Our poem of the week comes from the Summer issue of 3rd Wednesday. It was part of series of mythology inspired sonnets by our featured poet, Jennifer A. McGowan.
Tag: Creative Writing
As One Fire Consumes Another – John Sibley Williams
3rd Wednesday contributor, John Sibley Willams is the winner of the Orison Poetry Prize for his poetry collection, As One Fire Consumes Another.
John Sibley Williams confronts the violent side of American history and its effect on our notions of self, fatherhood, and citizenship. […] The poems, which veer from elegiac to declarative to prayerlike, drill down into the beliefs and fears that underpin this violence.
–Poets & Writers
John Sibley Williams’ collection As One Fire Consumes Another transcends beyond the boundaries of family and history and country, beyond the body’s tragedies, the “silenced bones of others.” These poems rise as invocation, as testimonial to life’s unfiltered beauty, violence, and faith, to the “light . . . already in us.”
–Vandana Khanna, judge of The 2018 Orison Poetry Prize
John Sibley Williams is the author of the poetry collections Skin Memory (Backwaters Prize), Disinheritance, and Controlled Hallucinations. He serves as the editor of The Inflectionist Review and has edited two Northwest poetry anthologies, Alive at the Center (Ooligan Press, 2013) and Motionless from the Iron Bridge (barebones books, 2013).
As One Fire Consumes Another is avialable from Orison Books and at Amazon.
Tallahatchie River Speaks of Lonliness
In just six lines in a single sentence, Krystal Nikol of Detroit has produced a poem of immense power. It was one of three winning poems in our One Sentence Poetry Contest, a contest we’ll repeat for the winter issue, opening for entries in mid-August.
Third Act Poems – Buff Whitman-Bradley
Frequent 3rd Wednesday contributor, Buff Whitman-Bradley has a podcast. You can hear some of his poems, including some originally published in T. W. At Third Act Poems. Click on Buff’s picture to head over for some audio poetry.
Buff Whitman-Bradley’s poetry has been widely published in print and online journals. His latest book is “Crows with Bad Writing.” Of late, he has been writing more and more about aging, memory, and mortality, and his podcast, “Poems for the Third Act,” features poems reflecting on issues related to growing older.
Mary Oliver
Here is Third Wednesday’s Poem of the Week. It’s from the newly released summer issue.
Objects in the Mirror
Our “Poem of the Week” is a preview of the summer issue of 3rd Wednesday, now at the printer. It’s one of three winning poems from the 3rd edition of our popular “One Sentence Poetry Contest”. It’s the second win for Michigan poet, Jane Wheeler, who can pack a lot of story into a single sentence.
Estuary
Our poem of the week was worthy of an honorable mention in 3rd Wednesday’s annual poetry contest. It’s from Vol. XII, No. 2.
Working Outside
Marfa, Texas is a small desert town known as an oasis of the arts. It was the filming location of James Dean’s final film, Giant, and figures prominantly in the Ed Graczyk play and Robert Altman film, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. It’s also the home of a U.F.O. phenomenon, The Marfa Lights. Marfa poet, Daryl Scroggins, whom Third Wednesday has featured a number of times, now has produced a U.L.O. (Unidentified Literary Object). Is it a poem, a prose poem, a bit flash fiction? Does it matter how we label it? What Daryl does give us is a glimpse into the mind of an adolescent boy – a strange and dangerous place.
His Words Are Lost In Noise
This elegantly written little poem is like a photograph. Close your eyes and you can see, not only the details the poet chose, but the scene beyond, especially if you’ve been in a fishing village anywhere in The Caribbean.
Ed Note: Garifuna is an Arawakan language spoken by about 200,000 people, mainly in coastal areas of Honduras, Belize, Guatamala and Nicaragua. It originated on the island of St. Vincent in the Antilies.
Poems from InsideOut
Third Wednesday Magazine 