IMage courtesy of MinimalistPhotography101.com (flickr.com)
Our guest judge, none other than John Corey Whaley, said it was “tough” to pick a winner of our Random Word Contest (#NPMRWC14). And we don’t blame him! There were some really excellent entries, and we were super happy that some of you tried to put visuals with your words. If you want a clickable list of all the entries, click here first.
But…..
THE WINNER IS……
Janelle Fila, for “Meditation”
Words from 2013’s “I Could Drown You” by Cameron MacDonald:
drown, dribbling, rainwater, underneath, wormy, pantry, brass, salt, leaky, drain
Meditation
Close your Eyes
Count to ten
Drown in the forgotten memories
dribbling past your outstretched fingertips
like the trickle of rainwater against a fogged up
pane of glass.
Underneath the layers of self-loathing and shame
are the wormy contents of your dying heart
Locked on the topmost shelf of an unused pantry
the brass key rusty and forgotten in a drawer full of
old batteries, used twist ties, and spilt salt.
Focus on the cadence of your breath
In
and Out
like the rhythm of the consistent drips
of a leaky faucet
swirling down the drain of life.
John Corey Whaley says that “This poem says so much with so little–and with a total lack of pretentiousness about it. Each line does something amazing by strapping itself to the familiar. It’s lovely.”
CONGRATS, Janelle!!!
As promised, Janelle will have the opportunity to publish more on YARN, AND she will receive an editors’ bundle composed of our Fiction Editor Diana Renn’s upcoming YA mystery “Latitude Zero,” our Editor Kerri Majors’s writing memoir “This Is Not a Writing Manual,” and John Corey Whaley’s “Noggin“!
THANK YOU again to all of your who entered and helped spread the word! We couldn’t have done it without you! And happy National Poetry Month.