edgar Degas https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edgar_Germain_Hilaire_Degas_084.jpg License: The work of art depicted in this image and the reproduction thereof are in the public domain worldwide. The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Leaning Into the Body’s Falling - Sunflowers! Image Author: Pain Chaud https://www.flickr.com/photos/28538827@N05/4991983756/. License: CC BY-ND 2.0 Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic
The Stag - "Stags in the Front Yard" Composite by Deborah Goschy
Photo 1 "Red deer stag (Cervus elaphus) with velvet antlers in Glen Torridon, Scotland" Image Author: Mehmet Karatay retouched by Massimo Catarinella: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RedDeerStag.jpg#/media/File:RedDeerStag.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Photo 2 "brown brick wall on green field" Image Author: unknown https://i1.pickpik.com/photos/976/285/141/meadow-garden-summer-front-yard-46f89e77d9aed5025da20833f4a763ee.jpg License: PickPik Terms Of Service
Morning’s View to a Metaphor - "Sunrise on Turtle Lake" © Deborah Goschy
Corsage - "White Freesia Wedding Corsage" Image Author: unknown https://picryl.com/media/white-corsage-freesia-wedding-corsage-6eaf49 License: Public domain/Pixabay Content License
Into the Rift - "Libby Lake area of the Methow Valley Ranger District USDA Forest Service". Image Author: Adam Mason https://www.flickr.com/photos/forestservicenw/53270107721/. License: Public Domain Mark 1.0 Universal
This Delicate Web - "Ajo Lily" from the National Parks Gallery https://jenikirbyhistory.getarchive.net/amp/media/ajo-lily-4cf589 License: Public Domain Dedication
Fifth Season - "Rain and Parched Earth Composite" Composite Photo by Deborah Goschy
Photo 1 "Raincloud" Image Author: unknown https://pxhere.com/en/photo/479421 License: CC0 Public Domain
Photo 2 "photo of dried land during daytime" Image Author: unknown https://i2.pickpik.com/photos/970/186/357/drought-ground-clay-cracks-5667a7ab06b8fd7d7a785f536262f0bf.jpg License: PickPik Terms Of Service
Impasse - "closeup photo of human feet on body of water". Image Author: unknown https://i2.pickpik.com/photos/372/674/351/feet-in-the-water-feet-water-stream-a231d2f923999f9ab4a80a2928157eef.jpg License: PickPik Terms Of Service
Spoiler Alert - "Caregiver Talking to a Senior Woman in a Corridor". Image Author: Jsme MILA https://www.pexels.com/photo/caregiver-talking-to-a-senior-woman-in-a-corridor-18429415/. License: Pexels Legal Simplicity
A Built-in Pocket Protector Keeps Sawfish from ‘Sword Fighting’ in the Womb - "Sawfish". Image Author: Pearson Scott Foresman https://garystockbridge617.getarchive.net/amp/media/sawfish-psf-404b9e. License: Public Domain
My Father’s Land - "Handfuls of Corn" Composite Photo by Deborah Goschy
Photo 1 "Hands Cupping Seeds" Image Author: Lance Cheung, U.S. Department of Agriculture https://www.rawpixel.com/image/3259489/free-photo-image-grain-seed-agriculture License: CC0 1.0 Universal
Photo 2 "Zea Mays Seeds" Image Author: Rasbak https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Zea_mays_seeds.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Photo 3 "Corn seedlings" Image Author: Pexels https://freerangestock.com/photos/127263/corn-seedlings.html License: Freerange Stock Terms of Use
The Copy Room - "Paper jam frustration" Image Author: gratuit https://www.freeimageslive.co.uk/free_stock_image/printer-frustration-jpg. License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
The Shape of Time - "Boxes of Books Beneath Old Calendar" Composite Photo by Deborah Goschy
Photo 1 "Books in Boxes" Image Author: Michael Coghlan https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/8545279556 License: CC BY-SA 2.0 Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic
Photo 2 "Insurance Company Calendar" Image Author: C. K. Hartman https://www.flickr.com/photos/cheezepix/4329248483 License: CC BY 2.0 Attribution 2.0 Generic
Photo 3 "Macro Shot of Wooden Planks" Image Author: unknown https://i1.pickpik.com/photos/552/777/170/background-board-carpentry-construction-47bf72049f059f7a7f621451a1e1a7e5.jpg License: PickPik Terms Of Service
The Moment - "Woman Kneeling Next to Dog" Image Author: Splitshire https://freerangestock.com/photos/41285/woman-kneeling-next-to-dog.html. License: Freerange Stock Terms Of Service
Some Words I Love and Their Strange Power - "Music 'en plein air'" Composite Photo by Deborah Goschy
Photo 1 "Music notes illustration" Image Author: unknown https://www.rawpixel.com/image/6482359/png-sticker-public-domain License: CC0 1.0 Universal
Photo 2 "Countryside Sunset Landscape" Image Author: pixabay.com https://picryl.com/media/countryside-sunset-landscape-landscape-nature-landscapes-0054f0 License: Public domain/Pixabay Content License
Photo 3 "Violin Player" Image Author: Antanasc https://www.goodfon.com/music/wallpaper-download-1920x1080-muzykant-skripka-muzyka-5476.html

RockPaperPoem