Many thanks to the editors at Word Fountain for nominating my poem, “The Year we all got Cancer,” for a Pushcart Prize. Word Fountain, the Literary Magazine of the Osterhout Free Library (Wilkes-Barre, PA) is available in both print and on-line versions. Here is a link to my poems (including audio).
https://wordfountain.net/2017/12/02/steve-deutsch-three-poems/
The Year We All Got Cancer
Winter stayed.
The April rain so cold
it left blisters of ice
on an earth
as scarred and pockmarked
as a landscape mired in war.
We waited through the freeze and thaw
for some sign from the recalcitrant earth–
anxiety growing with each passing day.
The sun was of little use, peeking indifferently
through the skeletal clouds,
as if late for an appointment
on another planet.
We had become
a shivering muddle–
a people resigned to winter,
when we woke one day
to wild things bursting.
Fields of dandelion
and mustard greens and,
in the most desolate spot of all,
a stand of wild asparagus.
An incredible poem, Steve. And a well-deserved nomination. Reblogging this one!
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Reblogged this on Sarah Russell Poetry and commented:
My friend and fellow poetry workshop member Steve Deutsch just received a Pushcart Prize nomination for this incredible poem. Congratulations, Steve!
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Congratulations Steve, quite a stunning poem, well done.
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Thank you
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congrats!
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Thank you.
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What a wonderful poem! Congrats!!!!
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Thank you.
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Hope you win
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Thank you. Wouldn’t that be something.
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Yeah.
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Wow – Steve – many congrats on your nomination for this powerful poem – that last stanza – I wish I had written it.
mary
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Thanks, Mary. It means a lot coming from you.
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Congrats!its a beautiful poem!
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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