Beware of Poets Bearing Gifts

Helen stands alone, drenched
in the ink of midnight punctuated by a few faint stars
and a proud, brittle moon sitting as the
unveiled and defiant queen of this landscape. A black
and unknown bard emerges from behind a fragile veil
of shadows: she almost recognizes his face,
a carved brown rock monument of deep lines and curves,
from the page of a book she’d read in high school. You will
need this to see and hear
, he says as he
reaches a long bronze arm above his head
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Debutante Emily Looks for Buried Treasure

They lived on Seventeenth. The Negro
steel mill workers, these new men recruited
by ashen-coated promises of gold moved into
these little one-story brick boxes with their
families: and Helen’s was no different. Helen
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Liftoff

The heels of Helen’s feet –
smooth brown apples in the sun
gravid with forbidden knowledge –
do not need wings. Humans are not
supposed to fly, but she will. She just
doesn’t know it yet. She’s running
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Westerville, Ohio: Rock the ‘Ville is looking for published authors, poets, and illustrators for its August 10 event. Auditions will be held on June 4. Click on the flyer below: the image will appear as a JPEG. If you cannot view it, click on the link below the image to see a PDF version of the flyer.

Rock the 'Ville call for authors

Westerville, Ohio Rock the ‘Ville Looking for Poets, Authors, and Artists

Helen R. Jones

Helen R. Jones watches the sun
crawl up the back of the sky. He smears a
trail of persimmon, gold, and cinnabar on
its sacroiliac; a small strip of lapis lazuli skin
peeks out at the world just above its waistline. She
has seen this happen at least sixteen thousand,
seven hundred and fifty times, give or take a
week or two’s worth of the missing the occasion.

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“A Zealot” Wins First Place in Adult Category in Worthington Libraries Poetry Contest

“A Zealot” (first published here on Raven’s Wing Poetry) won first place in the adult category in the 2013 Worthington Libraries Poetry Competition. The winners were announced on Saturday, April 27 at an open mic reading at the Old Worthington Library, 820 High Street, Worthington, Ohio.

The first, second, and third place winners in each category read their poems and attending poets were invited to read on the open mic. In addition to “A Zealot”, I also read “Candles”, the second poem I entered into the competition.

The winning poems were also included in an online chapbook published by Worthington Libraries.

I will be posting a video of my reading of “Candles” at the open mic soon.

-Nicole

 

Sleeping Beauty Busts a Few Myths

I am not like other women. I try not to be
like other women. I have slept
on a mattress housed inside of a glass box
for years. I have never owned any spinning wheels
except a mind that whirls around in frenetic, dervish
fashion: because of it, I often see quadruple. But those
four pomegranate seeds in my stomach have caused me
more trouble than they were worth.
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