A Nice Thing..

This morning's mail brought a the following letter from Anthony Pahl, Australian webmaster of the IWVPA. This award, described in his letter means a lot to me and so I thank you, Tony, and I give appreciation for Vets everywhere, from wars past and present, all over the globe, who've put their lives on the line for the rest of us, whether our politicians have been right or wrong.

Pris:

Your excellent poem, Chats With Eleanor, so impressed me with your beautifully succinct verbiage and portrayal of Mrs Roosevelt's well known compassion, and the sad reflection of the consequences of war that you have so very cleverly, and almost unexpected incorporated near the end of your poem, that I have decided that you are deserving of the simple honour of being named the IWVPA Top Poet for May 2005. Accordingly, I attach the graphic for the IWVPA Bronze Helmet Top Poet Award of Excellence and formally announce that you are a most worthy recipient of that title and the award for May 2005.

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(I've posted this poem before, but here it is, in Tony's letter again)
CHATS WITH ELEANOR
Fairy Godmothers with ample laps
and June Cleaver faces slid down the rabbit hole
of old dial-up phones, ten cent colas, Betsy Wetsys,
and scratchy LPs an innocent lifetime ago.

Try strutting about nowdays in tiara and starched skirt,
waving a wand---the madhouse will open its jaws
and swallow you whole, but

my fairy godmother is clever.
She dresses like Eleanor Roosevelt,
talks like Eleanor., looks like Eleanor,
says she is Eleanor, back from the dead.

Each night she brings me hot chocolate, sits,
tell stories about quiet fireside chats,
her husband's withered legs and how much
she thought he loved her before Lucy.

She reminds me to floss every night
and to be sure to carry an umbrella
should sudden thunderstorms threaten.
She emphasizes that one must learn to
be brave in cold emptied beds
ever so much as on battlefields,
littered with the corpses of those
who once called our name.


©Copyright April 2005 by Pris Campbell


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The IWVPA Bronze Helmet Top Poet Award of Excellence cannot be obtained by application. One award is made each month to a poet who has writing(s) published on the IWVPA website. Members of the IWVPA Club may make recommendations for poems that, in their opinion, may earn the Author the title of "Top Poet" for any given month, but the final decision is in my hands as Webmaster of the IWVPA website. Nevertheless, the Award is made on behalf of all member of the IWVPA Club.

I've taken the liberty of attaching a half-size version of the award graphic to the page that displays your poem on the IWVPA website HERE; the graphic is linked to the IWVPA Double Tap Honour Roll located HERE and a new page that displays your poem has been added to that index. Attached hereto is the full-size graphic so that you may, if you so desire, add to any page that displays the poem. Doing so is NOT a prerequisite of receiving the award.

Further details about the Award are located HERE

Congratulations Pris; this is the second occasion on which your name has been added to the IWVPA Bronze Helmet Award Honour Roll and it is again displayed with equal honour with many exceptional writers and writings.

Sincere regards,


Anthony W. Pahl
Webmaster