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Welcome to Garden 0207 in
ARTELLA'S POETRY GARDENS OF FAME!

Click the links below to read the winning poems for February, 2007.

Poetry Gardens of Fame Index

First Place
Second Place
Third Place
Fourth Place




FIRST PLACE WINNER


Melissa Kulhanek



Hand-Made Crafts
by Melissa Kulhanek

I made you out of nowhere,
Out of the mountain¹s snow and out of the air.
I was spinning your head
On my spinning wheels
Out of warm sunshine and out of cool moon beams.
For months and months,
I was spinning your head.

Carefully pedaling my old fashioned,
Singing
Sewing machine,
I spent nights
Stitching adornments on your pockets,
Embroidering your cuffs.

Crochet crazy,
I crocheted laces for your sheers enjoyment
And for your windows,
Hooked on the crocheting hooks
Way up high.

I knitted sweaters
For your sacrificial lambs
Of colourful wools.

You are almost finished,
My just a dream, just a dream,
I¹ll let you go
With the Sirocco wind.
I am all done
With you.

Sorry, I couldn¹t hold on
To my golden
Knitting needles
Any longer.


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SECOND PLACE WINNER

Relics
by Patricia Kennelly

In a shadowy studio
I immortalize you
in a cedar frame
so
your religious relics

won¹t be lost

as you were

your spirit
tied only
to dried roses
now powdered
are said to have touched
the coffin of St. Theresa

splinters of a cross
that once lay
athwart a Holy man
still wrapped
in a faultless square of
waxed paper

a scapular, the backdrop
like a poorly hung drape
in the aged confessional
where you felt coerced to
admit your sins
this
promised you salvation

tokens of these
like
wasted
lullabies
of your silenced voice.

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THIRD PLACE WINNER



Childhood's End
by Carol Ayer

I'd had a nice life
the other side of the looking-glass
but before I had my fairy tale end
I was pulled to the other side

On this side of the glass
there was more beast than beauty
evil triumphed over good
and wishes didn't come true at all--
let alone in threes

Magic was only a game,
I never knew a life-changing kiss
and love didn't wait around for happily-ever-after

Try as I might there was no return
and so here I remain,
forever stuck
on the wrong side
of once upon a time.


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FOURTH PLACE WINNER

I WIll Shower First
by Allen Clark

I will shower first,
Clean myself after coffees
Alone with the news of death.
Thoughts go like running water.
Out, out, damp spot! I play you,
Lady Macbeth, anybody who dreams
Normally. There is no time to worry,
No time to clean ­ the dishes, the laundry.
Cat phooey drips on my robe before coffee,
The Times. What papers do we bring ­ of news?

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