Joan Dobbie, this year’s judge for 30 for 30’s “Let’s Not Talk About Cancer” and co-host of the River Road Reading Series in Eugene, Oregon, has chosen “Das Quintett” by Suzann Heron as this year’s winning poem. In making her decision, Dobbie writes:
The other poems come from the cancer experience as a thing that happens to older people, middle aged and beyond, like me and you. And this of course is true. But this one lets us know (or rather, since we already do know, but actually feel) two important things: one, that children do not live trivial lives. And, two, that children also are vulnerable to cancer.
Das Quintett
The tiny musicians are poised
Ready to play the piece
Each has spent much of
Their days, months, lives, practicing
Rehearsing, a homage
They are equally spaced, all five,
on a sturdy, wooden, plank,
teetering on the tip of a jagged rock
Jutting, out of the sea
The sky is a grey
The bow of a small sail boat
Can be seen to approach,
carrying the cancer
You would not suspect it
While the music plays
Each note carefully crafted
Like a scalpel
cuts through the cool sea breeze
To the wooden boat
Carrying the cancer
Copyright 2025 Suzann Heron
As this year’s winner, Suzann will receive a one-year subscription to Potomac Review..
Congratulations Suzann!
And thank you to all of this year’s participants for sharing your wonderful, creative work.
Until next year…
30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review
