Sol Magazine © 2001
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Our topics touch a variety of subjects about nature and the nature of humanity.  The purpose of our all volunteer organization is to educate poets, and to foster the reading and writing of short poetry.  We are not a vanity press.  Not every poem submitted will be published.  We are a family magazine.  Do not advocate the use of alcohol or drugs in your poetry then ask us to consider your work.  Please read our monthly rules before sending us your work.

PART FOUR of the Poet Laureate Competition is in progress.   If you have won 1st place in any of our previous contests, you are welcome to enter.

CONTENTS:
 

WELCOME

LETTERS

TOPIC ONE:  HOT CHOCOLATE (CINQUAIN)

TOPIC TWO:  LOVE AMERICAN STYLE (METAPHOR - QUATRAIN)

FIRST POETS:  SUNSHINE (TANKA)

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WELCOME:  Katie-Anne Gustafsson, Deborah P. Kolodji, Louie Levy, Michelle Marincel, Katherine Swarts, Andrew Verrett.

If a poet added a bit of romance to the writing, great, but first and foremost this contest was about the pleasures of Hot Chocolate, the drink.  From the judges: Who would have thought hot chocolate could be described in so many interesting and varied ways, all in Cinquain form.  Although limited in form, these poets were not limited in imagination and expression.  A most delightful experience to judge these marvelous creations.
 
 

Not too
Hot.  Not too cold
With hint of cinnamon
Wrist-tested on bare skin for your
Pleasure
 

Lynette Bowen, League City, TX
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  This poet certainly made this mouth-watering.  A real pleasure to share.
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:  Reveals the process beautifully and concisely.
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HONORABLE MENTION
Chocolate Cosmetic
 

Scalding
First shallow slurp
Both cautious and noisy
Warm sweet cocoa foam dispatches
Mustache
 

Warner D. Conarton, Zephyrhills, FL
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Good description of the joys and sounds of drinking hot chocolate.
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Insurance
 

Mugs of
Hot Chocolate
Followed by kisses are
A sneaky way to get your love
To stay
 

Lois Lay Castiglioni, Galveston, TX
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  A unique way to get love to stay. Cute and enticing.
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FIRST PLACE - Winner of a flip book: "The Shape of the Heart," by Nancy Ryan, and "The Size of the World," by Aline Soules.
 

Solutions
 

Clutching
Hot chocolate
Friends talked for hours of love
World politics and how to grow
Flowers
 

Kay Lay Earnest, Smyrna, GA

Oh, my!
Hot chocolate!
Such a sweet addition.
I do enjoy this affliction...
Hersheys!
 

Milton Earnest, Smyrna, GA
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Hershey's would love this.  A yum poem.
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:  Nice rhyme with two uncommon words makes this memorable.
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Chocolate Desires
 

Tempting
Smooth, relaxing
Sensuously warming
Caressing deep within my soul
Pleasure
 

Katie-Anne Gustafsson, Eskstiluna, Sweden
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  All the pleasures of chocolate neatly described.
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:   Lovely languid language!
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SECOND PLACE

Skiers Chocolate Treat
 

Cocoa
Sweet brown powder
Three spoonfuls to hot milk
Snowy mound of marshmallow melts
Slow thaw
 

Maryann Hazen-Stearns, Ellenville, NY

I sip
Its creamy froth,
Scalding tongue, branding lip
With chocolate foam ­ marshmallow kissed
Mustache
 

Kathy Kehrli, Factoryville, PA
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Nice slow description of sipping cocoa.  One enjoys it from the first sip to the marshmallow kissed moustache.
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After Chocolate
 

Sip it.
Savor its soft,
steamy, sensuous sauce.
Songs of praise are moans of utter
pleasure.
 

John E. Rice, Houston, TX
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Well done!  According to this poet, there IS life after chocolate.
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:  Simply scrumptious writing!
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Chocolate Passions
 

Cold nights,
Dreaming of cups
Brimming with chocolate
Sweet, dark, dreamy hot chocolate
For me.
 

Lynne Remick, Nesconset, NY
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Head to the kitchen, and brew a cup.
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THIRD PLACE

S-Chocolate Serenity
 

Seduced
Sally succumbs
sips subversive sucrose
so serendipitously sweet
she sings
 

James M. Thompson, Baytown, TX

Just a
touch to enhance
the senses. Now lean back,
dream of chocolate, sniff, inhale.
Shoo winter.
 

Claiborne S. Walsh, Montrose, AL
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Is there anything better than cocoa raspberry?
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:  Made me want to stick my tongue out at cold weather and pour another cup.

We asked for a quatrain using at least one metaphor to compare love to a place in North or South America.  Poems without a metaphor or comparison of love to a place were disqualified.
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Endangered Species
 

Deep in a dying jungle
love lies.
Amazon of my feelings
extinction of my hope.
 

Ron Blanton, Alpharetta, GA
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Very expressive; takes the reader away.
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FIRST PLACE - Winner of a copy of "This Valentine's Day," a collection of love poems, from Blue Mountain Arts.
 

First Love
 

As tender as spring grass on the Texas prairie
As sweet as the sap of Vermont sugar maples
As enthralling as Bourbon Street on Saturday night
As fleeting as an April snow in Kansas City.
 

SuzAnne C. Cole, Houston, TX

Hardly Un-American
 

This deepest of echoing chasms,
Of giddy, cliff-sided highs and lows,
With earth-layered striate its emotions,
Love is surely relationship’s Grand Canyon.
 

Warner D. Conarton, Zephyrhills, FL

ocean front property on Pensacola Bay   his
crystal clear blue waters pound toward
white pure shore   generous and mystical and
hiding little treasures beneath a rough and complex surface
 

Beverly Sweet Forbes, Kemah, TX
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Nicely painted picture.  Leaves one thinking about the mystical and little treasures.
EDITOR'S COMMENTS: Wonderful description of both place and person, grounded in emotion.  Excellent writing.
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THIRD PLACE

California Dreaming
 

Flashing my best Hollywood smile
I reach out my hand to hold on
We laugh running through the surf
Playful dolphins in the Malibu sunset
 

Roz Garay, Whittier, CA

Love is a fragile escapade
glittery as sequin lights on Broadway
after the show opens and a giddy
New York City rain showers applause
 

Maryann Hazen-Stearns, Ellenville, NY
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Unique expression.  Good description of love.
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Philly Affair
 

Soft like pretzels piping hot
Gooey like cheesy steaks
Brotherly love's a downright sin
With a Philadelphia snack
 

Kathy Kehrli, Factoryville, PA
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Creative; interesting choice of descriptive words.
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:  Yummy descriptions, put together in a delicious way.
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Discovering Wildflowers
 

After a divorce's long winter, new love blooms
in high elevations, Tuolumne Meadows joy
colored with monkeyflowers and marsh marigolds -
in love - American National Park Style - ours is Yosemite.
 

Deborah P. Kolodji, Pasadena, CA
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:  Nice alliteration, rolls well in the mouth, and flows off the tongue.
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America's Heartbeat
 

Strong as Niagara's Falls
Pounding their passion
On the jagged rocks below
And never yielding
 

Lynne Remick, Nesconset, NY
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  We see the rocks, feel the power of the falls.
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Landscape
 

Like the slow, sure strength of the River
carving the great Grand Canyon,
love endures, almost forever,
revealing all, in colored layers, to the observant heart.
 

John E. Rice, Houston, Texas
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Excellent description, interesting comparison.
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:  A memorable piece of writing, replete with the surging powerful current of the river itself.
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Love Can Be
 

As hot and as cold as New Mexico's deserts,
As steamy as Texas' Gulf Coast,
As bright as the stars in a night in Alaska:
At best--strong as Rushmore can boast.
 

Katherine Swarts, Houston, TX
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Good comparisons.
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Mid America
 

Pounding hearts burning brightly like a roaring camp fire
Embracing lovers gushing like Old Faithful geyser
Feelings as honest as Lincoln; binding like barbed wire
Like the gold of Ft. Knox, love's treasure is no miser.
 

Andrew Verrett, Kenneth City, FL
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Excellent word choice throughout.  Well done.
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Lake Levels
 

Deep as Tahoe’s glacier lake,
the blue eyes of a basin waking to a flood,
the marriage of love to a feeding stream
fills a dream's hollow like melting snow.
 

Candace A. York, Austin, TX
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Very well done.
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Amo Amas Aman
 

Stark and deep as cliffs in Acapulco
our hearts toe the line and dive.
Splash and disappear in the retreating ebb
Will we surface from the depths, remain alive?
 

Claiborne S. Walsh,  Montrose, AL
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Thought provoking.  The reader can choose an ending.
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Your Seattle Coastline
 

Cool as a cave by the ocean
where water and earth intertwine.
Inland volcanoes hold smoldering here
like fire from the beginning of time.
 

Andrea M. Zander, Rochester, MN
JUDGES' COMMENTS:  Very expressive.
EDITOR'S COMMENTS:  Wonderful writing, that, through the use of a single personal pronoun, speaks of both person and place in the same breath, the same words, and leaves no doubt that both are loved.

Paula M. Bentley said she picked SuzAnne C. Cole's poem because the imagery is so keen, so sharp, with kinetic words such as "flinty," "sparks," "cracking," leaving the reader shivering in anticipation of the wintry sunrise.  Excellent imagery, such as "darkness cracking on the rim" - this poem just sings to the winter-bound spirit, and reminds us that there is always hope with the next sunrise. Beautifully done!
 

And so it does, and so it is!  Thanks for sharing it with us, SuzAnne.
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Held fast by winter's
blue-black flinty night, we wait
for sparks of sunshine
darkness cracking on the rim
surrendering to daybreak.
 

SuzAnne C. Cole, Houston, TX

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Mixed case entries only.
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SPONSORS IN 2001: Mary Margaret Carlisle, Lois Lay Castiglioni, Marsha Rose Steed
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ANGELS IN 2001:  Leo F. Waltz
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Book donors in 2001:  Kathleen Elizabeth Schaefer, Glynn Monroe Irby, Peggy Zuleika Lynch, Carlyn Luke Reding, Craig Tigerman, Paula Marie Bentley

Corporate book donors:  Barnes & Noble.  New sponsors and angels always welcomed.  Thanks for your support.
 

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