Sol Magazine's
Poet Laureate 2004 Edition
© 2004 SOL MAGAZINE
http://www.sol-magazine.org


THIRD PLACE

Avonne Griffin, Greer, SC, USA

Avonne Griffin

BIOGRAPHY

Avonne Griffin loves both the traditional genteel voice of Southern poets and the experimental yet familiar tone of California poets, believing both have influenced her approach to poetry; she is fascinated by parallels and contradictions, and finds delight in form poetry as well as free verse.  Her favorite poets range from John Donne and Emily Dickinson to Mary Oliver, Linda Pastan and Billy Collins.  Avonne's poetry has appeared in Sol Magazine, Emotions, LeMewz, American West, This Hard Wind, Writer's Quill, Times Ex, and Austin International Poetry Festival's 2001 a-di-verse-city odyssey.  Avonne Griffin is from Southern California, but now lives in South Carolina with her husband, close to their six children and ten grandchildren.

Favorite Quote:  "The soul selects her own society, / then shuts the door / to her divine majority," —Emily Dickinson, Collected Poems

COMMENTS 

Avonne Griffin creates powerful poems with a sharp control of words without being too restrictive.  Her writing is beautifully lush when the occasion merits, and shows an understanding of how poetic tools of structure and sound (rhyme, alliteration and assonace) can support a chosen topic.  She brings a new air of beauty to normal events, portraying subjects effectively with the use of subtle patterned repetition, original similes and metaphors, and interesting topics.  Her Cinquain, "Nuit de la Tulipe," shows a clever use of homophone, and says so very much in five short lines. Good use of alliteration and fine word play in the first and final lines, and a beautiful use of language to create a compact flowing work.  "If You Ever Heard a Loon" lifts readers into another world.  Charming in its almost-childlike simplicity that marvels over a simple bird's cry, the poem becomes almost mystical through uses of comparisons such as "his laugh like a lover / lost in island mist."  Wonderful alliteration throughout, and a marvelously philosophical closing concept stated in a direct, uncomplicated way.  Fine writing. 


Nuit de la Tulipe

Tulips
on the nightstand,
shadows in candlelight
waiting for a willing curve, just
two lips.

© 2004 Avonne Griffin, Greer, SC, USA



If You Ever Heard a Loon

Are you charmed, too
by the magic of a loon?
Imagine his cry
from across the lake
when the moon breaks free
from a tangle of pine,
his laugh like a lover
lost in island mist.

Do you wonder, too
and desire to hold his song
in your throat, on your lips
for a silent, starless night
forever? You would wait
suspended, susceptible
for the tender next verse,
praying it's the same, and it is.
But you never would be again.

© 2004 Avonne Griffin, Greer, SC, USA


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