It’s spring *technically* here in South Dakota, though the west got buried in snow just a few days ago, and the sun hasn’t been too shiny in the east lately. Good thing we are sturdy, tough folk. Still, though, we know it’s Spring. She does not make her entrance quietly. When spring arrives, boy does …
Check back here on Feb. 1 for information, rules, and guidelines about our 2019 Chapbook Contest!
We all want it, in some way or another. For our words to be indelible, celebrated, and widely read. To write the next “Birches” or “Wild Geese.” To have our poems read aloud into microphones at weddings, funerals, and commencements. To be this generation’s Elizabeth Bishop or John Keats. We want our words to matter; …
Young poets who have the courage to send their words out into the world always impress me. The first line hooked me. Enjoy! Unknown Worlds By Winter Driving Hawk, Age 14, Pierre, South Dakota Teenage angst is not something I feel Look through the smoke and mirrors And through me you’ll find my pain real …
A perfect capture of the wind here on the plains. Enjoy! WIND INSTRUMENTS By Candy Hamilton, Oglala In the otherwise silence of the night Night silence The wind bumps its rhythm Against the side of the house And train-whistles against the other The rhythm smooths out To dog howls Then to distinct words That finally …
I will always love a place poem, especially one about a place I love: the prairie. And, oh! Those last three lines! Showstoppers. Enjoy! THE PEACE OF PRAIRIES By Grace Dickinson Sperling, Oak Park, Ill. To heal my spirit’s ill there seemed no cure; With diligence I searched from pole to pole And grew accustomed …
This reminded me of a Dorothy Parker piece. I love poems like this, ones that make you laugh and make you think and ones that have hearken back to another era. Enjoy! ZED By Jane Hoyt Lamb, Hill City I have added to my life By temperance and careful diet, But I am less and …
I was instantly hooked on this one. I love poems that give the readers an instruction – that tell us how. Plus, the imagery is just gorgeous. Enjoy! Inferno, Meet My Bridges By Rebecca Erickson Ice polishes the streets as a man and a woman struggle to meet on a bridge. They slip, hips hit …
I am sucker for love poems about days gone by and creative rhymes, and this poem has both. Enjoy! Sixteen and Sixty By Jim Assid, Sioux Falls The smell of roses in your hair, Is like the trade winds’ balmy air. Your smile so sweet and rosy-cheeked Makes me forget my gray hair streaked. If …
Simple, gorgeous language that made me think of home. Enjoy! Strung Out by Francie Davis, Belvidere As the sun shines painfully against the miles upon miles of drifted snow, the cattle are strung out one after the other moving eastward single file eighty-two marching purposefully big black snow-capped boulders blowing exhaust through frosted nostrils parting …