Mike Maggio

The Magic Bow

Sophocles tells us 
When Philoctetes suffered a rotting wound
And could not fight at Troy
He was abandoned on the island, Lemnos—
With an intense slow
Eating away of flesh—

It doesn’t matter what the malady is called—

The story is that men landed on the island
To steal what is invincible—
Wicked Odysseus among them because
His Trojan war must be won, thus the
Struggle for justice or autonomy was begun—

And as the cave darkened damper
And the sun subsided
And the winds blew foul
All the birds stopped singing—

Some say the Herculean sword was given up
Some say it was taken from him
But Philoctetes went on to fight at Troy—

And the wound healed, as all wounds can
When Gods enter the arena of mortal men. 

Copyright 2025 Grace Cavalieri                                   

Bio:

Grace Cavalieri was Maryland’s tenth Poet Laureate. She founded, and produces “The Poet and The Poem from The Library of Congress” celebrating 48 years on-air. She’s seen 31 books  and chapbooks of poetry published; and several plays produced  in NYC and throughout the country.

Donation Appeal:
To help victims of cancer and to help foster continuing research into this deadly disease, please consider donating to either The American Cancer Society or The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Thank you.

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review

Cloud of Unknowing					
 
All I do is eat, sleep, drink, and be negligent.
                        John of Dalyatha, monk and mystic (690-780)
 
Just how did Paul arrange his days?
All those Epistles must have taken time.
Distraction was not possible for him.
One monk moved into a pharaoh’s tomb
to get away from it all.  Yet from the midden
heaps and notes he left behind, it seems 
he was busy arranging deliveries of spices 
or asking his sister for clothes and food,
although fasting is said to focus the mind.
Sleeping can keep one from praying
unceasingly so was often discouraged,
but why fight a losing battle?  No rest
for the weary, my mother used to say,
though she stayed in bed later each day,
practicing negligence, dreaming away.
Simeon of Stylites lived on top of a pillar
for over 35 years near Aleppo, which must
have been hard to do.  What could he do
to cope but pray and stare up at the sun
or haul his food in a bucket with a rope?
Why does my mind wander during prayer?
John of Dalyatha lived in a monastery
on the mountain where Noah’s ark
was found, which could have sparked
his lectio divina in a profound way.
I went to Madonna House downtown
to stay overnight in their Poustinia 
space and promptly fell asleep,  
feeling not negligent, but released.
Prayer can lead to a meditative state –
a cloud of unknowing, a mystical place.

Copyright by Bonnie Naradzay for 2025

Bio:

Bonnie Naradzay’s manuscript will be published this year by Slant Books.  For years, she has led weekly poetry sessions at homeless shelters and a retirement community, all in Washington DC.  Poems, three of which have been nominated for Pushcarts, have appeared in AGNI, New Letters, RHINO, Tampa Review, EPOCH, Dappled Things, and many other places. While at Harvard she was in Robert Lowell’s class on “The King James Bible as English Literature.” In 2010 she was awarded the University of New Orleans Poetry Prize – a month’s stay in Northern Italy – in the South Tyrol castle of Ezra Pound’s daughter Mary.  There, Bonnie had tea with Mary, hiked the Dolomites, and read drafts of Pound’s translations. Her web site is https://www.bonnienaradzay.com

Donation Appeal:
To help victims of cancer and to help foster continuing research into this deadly disease, please consider donating to either The American Cancer Society or The Leukemia and Lymphoma |Society.

Thank you

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review

In 2012, I was diagnosed with a type of leukemia known as hairy cell. Thanks to the miracle workers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), those nasty little hairy cells were put into remission where they remain today.

Several years later, I was diagnosed with bladder cancer and have had several surgeries and treatments since. Again, thanks to the doctors I have been lucky enough to find , this too, is in remission.

Now, I have been diagnosed once again with a another kind of cancer: Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML). This has left me somewhat incapacitated (fatigue, shortness of breath, loss of appetite) though I am now on a treatment plan which will hopefully lead to better days.

As a result of the seemingly never-ending recurrence of this disease , I came up with this year’s theme: “Let’s Not Talk About Cancer.” It’s a curious call because, though the directive seems to dictate avoiding the topic, it has spurred almost everyone on to do just the opposite: to write poems about their own experiences, either as patients or as caretakers. And that’s just fine, because this is a topic that needs wide-open discussion since cancer is a disease that touches almost everyone in one way or another.

And so I present this year’s 30 for 30 for National Poetry Month. Once again, it is sponsored by the good people at Potomac Review. And, once again, a winner will be chosen to receive a one-year subscription to that illustrious journal. This year’s judge is Joan Dobbie who hails from Oregon and who has participated in 30 for 30 in the past.

In addition, I will be asking for donations this year to either The American Cancer Society or The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Donations are voluntary and anonymous. However, given the nature of this disease and the good work both of these organizations do (besides supporting research, they offer support in many forms to both victims of cancer and their caretakers), donations are encouraged.

And so let the poems begin. As usual, they can be accessed at www.mikemaggio.net. I hope this year’s 30 for 30 speaks to you in numerous and profound ways. May we all lead healthy and happy lives.

Best,
Mike

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review

I’m pleased to announce the twelfth annual 30 for 30 Poetry Celebration, sponsored by Potomac Review, which will once again take place this year on my web site, www.mikemaggio.net

This year’s theme is as follows:

Let’s Not Talk About Cancer.  That’s wide open, kind of. But like cancer, I want you to go wild and uncontrolled. Let your imagination take you to where you’ve never been before. Let the page be your canvas. And let rhyme not exist except as it worms its way onto the page.

Your poem should be between 20 and 40 lines (no more, no less).

To participate, please follow these instructions:

1. Send an email to mikemaggio@mikemaggio.net stating your intent to participate. Do not send any poems at this time but do state in your email where you are from.
2. The first 30 poets who respond to this call will be selected to submit their poem. I will also create a substitution list should any of the 30 drop out.
3. Once the 30-poet limit has been reached, I will randomly assign each poet a day in April when their poem will be due and when it will be published.
4. Poets must submit their poem at least one day before it is to be posted. Earlier submissions are welcome, but don’t rush your poem.
5. All poems must be written by the submitting author. Poems should not contain any racist or sexist language but they must address the theme in some way.
6. Poems must be submitted as a Word document or in RTF format (not in the text of the email or in PDF format).
7. Poets should include a short 1–2-line bio with their poem. A copyright statement should also be included (e.g., Copyright 2025 by [your name]).
8. All rights automatically revert to the author. Please note that if your poem appears on this web site, it is considered by most journals to be previously published, and you will not be able to submit it anywhere else.
9. To promote community and discussion, readers and participants are encouraged to post comments on the web site about each of the poems.
10. At the end of the month, our judge will select the winning poem.
11. The winning poet will receive a free one-year subscription to Potomac Review.
12. All poems will be archived on mikemaggio.net. (I am working with George Mason University to archive the web site in their collection which now houses my papers, so your work will be preserved there for future researchers).

This year’s judge is Joan Dobbie who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Oregon (1988). She co-hosts the River Road Reading Series (RRRS) on Zoom and is very happy when one of her poems finds a home in an anthology or journal.  She conducts “Poetry Immersion” classes in her Eugene, Oregon hometown.  Her most recent books are The Language of Stone (Uttered Chaos Press, 2019)and Zenyatta/Joanna (Finishing Line Press, 2023). Joan is presently Emerald Literary Guild President and is editing an anthology that showcases nearly 147 incredible writers. She is a devoted yogini and yoga teacher and a cancer survivor. You can read about her cancer experience here. Her poetry blog can be reached here.

If you have any questions, please email mikemaggio@mikemaggio.net. I look forward to your participation.

And a very special thanks to Albert Kapikian,, Katherine Smith and Monica Mische, the editors at Potomac Review,for once again sponsoring 30 for 30.