But first, the runners up. Last month, we announced The Third Annual Best American Poetry Poem Challenge, for which poets were invited to write
an inaugural ode, suitable for reading aloud on January 20, 2009. It
had to consist of sixteen lines broken into four quatrains, rhyme
scheme optional. Furthermore, the ode had to include one line lifted
from a poem in The Best American Poetry 2008 or from the book’s foreword or introduction, and also include at least three of the following words: honor, integrity, faith, hope, change, power. Poet Mark Strand selected the winner and runners up.
Yesterday, we announced third place winners Valentina Gnup and Michael Schiavo. Read their poems here and here.
An Inaugural Prayer comes to us from R. S. Gwynn of Beaumont, Texas. Thank you, R.S. and congratulations!
An Inaugural Prayer
Lord, Whom we may not mention
By name, Great Undefined,
Lend us one dimension
Of Thine awful mind.
The words will come–faith, power,
Integrity, and change—
To be bartered in this hour,
And may those words estrange
Us from our friends and neighbors
In long-drawn arguments
Till the fruits of our labors
Ripen to common sense.
Let no vote be decided
Save when we disagree.
A nation undivided
Never can be free.
— by R. S. Gwynn
(The first four words of line 5 are taken from R. T. Smith’s
“Pentecost”; the second word of line 13 is line 6 of Charles
Bernstein’s “Ku(na)hay,” and the first word of line 15 is line 19 of
the same poem.)