MOST RECENT OPA NEWS
OPA’S FALL CONTEST EXTENDED UNTIL SEPTEMBER 15
Read all of this item.Good news! You still have time to submit your best poetry to Oregon Poetry Association’s Fall Contest! We have extended the contest until September 15. You can still submit poems here in the following categories: Poet’s Choice, Members Only, New Poets, Traditional Form–Sestina, Theme–The Sea, Age 30 and Under, and Spanish Language. You can find the specific guidelines here https://oregonpoets.org/opa-fall-2021-poetry-contest-categories-and-entry-guidelines/
Enter online here http://OPA.submittable.com
MEMBER NEWS
- Posted: September 8, 2021
NEW BOOK by LAURA LEHEW: DEAR JOHN—
The Poetry Box is happy to announce the forthcoming release of Laura LeHew’s new poetry collection, Dear John—, which is available for PREORDER at a discount NOW thru Oct 15, 2021.
https://thepoetrybox.com/bookstore/dear-john
Dear John— is a collection of poems that investigate explore the multi-facets of love by using diverse points of view ...
LATEST BOOK REVIEW (EXCERPT)
OPA reviews Grim Honey, by Jessica Barksdale, reviewed by Alicia Hoffman
Read all of this item.
Reviewed by Alicia Hoffman
Grim Honey by Jessica Barksdale
Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7354002-1-1
Available at https://sheilanagigblog.com/sheila-na-gig-editions-quick-shopping/jessica-barksdale/Exigence and Apocalypse
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
– William FaulknerLike the horrific tragedy of 9/11, everyone will remember where they were when Covid19 shut down the globe. In early March 2020, days before nation-wide school closures, I was standing in a room full of maskless high schoolers, reviewing for the upcoming AP Language exams. We were studying the rhetorical concept of exigence, the idea that writers often come up against a situation that demands action or remedy. It is this impulse, this urgency, that often calls us to act, that prompts utterance, that begs us to better understand our place in the world’s vast and complicated chess game.
When the pandemic came ...
MOST RECENT POET’S SPOTLIGHT
2020 Spring Contest Winners: Poet’s Choice: 1st Place Winner
June 3, 2020Baby, It’s Cold Outside
(a Vivianne sonnet variation)
As embryos we each explore the wall
of womb that holds us. It’s the first place joy
is felt—mom’s heartbeat like a lullaby.
Cocooned in touch, that’s how we interact.
We’re chastised just as soon as we can crawl
or walk. Just look! Hands off! That’s not a toy.
We’re told to view, to listen, smell that, try
a taste of this—but touch … and hands are smacked.
And so begins our isolation. All
those inhibitions finally destroy
instinctive comfort found in touch, deny
the core of who we are. Our lives contract.