In December 2007, the late Paul Violi (left) read the entries for our BEST AMERICAN POETRY challenge # 2. We repost the results today, Paul’s birthday.
THE CHALLENGE (devised by David Lehman):
When deciphered, this anagram
HIT THE LUMP OF RICH SEAL
represents the title of a book of poems by a past guest editor of The Best American Poetry. Solve the puzzle, then write a two-stanza acrostic poem in which the first letters of the lines spell out the name of that poet. Deadline: Midnight, December 31, 2007.
Our judge, Paul Violi, has chosen a first-place winner and two runners up.
All entries were judged blind; the names of the authors were not revealed until after the verdicts were rendered.
First Place: Penelope’s Shield by Frank Osen
PENELOPE’S SHIELD
Laughing Boy returns, and the dog drops dead.
Odysseus, did you think I wouldn’t know?
Under this shroud
I’ve borne more absences than yours.
So what, if summer shared our golden bed?
Every winter wears the same disguise.
Growth and loss
loom longer with me, now—
urging weaves both ways,
casting my work in the sun’s or fire’s light—
knit with disciplined undoing.
— Frank Osen
Runners Up: “As the Underworld Turns” by Sally Cook and “Lo Mein Palace: Here I Come” by Michael Quattrone
AS THE UNDERWORLD TURNS
Like her sis, Persephone
On fair Adonis set her sights.
Underworld talk had it that she
Interfered with sister’s rights.
So, old Zeus ruled there’d be seasons!
Earth’s year went, two-thirds, to ladies.
Goodness knows, Zeus had his reasons —
Life stayed sweet in the Cyclades.
Under, next to Hades’ furies
Cabbage and anemones,
Kissed to life, were blessed by Ceres
— Sally Cook
Lo Mein Palace, Here I Come!
Lo Mein Palace, here I come!
Out the door I spot Louise, who smiles
until I glance at her clavicle, etc.—
into the elevator, through the lobby,
sex never tasted as sweet & sour as the
egg roll dreams I’m hatching in the cab
grinding down, down a Second Avenue stand still,
licking my lips like some addled scavenger,
until the neon serenade: Wonton! Tsingtao!
Chopstick! It’s a wonder I get anything in my mouth.
Kate orders Kung Pao extra spicy, and I nearly faint.
— Michael Quattrone
Honorable mention: Angela Ball, Barbara G.S. Hagerty, Andrea Selch, Terence Winch, David Yezzi.
