Award-winning poems from Melisa Cahnmann
Melisa Cahnmann, an assistant professor in language education, was awarded a $10,000 prize in the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Contest. The contest sought short poems on the "Spirit of Life" from poets under 40.

The contest was established by the late Marvin Rosenberg, professor emeritus in theatre arts and a specialist in Shakespeare at the University of California at Berkley, in memory of his first wife. The contest is linked at http://dorothysargentrosenbergmemorialfund.org/TOCFrame.htm.   

Below are the three poems Cahnmann submitted -- a villanelle, a free verse poem and a sonnet.


Habitat for Humanity

We were working on her house and on our lives,
Old wars of faith among these volunteers.
God, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Adonai.

We wore our names on duct tape and we tried
To prune and level the foundation where
We were working on her house and on our lives.

Set joists to meet the center beam inside
Our creation, hammered out interiors:
God, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Adonai.  

We built the floor with plywood and heavy sighs
Since Georgia heat was more than we could bear
While working on her house and on our lives.

The Church brought hotdogs, watermelon, and pies.
Heads bent, we sang our gratitude in prayer:
God, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Adonai.

Four weeks of walls and trusses firmly tied,
The roof went up and from our hands appeared
Her house.  We worked together on our lives.
God, Allah, Buddha, Jesus, Adonai.



Inspiration

May the dog drop it wet
and alive at your feet.
May it aim like archers for dust
in a cluster of bees.
May moonstring lift it in lanterns
above crescent pillows
that sleep between lashes and cheeks.

May it steep in the company of teacups
or sit on a trivet to cool.
May it come like laughter in pennies
or go weep behind school
where brownstones huddle together
like sisters in winter
where pine needles still glimmer
and carry it like sparklers
on Fourth of July.

May it even come in a room full of terrible
or buried in beach sand with the heaviest parts,
a head-hole left for it



Icaria

How can we settle down when there's so much?
So many berries bruised and bloody red.
The silken threads my fingers long to touch—
So many city streets and river beds!
I've tasted tamarinds and gypsy tea,
Climbed pyramids, sang ballads for a kiss.
I've slept above the jungle canopy,
But still the lure of so much more I've missed.
Once I supposed it best to just give up
My preference for kimchi and salted fish
If it meant I could keep you, could curl up
In plain comfort of your companion flesh.
But my direction's set on burning sky.
A pair of wings on fire for company.


Tuesday, March 1, 2005