August Winner's Edition
featuring Metaphor, Haiku, and the Editor's Choice

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Sol Magazine (C) 1998
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Our judge this month is Betty Ann Whitney.  We're grateful for your help.  This month's contests were difficult difficult to judge, and your thoughtful comments were great.
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METAPHOR:  for educational purposes we quote from Metaphors' Dictionary, by Sommer and Weiss:

"Like metaphors, similes...(find similarities)...in two unlike objects or ideas.  However, metaphors and similes are not interchangeable figure of speech.  The simile compares explicitly and often uses "as," "like," or "as if" to announce the comparison.  "She fought like a tiger for her position," is a simile.

Metaphor implies the comparison by substituting something or the attributes of something with another.  thus when you say "she became a tiger in her own cause," you picture a woman who has metamorphosed into the image, and so this phrase is a metaphor.

Shakespeare began this sonnet with a metaphor:
"Thus is his cheek the map of days outworn."
He explains it with this simile:
"When beauty lived and died as flowers do now."

Our poets had to define similarities between nature and humanity in an indirect fashion for this contest.  We feel metaphor is one of the most difficult forms in poetry.
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WINNERS OF METAPHOR
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HONORABLE MENTIONS
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Encampment

Proud pines
Parade ground
For troops of Cicada shells
Standing at attention

Don Castiglioni, Austin, TX
Editor's Comments:  Interesting personification of nature.
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Kiss My Crabgrass

I watch coarse crabgrass claim all space
Sprawling over my lawn
Such selfish riff-raff have no grace
I wish they would be gone

Craig Tigerman, Moline, IL
Editor's Comments:  witty personification of crabgrass.
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THIRD PLACE
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Eternity

How insignificant we are
In the totality of it all
Mere blades of grass
Among acres of trees

Sharon Goodwin, Galveston, TX
Judge's Comments:  "we" in the "totality" is tied to the "grass among acres of trees."
Editor's Comments:  nicely done, memorable.
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SECOND PLACE  - Winner of $5.00 gift certificate.
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Autumn's Tears

While I slept, the artist mixed Autumn hues to touch the earth
Simple beauty held, transfixed Fall's colors' bright rebirth.
Autumn's glory soon shall fade passing with the falling leaf.
Weeping leaves fill the glade, painter's tears, Autumn's grief.

Dean Bloomfield, Kalamazoo, MI
Judge's Comments:  a complex metaphor combining ideas and feelings.  The painter, artist, speaker and autumn are one.
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FIRST PLACE  - Winner of $10.00 gift certificate.
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Over-Sheltered

Have you seen the small and stunted tree
That struggles in the shade?
Do not shadow me with you.
Let me stretch, reach unafraid.

Marsha Rose Steed, Citrus Heights, CA
Judge's comments:  Conveys a complex meaning in visual terms.
Editor's Comments:  Lovely metaphor using the struggle of the tree represent the human struggle in life.

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HAIKU:  "Haiku" began long ago in Japan.  Poets often had parties where they would to get together to write long poems, called "renga," made up of many short stanzas they took turns writing.  Poets hoped they would have the honor of giving the first stanza, and often made up one or two on the way to the party.  This meant a lot of "starting verses," or "hokku," were never used.  About five hundred years ago, poets began publishing their unused starting verses in collections, along with the renga they had helped write.   By 1900, the Japanese recognized these detached hokku as fully independent poems, and called them "haiku."  Traditionally, haiku are not titled.

Most haiku involve nature.  The words and expressions are simple, relating to things directly, without metaphors and similes, and with almost no adjectives.  Few Japanese have complete sentences, and punctuation is even more rare.

Here is a lovely haiku from this month's judge, Betty Ann Whitney:

spring day
mayflies emerge from the earth
their skins left behind

Because our poets were allowed to enter up to four haiku, we grouped haiku when a poet wrote more than one.
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WINNERS OF HAIKU
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HONORABLE MENTIONS
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Summertime's hot breath
breathes on fields of tender corn
parching grain and hopes.

Ted Badger, Eureka Springs, AR
Editor's Comments:  Sounds and sights of this year's South.  Nice alliteration.  A song of a poem.
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if roses have thorns
shouldn't we expect to bleed
as the price for art

Ron Blanton, Salt Lake City, UT
Judge's Comments:  original concept.
Editor's Comments:  interesting juxtaposition of ideas.
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cicadas
lonesome song
August

Don Castiglioni, Austin, TX
Judge's Comments:  dramatic
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cloud-cap
blasting the glaciers
Mt. Rainier

Jean McAllister, Bellevue, WA
Judge's Comments:  powerful image.
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weeds poking heads
through painstaking gardens
enemies of order

Marsha Rose Steed, Citrus Heights, CA
Judge's Comments:  shows the struggle of mankind.
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stars again
after darkest dark
grace

Ulf Sunblad, Tumba, Sweden
Judge's Comments:  inspirational.
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departed loved ones
in daily deeds we honor
their spirits in ours

Craig Tigerman, Moline, IL
Judge's Comments:  concentrated depth.
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rain falls
on the ground
puddles

Nina Jo Tyler, St. Louis, MO
Judge's Comments:  clear simplification.
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WINNERS HAIKU
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THIRD PLACE - WINNER OF $5.00 GIFT CERTIFICATE
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Furrowed rows of plants
gullied by torrential rains
drown farmers' dreams.

Ted Badger, Eureka Springs, AR
Judge's Comments:  captures the spirit of haiku.
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SECOND PLACE - WINNER OF $5.00 GIFT CERTIFICATE
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sky - river
in the moment
it's enough

Dale Ernst, Mountain, View, MO
Judge's Comments:  like an abstracted pictograph.
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FIRST PLACE - WINNER OF $5.00 GIFT CERTIFICATE
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greens of summer
fan whispers of clouds
across the sky

Patricia A. Tabella, Providence, RI
Judge's Comments:  artistically refined.

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EDITOR'S CHOICE:  We asked for poems on any topic in nature, any form except haiku, up to sixteen lines.  Only the top three winners are shown here, because of the length of the poetry submitted.
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THIRD PLACE - WINNER $5.00 GIFT CERTIFICATE
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Summer Thunderstorms

Warm air rising high
Billowing clouds in the sky
Thunderheads tremendous
Nascent cumulonimbus

Lightning flashing, thunder rolling
Darkening clouds the Earth patrolling
Wind and rain and hail horrendous
Mighty cumulonimbus

Rain lets up, storm abating
Clearing skies are awaiting
"Quite a blow" is the consensus
Fading, dying cumulonimbus

Cumulus clouds, heavens sigh
Rainbow in the western sky
Earth sweetly refreshed for us
Thanks to cumulonimbus

Milton S. Earnest, Smyrna, GA
Editor's Comments:  This poem is meant to be read aloud, the kind of poem that should be recited at the "Heat and Hurricane Expulsion" Poetry Reading, featured annually during October in Galveston, TX by the Poet's Roundtable.
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SECOND PLACE - WINNER OF $5.00 GIFT CERTIFICATE
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Weather - Good or Bad

We accept weather
whether good or bad

Our eyes smile
or frown

Cool skies
bird songs

Silk shirts
and sandals

Harsh storms
rain

Bright yellow
apparel

Surviving both forms
we appreciate weather

Whether nature allows
our eyes to see

Joel Ontiberoz, Galveston, TX
Editor's Comments:  nice play on words.
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FIRST PLACE - WINNER $5.00 GIFT CERTIFICATE
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The Covenant

Squirrels' switchy tails
balance the lookouts
on high-lines.

Apples, hidden in leaves
hung with possum blossoms,
disappear.

All season we anticipate the harvest.
An entourage of rivals arrives
to assist us.

In their predetermined covenant
jays and squirrels work the day shift,
possums and coons rule by night.

I am water boy for both teams.

Naomi Stroud Simmons, Fort Worth, Texas
Editor's Comments:  The vision of two teams working differing shifts for the harvest caught my heart, and I, too, became the "waterboy" for both teams at the end.  "Possum blossoms" make a vivid image.

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FIRST PLACE POETS - WINNER OF A BOOK FROM OUR GRAB-BAG
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Last Fling

Browning lawns, burgeoning blackberries--urgently
summer fills with picnics; bicyclists pump for miles,
and nostalgia creeps like bindweed into these perfect days
which cannot last.

Jean McAllister, Bellevue, WA
Editor's Comments:  this poem is filled with sounds that roll wonderfully around the mouth, and pictures that make us hungry for a summer just like this.  Perfect adjectives pull us into this vision.

Three slightly out-of-date writing magazines from our grab bag are on the way to Jean, along with a copy of "The Elements of Style."

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Are you interested in events in and about Houston, Texas?  Ask to be added to the County Arts Newsletter Distribution List, and get information on happenings in Harris, Galveston, and Fort Bend Counties and sometimes in the rest of the state.
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Send comments, questions, advice to:  DMHT67B@Prodigy.com
Snail mail:  Sol Magazine, P.O. Box 580037, Houston, TX  77258-0037
Phone number:  (281) 333-3741
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All poetry remains the property of the poet, except Sol Magazine reserves the right to publish all poems (once) at a future date, or to post them to a web page.  NONE may be reproduced without permission of Sol Magazine.  Electronic forwarding is permitted as long as no portion of this magazine is changed and all credits are given.
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See our contest website or last contest for current guidelines.  We do not accept entries that make use of graphic language, touch on partisan politics, or support particular religious views.
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INTERESTING WEB SITES:
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Joel Cormier is looking for short stories, poems, etc., for her site:
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/4515/
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Steven Cox, the poet from Prodigy, has a new site, and is asking for feedback.  Find him at:
http://www.mectek.com
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Judy Gripton's Amateur Poetry Journal is looking for poetry and articles about writing.  Visit this great site at:
http://www2.sanasys.com/~jude/ring.html
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This is an interesting newsletter:  INKLINGS, free to subscribers
http://www.inkspot.com
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Here is a list of the "100 best books of the century":
http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/072098best-novels.html
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Our judge for this month, Betty Ann Whitney, is looking for artwork, stories, poems, "anything goes into the soup bowl:
http://pages.prodigy.com/dandelionsoup
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Do you want us to list your web site here?  Let us know.  As long as it has something to do with the arts or writing, we'll be glad to list it.  Let us know monthly to renew your listing.
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OTHER POETRY CONTESTS
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END-OF-YEAR LUCIDITY CONTEST:  based on any article in the 1998 Reader's Digest.  No entry fee and deadline is Jan 4, 1999.  Details were in the Spring Issue of Lucidity, but contact Ted Badger, Editor, at tbadger@ipa.net for further details.
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CENTER FOR BOOK ARTS 1999 POETRY CHAPBOOK COMPETITION: send a SASE for guidelines for next year's competition to:
Center for Book ARts
626 Broadway, 5th floor
New York, NY  10012
or call (212) 460-9768
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Sol Magazine (C) 1998
Back to index: http://pages.prodigy.com/sol_magazine