Editors' Note: We're pleased to present as a special feature this week a poem by Jeanette Marie Sayers, winner of the Belle Letters Contest, sponsored by the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. In addition to this online presentation, "L, O, V, E and the Other Twenty-Two" will be illuminated in a limited edition letterpress broadside .
Contestants were invited to submit poems in which letters are foregrounded as vital and imaginative elements of imagery and content.
Finalists for this year's prize were Dana Elkun ("Foreshadow from Buffalo"), Roy Jacobstein ("Disquisition on D: Ars Poetica and Homage"), Carolyn Moore ("Multiple-Choice Quiz on Abandoned F-Words"), and Morgan Grayce Willow ("The Algebra of Love").
The Virginia Arts of the Book Center is a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities. Watch the VABC website for details about the 2007 competition, Belle Letters, a broadside contest seeking poems that investigate alphabetical letters. Deadline: June 1, 2007.
L,O,V,E and the Other Twenty-Two
| A. Without you, an ass would be just a snake, amore would be too demanding, and there’d be no Aphrodite. |
B. Love is one person in two bodies. |
| C. Not quite a ring— more like a Cracker Jack prize or meeting the parents. |
D. Divorce: B loses its better half. |
| E. Almost B, but not quite. Or perhaps B, unbuttoned for a while. |
F. Keep watering and it’ll grow into something sweet-smelling that we can call B. |
| G. Closer to the gold band than C— met the parents, now moving in together. |
H. Eyes locked, yet a handshake that’s merely political. |
| I. All brain, feet, and business— no time to be a poet or lover. | J. Add some mascara to I— wink those lashes. You’ve caught his eye. |
| K. Unrequited love. |
L. J, turn away. Play hard to get—make Jove follow you to over to Love. |
| M. Mars denies Venus is imbedded in his self, even as her slim waist is in his arms. |
N. I’ll lead the dance toward Z, falling and bringing you with me. |
| O. The ring that C aspires to be. Caution: D only a straight line away. |
P. Formerly B, now a poet. |
| Q. Love can grow and grow, but don’t let it stray outside the O. |
R. The poet attempts to repair B again and again. |
| S. When you dance like that, wearing close to red or nothing, you almost look like B. |
T. You make love true. Then again, I feel that way about R, U and E, as well. But I suppose only you have that kiss. |
| U. Venus of Willendorf. |
V. Venus of Willendorf was too lonely to eat. She became an inverted Aphrodite, now solitary only when Mars is red. |
| W. Venus wages fierce kisses on her husband, temporarily forgiving his polemic demeanor. |
X. Knees weak, K finally gives in to a kiss. |
| Y. Playing footsie over a martini. |
Z. N, with feigned left feet, half dancing, half falling towards bed. |
Jeanette Marie Sayers
About the Poet
Belle Letters Contest
Virginia Arts of the Book Center
A program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
