I am so grateful for all the people who participated in the dis•articulations project in July—those who offered prompts, those who engaged in fevered writing on those prompts, those who wrote dis•articulations poems, and those who voted on those poems. You all brought life and heart to this process!
By a popular vote, our winner is Alice Shabazian for her poem, “Histories of Hunger.” Alice is a poet and artist from Portland, OR. She will receive a $50 prize.
The second-place winner is Hank Henderson, for his poem, “Cyclone.” Hank Henderson is a writer, seeker, propagator, fabulist, mentor, and curator who lives in Glassell Park with three cats and a man named Joe.
You can read their poems (as well as the others submitted) at this link.
My own dis•articulations poem for the month of July appears below. It was drawn from fevered writing segments #4, #9, #14, and #16.
QUEEN OF NOTHING GETS PHYSICAL
by Terry Wolverton
All summer she lay unsleeping
in the deep chamber of the world,
beauty in a closet of dark,
all juice shoes and shiny bullets.
Born from the vagina of a
dried-up universe, by the time
she came, oceans were spitting fire,
pearls wrinkling in shadow beds.
Now she snatches clay from your eyes,
squats under the skin of winter.
No longer bathed in wonder, she’s
un-tempered power—heat and rush,
a hot gun rippling toward us,
fueled by the taut muscle of lust.
