| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
| Second Place Winner, August 2007 | |
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I SEE GOD STANDING IN STOUT GROVE Larina Warnock (Poets.org) Here, Heaven appears in bursts of broken sunlight between treetops swaying with the weight of words; supplication spirals up from bodies unbent, unkneeling. Here, faces appear carved in soft red bark, and limbs stretch earthward as invitations for embrace; gnarled branches curl like arthritic hands without pain. Here, seedlings appear along the frames of the fallen; new trunks rise beside fern and moss over logs lying prone; roots curl over ancient stumps and both survive. Here, redwoods appear in clusters; gods grow upon gods, between gods, within gods--relics of old religions twisting together in perpetual union, continuous creation. Beneath these branches, I know why ancients worshipped trees, why they sought solace in these groves and found them filled with spirit-tinged whispers. I remember you from my youth, Lord. I remember you from a childlike dream. Judge Deborah Bogen’s comments: “A poem explaining what Heaven (with a capital H) is that uses a decidedly pagan imagery many would think is opposed to heavenly values is immediately interesting--the poet has something he or she is really thinking about. And this poem makes its inquiry via complicated linguistic turns that add to its complexity, e.g., ’Here, redwoods appear in clusters; gods grow upon gods, / between gods, within gods...’ This profusion of little-g gods whose referent is clearly vegetative growth tempts us then to re-read the poem as more pagan. But the poet does not allow this simplification, closing with ‘I remember you from my youth, Lord. / I remember you from a childlike dream.’”
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