Thursday, December 3, 2009

Beat Poetry Contest 1st place winner

First place in the Beat Poetry Contest goes to Marjorie J. Levine for her poem, "What Way To Go Today." Congratulations, Marjorie! You've won a copy of The Beat Handbook. I'll be contacting you via e-mail to get a mailing address.


WHAT WAY TO GO TODAY
by Marjorie J. Levine

Almost dusk:
Last summer on one Wednesday, in July,
I sat on a bench, a grey wooden tired
Bench on a boardwalk out at old Long Beach.
In the sky a lonely and lost grey kittiwake tipped
As the hot pink sun set in blazing technicolor over
Hot pinkish sand and the fading blue ocean water.

That morning:
I had thought about seeing great art...
Vermeer, or Courbet, or maybe Monet.
But, I drove to the beach instead to think
To think about everything creative that had been
Created before I got here, and when I was here,
And what will be created when I leave this place.
When one day I leave my place and all places in my
Consciousness that is now in this time and was
At a past time and will be in some next time;
Maybe all time exists at the same time.
The great minds of theoretical physicists search
For the "Theory of Everything" as they sit
In their cluttered rooms, their great thinking rooms.
In universities, they ponder the mathematical equations
And Schrodinger's cat and all those mysteries.

In the evening:
It is during the quiet and still and sad night when
I miss most the people I never met:
Edie Beale, and the Rat Pack, and even Rod Serling
Who made me want to time travel: to go back to simpler places
Like Nedick's, or the Belmore, or Bickford's, and Willoughby.
Then the longing, a longing when distant sounds and faraway
Foghorns drive thoughts to reflect on a life visible through some
Smoky cracked mirror, a haunted and haunting steamy mirror.
As I am sort of old now and getting older
There is a vague and odd feeling that I,
Like the kittiwake, somehow must have lost the way.

8 comments:

Marjorie said...

I am very happy that my poem, "WHAT WAY TO GO TODAY," was chosen as the winner of the Beat Poetry Contest. Thank-you, Rick, so much. Congratulations to the other winners... whose poems I greatly enjoyed.

Jack Kerouac inspires me every day, so yes, "let's all keep writing."

Barry Watson. said...

Marjorie
That was a beautiful Poem.
Well done.
UK Barry.
xxx

Marjorie said...

Thanks, Barry!

Anonymous said...

Thanks. Jack Kerouac is one of my favorite writers and poets. I love those types of travel stories.
I went to the Oregon Country Fair and met or saw Zane Kesey talking with fair and bus visitors.

Marjorie said...

Hi, Rick:
Will there be another Beat Poetry Contest this year?
I hope so.
Marjorie

Rick Dale, author of The Beat Handbook said...

Hi, Marjorie. I have no plans for one right now, but that could change.

Bonnie Clarke-Johnson said...

I like change tho....keeps me on my not so steady toes...Hum...this post was several years ago....you better hurry....Bonnie

Unknown said...

Absolutely beautiful! Makes any comment I could say about this poem hereafter, seem superficial. I love the imagery. Left me on the verge of tears.