First Place Winner, January 2005 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

First Place Winner, January 2005

CLARINET REDUX
Bernard Henrie
(Melic Review RoundTable)

Rump of wind almost played out.
The curtains in and later out.

Half-drunk bees lean into phlox
and ivy beds. Birds somewhere,
but not far off.

A clarinet dropped carelessly
by the white trellis. Hair brush
and apple, a still life on the desk.

Room light becomes anemic,
ceases to move.

Scattered music sheets, metronome.
Uncapped fountain pen, letter knife,
monotonous ticking clock.

The afternoon slowly running out.

Perched in the corner of the room,
knees up and braced against the wall,
reading a letter for the third time.

You think:
she could spring at any time
and tear the beating heart from
the small cave of your chest.

Judge David Hernandez’s comments: “There’s lots to admire in the ‘Clarinet Redux,’ especially the sharp imagery and the compression of language. Poetry to me has always been about expressing a moment with the fewest words possible, which this poem does beautifully. For instance: ‘Uncapped fountain pen, letter knife, / monotonous ticking clock.’ Eight perfect words in a row.”