Sonnets as lovely as a spring day
The Southern Shakespeare Festival received 58 poems this year for the Sonnet Contest, and the judges selected a winner in each of the following categories (adult, high school and middle school). The winning poets receive a $50 gift certificate to Carrabba's Italian Grill and a 6-month, 7-day subscription to the Tallahassee Democrat, sponsor of the event. In addition, the winning poets will be recognized during the Southern Shakespeare Festival on Saturday and will have their poems read as part of the Shakespeare festivities. For more information about the Southern Shakespeare Festival, please visit www.southernshakes.org.
• Adult Category: 1st Place — “Sonnet to My Mom” by Beth Blair; 2nd Place — “In Winter’s Keeping” by Jennifer Schomburg Kanke; 3rd Place — “A Love Poem to My Younger Self” by Dennis J. Smith
• High School Category: 1st Place — “They shape our lives to only look for love” by Emily New; 2nd Place — “Real Love” by Lucie Flowers
• Middle School Category: 1st Place — “Cat and Laser” by Genevieve Jacobs
Sonnet Contest judges: Randi Atwood is the Engagement Editor for the Tallahassee Democrat. Rose Bennett teaches both Theatre and English at Lincoln High School where she was named the Minority Educator of the Year in 2012.Ron Paul Salutsky is the author of Romeo Bones (Steel Toe Books, 2013) and the forthcoming Toad Press chapbook, Anti-Ferule, translated from the Spanish of Karen Wild Díaz. Josephine Yu’s first manuscript, Prayer Book of the Anxious, won the 15th Annual Elixir Press Poetry Award and will be published in 2016.
Adult Category
1st Place: “Sonnet to My Mom” by Beth Blair
Why does a Mom with my same face appear
So gaunt, her step unsure, her eyes so glazed?
She was my true North once but now, oh dear!
Her hair uncombed, her dress in disarray.
In sync for years she lived and loved, I swear!
Then, she came unaligned and asked “Where's Home?
Again, “where's home?” and we were all right there.
Her mind now piqued, she asks, “What's that?” A comb.
The deep black hole that stole my Mom from me
May boast it overtook and squelched my star,
Destroyed the course of life that was to be,
And robbed us of her, taking her afar.
But, coward thief, you do not win, amen!
Her compass is fixed in me now as then.
High School Category
1st Place: “They shape our lives to only look for love” by Emily New
They shape our lives to only look for love
As if all of our worth was in the bed
Like her hopes and dreams are unworthy of
The nutrition that his dreams have been fed
A woman could build her own empire
With power, strength, and intelligence
Although she burns with Cleopatra’s fire
Her life is unfulfilled without romance
Though society has made small progress
I am wary of any male intent
As a threat to my personal success
Because a girl has got to pay her rent
But, if he respects my dreams and stars align
Then I would proudly claim his heart as mine
Middle School Category
1st Place: “Cat and Laser” by Genevieve Jacobs
There it is! that quick, evasive dot,
a soundless, odorless, matter less, seizing glow
a hypnotizing incarnadine little spot
impossibly fast, shimmering, formidable foe.
All of me vibrating with tension now I crouch.
Back! Forth! Back! Forth! Back!
I strike! I pounce! I chase it under the couch.
It remains at large, despite my hunter’s knack,
speedily darting and dashing everywhere.
It always dodges with escapist skill,
shivering, streaking, circling near my lair.
I have it not and yet I see it still.
I’ll always hunt this so elusive prey.
I will catch it. I will! Just not today.