House of Prayer
“I praise once again, I symmetry / like the wings of a migrating bird, I repeat alhamdulillah / and rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat, like the rokrok / of an egret.”
Contest Winner
BRAIN HEMORRHAGE, EARLY FALL
By Madhur Anand
“Found a dead bird on the rented back porch on Rice Lake. / Found it. Not encountered it. More like: glad we did not / not see it.”
Winners and Finalists of the Palette Poetry Prize!
Guest judge Edward Hirsch had a difficult time choosing from our exceptional finalists, but in the end, he chose Shelley Stenhouse to take the $4000 prize. Congratulations to Shelley, and to all of our winners and finalists!
Surrender
“In the red brick room, my father cries. / His cries are small, lonely animals. / I carry them with me / like an inheritance.”
Aullo
“Yo vi las mejores mentes de mi generación destrozadas por remesa madness. / Starving. 10 cent. Maruchán. Limón y Valentina slurpin’ paisas”
THERE’S A RATTLE, SOMETIMES
“A strange earth / for this staggered colony of desperate valiant specks. There is / no there, here.”
I’m not one of those who left my land
“And then if not my death then my life will be fashioned like orchids / pouring from the windows, all of my friends catching me in nets.”
Winners and Finalists of the Spotlight Award!
We are honored to share with everyone the winners and finalists of the Spotlight Award!
In Response to My Mother When She Says Hearing Me Read My Writing’s like Hearing God
“God // cannot be remission, the clear scan, a bell’s clang after my / last treatment.”