Mike Maggio

Hello all:

Derek Kannemeyer, this year’s judge, has chosen Cheryl T. Cooley, as our winner in this year’s 30 for 30 for her poem “Nina Simone’s Three-Room Childhood Clapboard House.” Congratulations Cherryl! Cherryl will received a one-year subscription to Potomac Review, our sponsor.

In second place: Katherine Gotthardt for her poem “Expedition.”

And in third place: Sally Toner for her poem “To Ezra Pound.”

Congratulations to all three.

Derek had an especially hard time choosing a winner this year due to all the exceptional poems that came our way..  Here are his comments:

“How did I select my winners? I shortlisted half the submitted poems, and I changed my mind often! I wanted lively work that affected me, and I wanted imagism. Imagist poetry, says poets.org, is free verse committed to “clarity of expression through the use of precise visual images.” Mike Maggio requested pieces expressed “solely through the use of images,” with “no abstractions.” While visual pictures can be painted with literal description alone, “image” also suggests metaphor and simile, so I did hope for some figurative precision. Thanks to all of you who contributed and who made me labor over the choosing!”

Thanks Derek and thanks to all who participated and shared their work.

Until next year….

Mike

Unfortunately, one of our scheduled poets was unable to participate, so to complete the 30 days, I am offering one of my own.

Still Life

What can the lonely gutter do
but embrace a blue reclining nude
quenched like a footpressed butt
mirrored in the red-glazed wedges
of a restless beer bottle
and wait
for the swift tremulous cloud
to put out the sky.

Copyright 2023 Mike Maggio

Mike Maggio is the author of 9 books of poetry and fiction with a 10th, a gothic novel called Woman in the Abbey, to by released in 2025 by Vine Leaves Press where you can find other titles by him. “Still Life” originally appeared in his collection Garden of Rain (Aldrich Press, 2015).

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review

Nina Simone’s Three-Room Childhood Clapboard House

enduring A-frame house: ashen overlap, splinter after splinter,
livid brick legs bowing beneath the sagging hips of worn wood,
algae crusted steps, a bare porch rocker, the dingy front door –
a cuboidal mouth opening to frameless rooms, frangible floors,

handstitched pastel quilt squares draping a rusting iron bed,
just past the blue shiplap room, cold, dark, wood burning stove, 
a silenced kettle, sheer pushpin curtains, curled windowsill paint,
still-shiny Jesus, the cross, the wall mounted phone, its hand crank, 

near a starless window: the piano, the standing sheet of bold-font Bach,
timeless, engraved, curvy pump organ: defiant and relentlessly Black.

©2023 by Cherryl T. Cooley

Like activist and musical genius Nina Simone, Cherryl T. Cooley is a native North Carolinian. An advocate for the restoration of Nina Simone’s childhood home, she’s published two single-author poetry collections under the name Cherryl Floyd-Miller. She makes a living as a Narrative Strategist for a social change and public health organization. Cherryl loves, lives and works from Woodbridge, Virginia.

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review

I sunk in search of Cézanne,
the pickled flower who has cleaned History’s teeth.
He cut up a cigarette and dipped it in tea,
remembering it wasn't a cigarette,
and held it with eyes as sharp as a table.
But Cézanne is just a used car from 1616,
And so my blank pages continued to plow a silent manicure.
All I know is this:
the kiss is the moon that is red,
and a respectful kiss won't turn into a corkscrew.

Copyright 2023 by Angelo Colella

Angelo ‘NGE’ Colella was born in Italy where he still lives. He writes prose and poetry in Italian and English and also makes collages, asemic writing and DADA objects. Some of his works have appeared on Uut Poetry, Utsanga, The Ekphrastic Review, Il Cucchiaio nell’Orecchio, Il Mirino, Multiperso, Blogorilla, Word For/Word, Otoliths, La Morte per Acqua, and 22 Pensieri.

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review

Blue Skies, Daydreams, Watching Clouds

He saw bears and eagles, an alligator, grandpa’s puppy in heaven.
One time, a dragon. One time, Kokopelli.
Every day, he watched the clouds boil and rearrange themselves.
One day, he saw them form you. You were brilliant – shining and dancing like the sun on water.
He took your picture to keep in his pocket.
And then you were gone, and the darkness came, but he still looked for you.
And he saw that he could see clouds at night, too, and nebula, among the stars.
He waited – how long? Years – He waited years until he was stooped and hobbled, for a sign.
One day, a star fell. Faint, concentric waves just offshore.
He waded in. Stardust, peonies, rose petals. He knew it was you.


Copyright 2023 Jay McClendon

Jay McClendon was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and now lives in Herndon, VA. He was most recently published in Maryland Literary Review.

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review

infer

rays flash the sphere
as it flies a vector
through blue-backed air
spinning as it goes

a prediction autonomic
the opponents racket
makes a tight arc

to meet it and yellow
fuzz wafts as the ball
tangents a different curve

© Dave Lego 2023-03-02

Dave resides incognito in the east and counts the days when the Federal government paroles him from his forty-nine years of hard labor.

30 for 30 is sponsored by Potomac Review