"Award-Winning" Poem 2

Author’s note: it’s been a very long time since you’ve last heard from the author. The author (Arthur) is feeling the itch again, and is catching up on that by sharing some treasured poetry from the past little while. [Author's note in note: This blog entry has been ported from another blog, and minor content edits have been made for clarity.]

The poem below helped me win the "Grand Prize" in a 2020 poetry contest. 2020 is not even close to over, even though it feels like it's already been about four years. Regardless, the seasons have changed, and this poem tries to capture that. It is a Shakespearean sonnet as a dialog between a winter spirit and a spring spirit whose relationship is coming to an unfortunate end. This poem, more so than my previous "award-winning" poem, I believe was justified in achieving "Grand Prize".

It started as raw material capturing the romantic angst and yearning present on earlier entries of this blog. That was potent crude oil. In fact, I read those posts and old journal entries for inspiration and motivation for one of the sonnet's character's. Dozens of drafts and revisions—and several peer reviews—are to thank for its final, refined form. You can see the raw fuel of this creation below.

Anyway, here is the poem.

VAIL (a spirit of winter)
A glacier crawls more quickly than the dark,
When all my waking thoughts surround your flame
I'd break my cracking chest and sighing heart
To know just one more day could stay the same

VERNA (a spirit of spring)
A new day dawns, I must now flee to grow,
To fly like wind, unbounded, free, and true,
To taste the dew, see all there is to sow
By letting go, the sky turns gray to blue

VAIL
Let go? I feel I'm frozen in the past

VERNA
Be gentle with yourself, the present's there

VAIL
I cry to see no way our future lasts
But want for you to fly in warmer air

VERNA
I see your heart as hearth, and mine the sun
This is to say, goodbye, my wintry one

"Award-Winning" Poem 1

Author's note: It's been a very long time since you've last heard from the author. The author (Arthur) is feeling the itch again, and is catching up on that by sharing some treasured poetry from the past little while. [Author's note in note: This blog entry has been ported from another blog, and minor content edits have been made for clarity.] 

Well, hello there. It's me, Arthur. I've missed you. Let's catch up. Below is a poem that won me the "Grand Prize" in a poetry contest in 2018. It's provided with the judge's assessment of the poem for full gravity. 

The Grand Prize Winner:

As blue bark unthaws
Steam rises into gold rays
And the dawn path clears

Such a beautiful and effective haiku! The imagery of the first two lines calls on me to imagine such a vivid image, I see the frozen blue bark, the steam, and it rising into the golden rays of the sun. Then the third line challenges me. Since I have such a vivid scene already painted, my instinct is to try to picture what the "dawn path" is, visually. For me, the challenge of the third line is magic. I would love to hear what others imagine when reading it.

Now for my own commentary. I wrote this haiku for my long-dead Twitter account as part of a series in 2015, where I intended to write a haiku on Twitter every day. (I managed to complete 301 out of 365 days.) I do like the haiku, but I'm honestly surprised it won the contest. But the judge liked it, and getting the judge to like you is part of why I ever got a "1" in the Solo & Ensemble Festival where I grew up. (I played trumpet.)