Sol Magazine's
Poet Laureate 2005 Edition
© 2005 SOL MAGAZINE
http://www.sol-magazine.org


SECOND PLACE

Carol K. Cotten
Galveston, TX, USA

Carol Cotten

Carol K. Cotten teaches literature and creative writing at Texas A&M University at Galveston.   She has been a member of Sol Magazine for three years, where one of her poems won Favorite Poem of 2004 in a reader’s poll.  Her poetry has also appeared in Avocet, Edgar, and Bayousphere. She lives in Galveston, where she is co-editor of Spiky Palm, a poetry review.  In her words, “When I want to write a poem, I go for a walk certain that I will come back with some small detail that will spark an emotion, bring back a memory, or help me see nature in a fresh way.”
EDITORS’ & JUDGES’ COMMENTS:  Carol Cotton has distilled her talent and skill into a fine set of poems within which she moves metaphorically from image to image, thought to thought.  The poet graciously offers readers a mouthful of delicious words and phrases. Particularly pleasing content as well as use of form reveal this poet's adeptness and skill of wordcraft. A sheer pleasure to read.  Melodic and lyrical, a strength of rich compassionate intelligence is experienced throughout this poet's uniquely presented and vividly descriptive poetical expression.  The poet's work is simply filled with imagery.  The poet splashes lines with colorful words that sing of prismatic colors found in everyday life, and the use of such language imbues each poem with its own colorsong, a theme of sorts, that lends a wholly separate life to each word. Masterful grasp of just the right phrasing to capture an emotion, a thought, a scene.  This poet’s writing reads as if each poem is chiseled from white quartz, resulting in a sculptured masterpiece.  A poet with well crafted metaphors and imagery.  Carol Cotten's poetry is rife with energy. Good observation and imagination yield an interesting array of pictures and emotions. The reader is swept into the poem from the first word and is always satisfied at the conclusion. 

Lament

When in summer I cannot bear
love’s loss another minute,
when I want to cry Help me!
to every passerby,
I think of the narcissus bulbs
beneath my shuttered window
each a swollen teardrop
cupped in a dark pocket of earth
forced to bear its burden alone.
I remember how each spring
they lift sore shoulders,
thrust green heads and hands
above the ground and for a few
short weeks toll thimble-sized
white bells proclaiming their faith
in the world, before I cut them
down, imposing yet another
year of silence.

© 2005  Carol Cotten

COMMENTS:  Effectively sustained use of personification throughout. Intimate selection of words and double meanings enhance this poem.  Language is direct and clear with reliance on emotional content and a harmonious mix of assonance with alliteration.  This poem is full of lovely, yet some quite sad, imagery, metaphor and personification.   The only word that springs to mind immediately upon finishing this poem is "aching," for it weeps with melancholy and heartbreaking purity.  Beautiful uses of phrases such as "lift sore shoulders" to personify the narcissus, which, as in Greek mythology, has a life of its own and a meaning far deeper here than the initial read-through yields.  The cadence of this poem allows reader to experience pain plus nature’s mystery.  Sober closure completes the cycle of all things living.  This poem shows passion and intensity under control. Hyperbole and paradox set the tone.  Fine word selection providing excellent imagery, invoking frustration and a strong sense of loss at the knowledge of a futile, ongoing struggle into the face of an anticipated final result. The poet's struggle is metaphorically mirrored by the "swollen teardrop" and "sore shoulders" of the narcissi. Well done.
Like big black boats

grackles sail into the harbor
of my yard late afternoon
and drift like unorganized fleets
in the shade of the palm.
They follow while I mow,
ruffle their feathers, dip
oily wings to the grass like long
seaworthy coats, spread their tails,
once rudders, into wide skirts,
and strut like swashbuckling pirates.
I ask, What do you want?
Why are you here?
but they keep their distance.
I can only wonder what faraway lands
these noisy clacking sailors
of the blue seas have conquered.
I can only wonder where these sleek
magnificent ships have been—
full keels bulging,
eyes spilling gold coins.

© 2005  Carol Cotten

COMMENTS:  Eloquent images create a superb movement in this poem. Fine use of counterpoint employed.  Visual metaphor fuses logic and meaning in a subtle and exact fashion.  The extended simile of the grackles like big black boats is well done.  Wonderful analogy between the brash strut of the grackles and the equally brash swashbuckling of pirates of old.  The imagery is inspired and unique.  Glorious writing.  Dramatic personification, poet ingeniously uses words to transform birds into sailors.  Delightful simile.  The poet sustains the comparisons beautifully to that surprising and rich last line, "eyes spilling gold coins."   This poem is a self-contained metaphor in itself. It is peppered with fine word selection giving us such wonderful alliterative and onomatopoeic imagery as "strut like swashbuckling pirates" and "noisy clacking sailors" capped by the very fine last two lines. A poem to read and re-read for the sheer joy of it.
JUDGE’S NOTE: On the ocean front in Cartagena, Colombia, where pirates and privateers from the Spanish Main at one time did indeed swash and buckle, there is a monumental steel sculpture of the ubiquitous grackle, its gold doubloon eye keeping watch for the pirates' return.
Black Dogs

Black dogs lived beneath her house.
They thumped the floor with thick black tails.
Nobody knew. Massive jaws. Red eyes.
Beneath the white cottage by the sea, they

thumped the floor with thick black tails.
Never slept. Growling twisted knots.
Beneath the white cottage by the sea, they
scorched her soul with rancid breaths.

Never slept. Growling twisted knots.
They gnawed her will to live.
Scorched her soul with rancid breaths,
haunted her dreams like ghostly specters.

They gnawed her will to live,
beneath sun and moon and stars. They
haunted her dreams like ghostly specters
until she paced from door to door

beneath sun and moon and stars. They
grew blacker, stronger, day by day
until she paced from door to door.
She did not pray or eat.

Nobody knew. Massive jaws. Red eyes.
Black dogs lived beneath her house.

© 2005  Carol Cotten

COMMENTS:  Line breaks are perfectly positioned in this form, a clear demonstration of skill. Lavish images and cadence from start to finish. Bravo!  Original version of the pantoum filled with imaginatively startling visual effects that evolve interestingly and naturally within the form.  The strict traditional form of this pantoum only adds to the haunting, rather sinister tale painted by sordid details and imagery.  The tragic ending works well.  Eerily reminiscent of a child's fears, this poem aptly captures the perpetual fear all humans have of the unknown, or of what they imagine to be there.  Readers are left wondering - what do the black dogs represent?  what is inherent to everyone: the unspeakable.  Effective use of repetitive lines, building anxiety in the reader caught in a debate, is it fear or pain or both?  Ending unanswered as most events in life.  Intriguing and rhythmic poem.   Powerful! A difficult form yields to the deftness and creativity of this poet. A compelling, memorable metaphor is made even more haunting with the repeated lines -- a pantoum is an excellent choice for this poem. The use of enjambment with the word "they" sustains a building tension and agony. This fine poem oozes mystery and malevolence. Excellent word selection and placement such as "growling twisted knots" and "they gnawed her will to live" keep tension at an elevated level from first to last line, leaving it to our imagination to find an end - or not. Very well done.
red-winged blackbirds bend
pine tree boughs peaked with snowfall
cones scatter below

© 2005  Carol Cotton

COMMENTS:  Quick turns of phrase and adept use of precise language marks this as well-crafted.  True to the haiku form, this beautifully involves one central image.  A still painting.  From the contrast within the very first three words of the poem to the lovely use of "peaked," this haiku is simple, yet powerful.  Good word choices.  Excellent picture as if painted by a word brush.  Striking contrast of color and duality of sky and earth, action and reaction.  Fine imagery in this well constructed traditional haiku.
cottonwoods rustle
leaves drift through dappled sunlight
lime popsicle melts

© 2005  Carol Cotten

COMMENTS:  Refreshingly vivid use of unique descriptions enhance this haiku.  The all-important last line has a good twist that really grabs the attention of the reader.  A perfect captured moment from a sultry summer day; easy to see the dapple of the sunlight, feel the dripping of the popsicle.  Well-chosen words evoke various sensations.  Reader can hear, visualize and almost taste this Haiku.  Delicious to eyes and mouth!  High summer in a traditional haiku setting. Excellent last line.
 

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