Photos ©
Wilda Morris
Charlotte Digregorio,
the judge for the June Poetry Challenge selected “Flow, River, Flow” by Carole
Mertz as the winning poem. Mertz interpreted “river poem” in a unique and
creative way.
Flow, River, Flow
I haven’t ridden on
swift-flowing rafts,
but I’ve been swept
along in waters
splayed by many a
writer’s crafts.
I’ve travelled
torrents in books
as varied and bright
as my rich reading
nooks.
Petterson (of Out
Stealing Horses) shows his boy
racing downriver on
risky yellow logs,
erupting with violent
spurts of joy.
In dread I’ve watched
the swollen Arno strip
gilded paint from
Florentine treasures of old.
(The diary of K.K.
Taylor records this river’s slip.)
And what of the Styx?
I’d rather not travel
its ominous flows;
but Dante and Milton
press me with knotty
lines to unravel.
These rivers flow on
and on. Never stopping,
I read them again and
again,
enjoying vintages of
each writer’s outcropping.
This River of Words
smooths my way,
gift from writers
‘round the world.
How wide its reaches?
I cannot yet say.
~ Carole Mertz
Carole Mertz owns
copyright to this poem.
Carole Mertz has published poems in The Write Place at
the Write Time, Page & Spine, Rockford Review, Lutheran Digest, Westward
Quarterly, and in various anthologies. Her reviews of poetry
collections are at Arc Poetry Magazine and in World Literature
Today.
About the judge: Charlotte Digregorio is the author of six
books including, Haiku and Senryu: A
Simple Guide for All. Her books are sold in forty-four countries, and have
been featured by book clubs. She has won thirty-three poetry awards and has been
nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She speaks at national writer's conferences,
and is a writer-in-residence at universities. She hosted and produced, “Poetry
Beat,” a radio program on public broadcasting. She is the Second Vice President
of the Haiku Society of America. She has given dozens of haiku workshops at
libraries and schools, and judges national poetry contests. Her poems have been
translated into six languages and exhibited on public transit, in banks,
supermarkets, museums, apparel shops, botanic gardens, restaurants, and
libraries. You can check her website at https://charlottedigregorio.wordpress.com/.
Check back early in July to see the next poetry challenge.
©
Wilda Morris
