When creating the assignment for Round #2, Carla Funk suggested we provide the writers with an image, but what image?
I had been watching Dateline and they were showing all these houses in Detroit that were abandoned and burned, but left standing. The image stuck with me. "Burned out house in Detroit," I suggested.
Carla and Rob both agreed it had something to offer. "Take out Detroit," advised Rob, "make it more open."
Although it was a dark image, and Carla feared that poetry already had a reputation for being morose, we went ahead with it.
Little did we know that one of our finalists would be an insurance adjuster who had seen his share of house fires. Trevor Presley's poem impressed me with its details, things that I thought only someone who had seen the effect of fire firsthand would know.
His poem cautions us to recognize the power of fire. He writes, "It started with Grandma’s soup simmering. An open window, a paper towel, a breeze. Combustion."
Yes, I thought. Fire starts that easily, slips in a window when no one is watching.
How do we learn about the world? Through the experiences of others and their generosity in writing about those experiences. The contestants reponded to the assignment with a range of forms from the winner's pared down lyric poem, to the expansiveness of Presley's prose poem to Dean Norris-Jones' traditional villanelle.
It was a pleasure to read them all.
Sounds like you had your work cut out for you. There is nothing like reading beautiful reading though. Inspires, doesn't it?
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