Monday, October 05, 2009

Jim Knowles wins the Poetry Superhighwy Contest!!!

A group mail came around yesterday from P.J. Nights, co-editor of From East to West. I was thrilled to see this. Jim has been an online friend for several years and a fine poet!

PJ's letter:
Ofttime contributor to our zine and onetime reader at an East/West event at the North Star Cafe in Portland, ME, Jim Knowles has won 1st in the lucrative Poetry Superhighway Contest with the following poem (a sonnet? ya!)



Breccia


A ship, they said: an island's more the case.
One touch of lips that tore four souls apart.
The clock has stopped above the campus lawn.
What matters most can hang you from a chain.

Three sets of feet were splashing in the foam.
Above canals, the windows cut the sun.
And there you are in photo number three.
You started skidding sideways on the road.

He leaves a candle where the future died.
There still are things that he can never say.
That grey flypaper will not let her go.
But nothing here exists that won't be gone.

The rubber mask, the hiss of oxygen.
Outside the silent river rumples by.


Jim Knowles (c)2009

6 comments:

Pearl said...

congrats Jim!

Olga/Maddie said...

Congratulations to your friend Jim on winning that poetry contest. *big smile*

Hope that you and yours are doing all right, that things are going okay, and that today goes all right for you all.

Hugs. *HG*

God bless and take care. Bye, :)!
Olga/Maddie

me/cfs warrior said...

What a moving poem. Congratulations to Jim. That line "He leaves a candle where his future might have been..." will stick with me.

Thanks for posting it!

Terri

Pris said...

I'll tell Jim to check comments. And that line really is one that sticks isn't it, Terri. It's enough to bring tears.

Jim K. said...

Wow, thanks guys! Things are quiet
otherwise. The candle is in many
stories, though...symbol of longing
for a memory. The poem is a Jungian
sort of mythical construction. I
hope different people will imagine
different back-stories for it.

Olga/Maddie said...

You are very welcome, Jim. *big smile*

God bless and take care. Bye, :)!
Olga/Maddie