April Was Poetry Month ... and It Hasn't Seemed Over Yet

 I started April with a poem presented in St. Johnsbury's PoemTown event, framed around the solar eclipse -- and then on April 4, had this lovely news (scroll:

Winifred Hughes from Princeton, New Jersey is the 2024 Henry Morgenthau lll First Book Winner for her book of poems The Village of New Ghosts, due out in Fall 2024. The prize recognizes a poet 70 or older who has not yet published a full-length collection. from the Judge: The task of “the poet” is brilliantly fulfilled with sonics, structure, detail, richness and care. But where this book truly exceeds and excels is in creating a hologram of emotions, a reality we can enter, where aesthetics are crisp and clear enough to create a new paradigm. Poetics that bring emotional worlds into existence have to be held in place with mastery. Someone is obviously in charge of this work. Someone is in control of its precise syntax and beautiful heart. I never wanted to stop reading. Grace Cavalieri, former Maryland Poet Laureate

Congratulations to our honorable mentions! Runner-Up: Rick Rohdenburg from Duluth, GA: Crows Fly from My Mouth Finalists: Melissa Cannon from Antioch, TN: Doll/Face Kathy O’Fallon from Carlsbad, CA: Listening for Tchaikovsky Semi-Finalists: Karen Bashkirew from Bozeman, MT: Stillpoint Sheila Bonnell from South Orleans, MA: Albedo Helen Bournas-Ney from New York, NY: Just Like the Sky, but Nearer Helen Chinitz from Walton, NY: If Summer Sear the Landscape Sandra Cutuli from Los Angeles, CA: Tracks and Signs Marc Douglass-Smith from Lebanon, NH: A River in Still Life Deborah French Frisher from Mill Valley, CA: Howl Now & 52 Other Poems Gordon Grilz from Tucson, Arizona: Just North of My Dreams: A Collection of Poems from Prison Judy Kaber from Belfast, ME: Landscape with Rocks, Sky, Nails Elizabeth Kanell from Waterford, VT: Break-Out Room Ellen Lager from Robbinsdale, MN: Buried Beneath All That Love Nancy Meyer from Portola Valley, CA: The Stoop and The Steeple Michael Mulvihill from Staunton, VA: The Distant Pines Phillip Periman from Amarillo, TX: Dying: The First Six Years Jim Scutti from Vero Beach, FL: Family Planet Richelle Slota from San Francisco, CA: Letters to My Dead Name Jil St. Ledger-Roty from Franklinville, NY: Lost and Found and Lost Again Steven Winn from San Francisco, CA: Late Light Avra Wing from Brooklyn, NY: Mammoth Life & Accident Cynthia Woods from Philadelphia, PA: Lines Over 70

For those who are curious -- Break-Out Room is a collection of poems, at the length called a chapbook. It's back out in another competition, and I'll let you know when it garners its next award. I'm following in the footsteps of some of the best writers I know in this decision: Each time it doesn't quite reach a book contract, polish it a bit more and add more skill and joy to it, and send it out again.