New York Pitch Conference Reviews, Algonkian Writer Conferences, and Poetry Forums

 
Voice your recommendation(s) here, and

Please let us know ASAP if you are not going to be available to represent the Writer's Block -

then we will know not to consider your poems further for this month's IBPC.

I/we will be looking for consensus - in keeping with a communal workshop environment

Which 1-3 would we like to see represent the Writer's Block in the finals?

After the 3 are selected, then will each author post - in this thread - the poem as the poet would like it forwarded,

and ALL the needed info/statements

Ideally, the only poems that really need to appear here are the final 3, when announced, hopefully by the 1st of the month, if not sooner

^^ the intent is organizational - if poems appear here before the selection of the final 3, then there is a congestion -

Until the final 3 are announced, please maintain poems & workshopping to the Workshop Forum. Thanks.



************

any newcomers or returnees this month, Welcome!

and here is a home link to the IBPC rules: http://ibpc.webdelsol.com/rules


In this thread, from the poems posted in the workshop forum during the course of the month, recommend/nominate by title & author.

Nominated poets, please acknowledge the nomination here in this thread.
Please reply by accepting or declining the nomination - in this thread.

Please note & observe: This is not a workshopping thread.

In this thread, poems that are ultimately selected to represent the Block are then posted here
as the author would like for the poem to be forwarded
along with all IBPC required info.

When the 1-3 poems are decided upon, and permission granted by each author of the selected poems,

along with all the info needed by each author:



1/Your name

2/e-mail address

3/statement that the poem is your original

4/and unpublished work

5/and that you don't have a poem committed to represent another board in the current IBPC. One poet one poem one board
for each monthly,

6/and the poem as you would like it forwarded to the finals.

^^ All of the above is the usual needed info as part of the process.


I will then forward the 1-3 to the IBPC finals.


Thanks



Michael (MV)
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 

Bobs Final Season. Hands down the best posted imho.

I holding off on 2nd or 3rd for now.

I nominate Billy's "It'll Grow Back", Eira's "The Owl and the Blackbird" and Kenneth's "Visiting Sandburg's Homeplace"

I 2nd Bob's Last Game of the Season

I 2nd Billy's It'll Grow Back

Michael (MV)

I'm unable to accept for Sandburg

Then I nominate Meenas' Kadaneri poem.

1/Bob Bradshaw

2/bobbybradshw@yahoo.com

3/The poem is my original

4/and unpublished work

5/a I don't have a poem committed to represent another board in the current IBPC.

Last Game of the Season


Under high clouds we wave our thunder sticks.
I recall biking to this stadium
as a kid, the air stuttering

from baseball cards pinned to my spokes.
When the team won it was like the clouds parting,
an omen of good things to come...

The game is different now.
I will never pitch in the major leagues.
No one scouts the stands

for old southpaw talents,
their hair greying like wild thistles.
I should give up following sports.

Why get excited over what
others do? My neighbor Anna
says distractions at our age, even chasing money,

are like pissing on a house in flames.
I stand up for the seventh inning stretch,
and scan the park

trying to memorize
the players lobbing balls to each other
in the outfield, beneath the bright towers...

another year, this my seventy fifth--
like my youth--a pop fly lost in the lights

I second Meenas poem

Thanks, Bob and Ken, for nominating and seconding.

We seem to be at a low point for participation all across the forum. But it tends to get slow, I think, in summer.

Our 3, as I read it -

Bob's Last Game of the Season

Billy's It'll Grow Back

Meenas' Kadaneri Ayyanar


Michael (MV)

Needing a response from Billy and Meenas

ASAP

Thanks

Michael (MV)

Michael (MV) wrote: ↑

04 Aug 2019, 21:40

Our 3, as I read it -

Bob's Last Game of the Season

Billy's It'll Grow Back

Meenas' Kadaneri Ayyanar


Michael (MV)

This is my original work, unpublished. I’m not representing any other board.
Billy Howell-Sinnard
bhowellsinnard@gmail.com


It'll Grow Back

I say, "I'm sorry,"
run into her office

like Samson to Delilah
after a haircut,

as sorry for the hacking
as for what I'd done.

You expect a haircut
to change everything.

The world will be different.
Pillars that blocked the way

will crumble. I'll be a
new man and everyone

will see. I brood
over the buzz cut.

It takes a few days.
It grows on you--the new

look. Of course,
your hair grows, too.

Ultimately, you say,
"It'll grow back,"

shrug your shoulders,
"It's not the end of the world."

This is my original, unpublished work.
Meena meenas17@gmail.com.

Kadaneri Ayyanar

In a remote village,
the Palmyrah trees
respond to the gentle
breeze. wherein the ponds
fish swim in silence
the shepherd snores
the only sound
that stirs the stillness,
resides Lord Ayyanar
with his six siblings.

Predominantly black,
which shimmers in the sun,
eyes large and round
seem to fall off any moment,
thick red lips seem pronounced,
arms resemble a muscleman's.
a dominant paunch renders
Ayyanar fearful.
None dare speak lies nor
intend to rob in the vicinity,.
A shudder goes down the spine
as one enters the sanctum.

Gallons of milk, litres of curd.
thousands of tender coconuts
cans of fruit juices are poured over him.
Ayyanar turns fresh.
Sandal powder is smeared extensively
and scented rose water is rubbed.
Pooja is performed with least rituals.
No divine music is played,
Vada and sweet pongal, served in
banana leaves are a delight being
the "prasadham"

Most times the priest
turns possessed. He shouts
cries hoarse and dances.
He is in a trance.
Those around grow ecstatic
rush to hear him. Belief
being Ayyanar speaks through him.

The day long worship
draws to an end.
A family, which has grown
into few hundreds, congregate
in the portals on a Sunday,
prepare food, pray and seek
Karuppar's blessing.
as he is otherwise called.
At the stroke of six in the evening
they depart leaving Ayyanar \
to relish in solitude.

The Palmyrah trees bow
in an adieu. Owls
hoot and scream.

Three good picks. Best of luck to all

 
Good luck in the finals

Billy

Meena

and Bob


A wonderful weekend to every one



Michael (MV)