Sherry Chandler

Try as I might, I can’t keep “politics” out of this blog. For one thing, all writing is political. I THINK Joy Harjo said that, but she may just have passed it on. When I do politics, I like to keep it poetry (or at least arts) related or else of local interest. The link here may be neither of those things, though as a first-hand account of what it’s like to live in Baghdad right now, it’s a gripping piece of writing.

These last few days have been explosive- quite literally. It started about 4 days ago and it hasn’t let up since. They say there were around 14 car bombs in Baghdad alone a couple of days ago- although we only heard 6 from our area. Cars are making me very nervous lately. All cars look suspicious- small ones and large ones. Old cars and new cars. Cars with drivers and cars parked in front of restaurants and shops. They all have a sinister look to them these days.

Go and read the entire post, and find out about the carrots. Thanks to Jeff Hess for pointing me to the post. I read Baghdad Burning regularly but she doesn’t post every day and so I don’t always check.

The 2005 KSPS contest is open for submissions, guidelines here. Deadline is June 1, 2005.

The contest has 29 open categories with prizes ranging from $100 to $10. One category, the Chaffin/Kash award is limited to KSPS members. In addition to an award of prize money, all winners will be invited to read their winning entries at the KSPS awards banquet in October (at Kentucky Dam Village State Resort). First prize winners are published in the Prize Poems Issue of Pegasus.

Several interesting new categories this year that show the influence of our energetic new contest chair, Christine Delea. “Can You Hear Me Now?” asks for poetry about connections and disconnections, and “Word World” specifies a list of words to be included in entry poems.

Other old standards are gone, like the “Banjo Boy” (a category name I’ve always loved). Here is last year’s “Banjo Boy” winner, by Mary O’Dell:

For A Poet Who Uses Beautiful Words

You speak delicious – petal and blossom,
sun ray through a clear glass pane.
Language born of your tongue’s grace

swells from your mouth
like aroma of yeast bread rising.
I speak raw root of geranium,

a common, cloudy day.
I say Wash the window. You say See through,
see through, and join the spinning blue.

Perhaps if I listen long to your touch
perhaps if you grow to hear my odors
of animal paw,

of hot summer weed, the earnest aroma
of vinegar – perhaps, someday
we will both understand.

Today is the 35th anniversary of the Kent State shootings.

CNN has a feature here with yearbook style photographs of the students who were killed here.