Deadline: Oct. 26th. Get those poems in today!
Youth Writing Contest: $5.00 entry fee per poem or story
The
above contest is optional. Last year a few students from Writing 12
entered this contest and we took the top two prizes: the $300.00 first
prize and the $200.00 second prize. It's worth throwing your hat into
the ring. You need a paypal account or a credit card so send in the
poems from home with your parents' credit card. Fee is $5.00 per poem or
story.
Also, the winning entries get published in The Claremont Review. Yay.
Homework: Create a new poem that uses detail effectively. Follow the criteria. Print out four copies for your workshop group. New workshop groups on Monday.
I read a poem by Yannis Ritsos aloud, called "Minatures" Go to the link to read it: Miniatures: remember those circles of lemon? He described them as yellow wheels for a very small carriage . . .
Here is a copy of the poem by Susan Mitchell which I read aloud.
The Death
I heard the crying and came closer.
Father was sitting in the half-filled bathtub.
He wasn't covering his face with his hands.
He was crying into the air.
Mother was washing him. She rand the sapy cloth
round and round on his chest.
After a while, she dried him.
Then he took the towel and put it over his face.
I walked out of the house certain I would not come back.
Downstairs a neighbour's daughter was tearing
leaves off a hedge. When we rubbed the leaves into our hands
our hands turned green. I put my green hands
on her face and wondered where I would go
now that I was never coming back.
I walked to the subway station
and for hours I watched the trains going east
to Coney Island. Then I went back.
When Mother told me
were were sitting int he car, just the two of us.
I must have climbed
out of the front seat because
I see myself sitting alone in the back
in the not quite dark. I have taken
my father's canvas hat from the floor
and put it on my head. Through its visor
the first green night is coming on. A green woman is rocking a green carriage.
A green man sits and smokes on his green stoop.
Remember also to send your poems to the Vancouver Writers' Festival Contest. I know one of you has chosen her poems and is ready to go.
Deadline is Sunday!! Oct. 26th.
