Story and Poem of the Month

Huge thanks to Kevin Buckle (parsonthru) for this month's picks:

I’ve enjoyed reading the picks of the week for November, which has produced an eclectic set of pieces.  Please see my notes below.

In terms of selection – always a subjective choice – it was difficult to choose from strong and memorable contenders. 

For Poem of the Month, it’s difficult to separate seashore’s “Blue” with its matter-of-factness in the face of grievous serial wounding of the soul, which she conveys with quiet control; johnshade’s “Extra Time” with almost voyeuristic detachment being balanced with an eye for detail that only empathy can supply in a story of the trivia and enormity of human existence; Rosa Cruz’s second pick, “surfacing”, whose second stanza drags the reader from the comfort of oblivion (beautifully rendered) into the brutality and white light of a hospital bed – escape is themed nicely in this poem. 

In the end, I propose johnshade’s “Extra Time” for the way he manages to stop time as Death enters an old man’s living-room to survey the futility and sadness of this single human life among all those he has harvested.   The man sleeps, oblivious to the hubris of the big match playing-out on television, watched by the fading relics of his life; unaware of his visitor.  I really like the everyday intimacy of the scene in which these musings occur.  It’s always difficult to do justice to big existential feelings, but johnshade’s setting draws the reader in to share.

For Story of the Month, I put forward NBeinn’s “Long, Tall Sallly".  I found this to be an example of natural and brilliant storytelling, delivered in an original and authentic voice.  The author tells the tale almost without taking a breath from end-to-end and punctuates it with a satisfyingly final conclusion.  For such a fantastic tale, the characters came across as believable and Sally herself persists in my imagination long after reading the story.  Again, great empathy with the character runs throughout. 

Also difficult to separate are celticman’s “the war to end all wars” and well-wisher’s “Martians”.  Celticman’s story conjures the atmosphere of Apocalypse.  Its line “we’re here because we’re here because we’re here” could be a music-hall refrain of the time, but resonates well with today’s “Brexit is Brexit” in terms of unreason usurping reason at the highest level.  The innocence of "pitter-patter" and its association with tiny feet is nicely subverted by “pitter-patter of machine guns”, to whose savage tone it is equally onomatopoeic.  The scene with the wounded comrade towards the end is poignant and takes the universal tragedy of war to the particular in a piece heavy with pathos.  “Martians” is a short and sweet satire with a nicely-concealed sting in the tail.  The dialogue is light-footed and delivers the reader right in the path of the sting.  Very nicely written.