December 27, 2015

“A Toast” by Wendy VidelockPosted by Rattle

Wendy Videlock

A TOAST

Here’s to the mountain,

here’s to the sky,

here’s to the who

and the what, and the why,

here’s to the leisure,

here’s to the chore,

here’s to the pit,

and the skin, and the core,

here’s to the ancient,

here’s to the now,

here’s to the thumb

and the seed and the plow,

here’s to the fire,

here’s to the shore,

here’s to the star

and the freak, and the bore,

here’s to the addict,

here’s to the saint,

here’s to the song

and the hum of complaint,

here’s to the miner,

here’s to the crone,

here’s to the ruined,

the staid, and the flown,

here’s to the wrist,

here’s to the tongue,

here’s to the rib

and the cage and the bone.

—Poets Respond
December 27, 2015

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Wendy Videlock: “Immersed as we are in the season of gratitude, spirits, and imbibing, it seemed only fitting to write a toast.” (website)

April 28, 2015

“The Night Relies” by Wendy VidelockPosted by Rattle

Wendy Videlock

THE NIGHT RELIES

Beware the ones who fear the night.

We ghosts, Athena, Allah, Christ

will take our place in the dark and fuse

the father, the mother, the mountain, the muse.

In sleep, we have no face to lose.

What’s left is vague and sways the morning.

The camouflage is in conforming.

By noon we choose another word,

another myth, a lighter bird.

Between the train and bustling station

the human side of this equation:

when bathed by day or when in dream,

you are not you, nor who you seem;

the sum of what you think you’ve heard

will galvanize and will insist

a life will change inside the turn,

the night relies on what you’ve kissed—

the womb, the moon, the dream, the myth,

the rain, the dusk, this rising mist.

—from Rattle #46, Winter 2014
Rattle Poetry Prize Finalist

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Wendy Videlock: “I think I am a devotee of poetry in large part because it refuses paraphrase, has little interest in good manners, and doesn’t have a dress code.” (website)

September 15, 2013

2013 Rattle Poetry Prize WinnersPosted by Rattle

Rattle is proud to announce the winner of the 2013 Rattle Poetry Prize:

Roberto Ascalon

“The Fire This Time”
by
Roberto Ascalon
Seattle, WA

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Finalists:

“A Poem for Women Who Don’t Want Children”
Chanel Brenner
Santa Monica, CA

“My Mother Told Us Not to Have Children”
Rebecca Gayle Howell
Lubbock, TX

“Baby Love”
Courtney Kampa
New York, NY

“What He Must Have Seen”
Stephen Kampa
Daytona Beach, FL

“Man on Mad Anthony”
Bea Opengart
Cincinatti, OH

“Laundry List”
Michelle Ornat
Elma, NY

“Man on the Floor”
Jack Powers
Fairfield, CT

“Basic Standards Test”
Danez Smith
St. Paul, MN

“Who Breathed in Binders”
Patricia Smith
Howell, NJ

“Of You”
Wendy Videlock
Grand Junction, CO

These eleven poems will be published in the Winter issue of Rattle this December. Each of the Finalists are also eligible for the $1,000 Readers’ Choice Award, to be selected by entrant and subscriber vote (the voting period is December 1, 2013 – February 15, 2014).

Another nine poems were selected for standard publication, and offered a space in the open section of a future issue. These poets will be notified individually about details, but they are: Jacqueline Berger, Daniel Bohnhorst, Jackleen Holton, Sharon Kessler-Farchi, Michael Meyerhofer, Kathleen Nolan, Charlotte Pence, Sam Sax, and Timothy Schirmer.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the competition, which would not have been a success without your diverse and inspiring poems. We received a record 2,105 entries and well over 8,000 poems, and it was an honor to read each of them.

Rattle: Poetry

… without pretension since 1995.

Wendy Videlock

December 27, 2015

April 28, 2015

September 15, 2013