The Envelopes, Please

We have two winners in our poetry and wine giveaways.

Winner #1 – name drawn at random – receives a copy of L.L. Barkat’s InsideOut: Poems. I asked my wife to pick a number up to and including 30 (she hadn’t seen any of the comments). And the winner is Graceful, aka Michelle DeRusha.

Winner #2 had to answer one of two questions in 100 words or less: “Why poetry matters today,” or “Why I love poetry.” Winner #2 receives a copy of InsideOut: Poems and a bottle of Sineann 2007 Merlot Hillside, which is being kindly donated by Nancy Rosback of Sineann Wines, also known as @poemsandprayers on Twitter and who writes from her blog Just Say the Word.

And this was tough. I’d like to choose them all – there are some great answers. And some were beautiful poems.

But I had to select one.

I narrowed it to four, then three, then two. And tore my hair out (poetically, of course).

And finally picked one that answered the question, “Why poetry matters today”:

“You read it aloud in the darkened room, your lamp the center of one pool of light. From another bulb’s halo, the poet sent the words out to you. Held in the vowels and caught on the consonants, somehow, is your own story written by a stranger. Truth unknown before now falls on you from the uneven ends of the lines. This moment of recognition is as ancient as the cave paintings we shine our flashlights on, deciphering our story from the shapes and tracings of another’s, the one with the courage to pick up the colors.”

Congratulations, Missy Kemp of Greenville, South Carolina.

Over the next few days, I will feature all of the answers to the questions at TweetSpeak Poetry.

Thank you all for participating. I was privileged to watch enthusiasm and great beauty unfold over the course of a week.