Sophie Awards for Poetic Excellence 2007
introducing the 2007 Poet Laureate....

The Perry County Council of the Arts and Sophie’s Reaction Writers Group are pleased to announce the 10th Annual Sophie Awards for Poetic Excellence winners. This contest has continued to attract area poets since its inception in 1998, with 18 poets entering 47 poems in a wide range of forms and styles this year.

For the second year in a row, Cordelia Jensen of Newport was awarded the title of Perry County Poet Laureate. Recognized and honored by the Perry County Commissioners, Perry County’s Poet Laureate receives a $100 cash prize and will become a featured reader at Arts Council and County events.
Cordelia continued her winning streak by receiving the Emma Sigmon Memorial Award established by former Sophie’s Reaction member Jane Eichenberger in memory of her mother. All entries for this award must be related to an annually changing theme, this year's being “Cycles.” Cordelia received $25 for her poem entitled “Of Parts Fired.”

Other winners were as follows: First Place ($50 cash prize) to Richard Bargdill of Ebensburg. Second Place ($20 cash prize) to Gail Andrews of Duncannon. Third Place ($15 cash prize) to Thomas A. Miller of Loysville. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Joy Campbell of Landisburg, Kenneth J. Little of Marysville, and Louise Yanick of Mechanicsburg.

A special thank you to Isabelle Lark and Martin Murray for contributions to this year's event.

2007 Winning Poems

Perry County Poet Laureate
Still Dirty
by Cordelia Jensen

Soap slides on to the bathtub floor, I know this is familiar,
You avoid it. Watching it glide slowly across, you pick up one foot,
You shuffle. You remember what it is like to dance awkwardly
In seventh grade, when you were just starting out. There is vulnerability,
Being naked, dodging soap. Feeling your body is out of step, there is a possibility
Of falling.

And yet, a half-smile comes to your face, the idea of being scared of soap,
How amusing, you might think, or maybe, oh, I am just like my mother,
Scared of something not happening for fear that something will,
Preparation for the precarious. A self-consciousness in the slip of soap,
As you watch it move toward the drain, you think: you win, this is over,
Tagging base, still dirty.

Emma Sigmon Memorial Award
Of Parts Fired
by Cordelia Jensen

Watch me cruise this tired track, with one fallen arm and a two-ton wristband,
sweat slipping casually into my blistered lips, and this heat, it pushes people

out of houses, screaming where are my old photographs, browning, burning. Call
me nicknames, now, my house charred, my beaded face melting, a whole body

in weight curving over the spine of this new turn. Baby-crawl me back
to clean tiled floors, washed wood, and fairies flying under the sink, they own

a world for themselves amidst bottle blues, crusted sponges. Rooms
to fly in, inbetweens to skirt through, in there, they let me play. Colors still

bright, not burned, and only crawling, not running. There was a wired plastic
tunnel, I climbed, cartoon dogs dancing with cartoon cats. Crawl me

up that tunnel, now, overheated, I cannot make this round. Tripping through
this exhausted track, I want to spin ice cream into a sweet soup, sticking

my fingers into its spirals, smearing the textured tides of the lined beige couch,
making a mess before the house burns. (Before it happens, hide me

with the capped elves doing handstands behind the potted plants). Cool me,
cool baby: my arms will turn light, if you make the running stop, if you capture

me first, if you'll have me back.

1st Place
Etch and Sketch
by Richard Bargdill

My dreams are held
Inside my head
Like pictures drawn
On top of sand
And when I wake
From my bed
I must take care
Not to shake
The sleep too quickly
From my head

2nd Place
Self Portrait
by Gail Andrews

The rock in my hand is smooth and comforting-
But it was not always that way.
At one point it must have rough and hard
and chipped from something larger.

It has laid in the waters, around the stone they have swirled.
Each has left its inscription upon it.
If you look closely you will see the evidence.

Sometimes the waters were soft and gentle,
other times turbulent and plentiful.
No matter, the waters have done their job well.

I keep this rock on my desk
to remind me that I, too, am part of something grander.
And, I too, need polishing.

3rd Place
Darkquest
by Thomas A. Miller

Often we walk
along the edge of a lighted parking lot
staring off into the woods
through the darkness that surrounds
our island of rational illumination.

Do we dare
to step into the unknown
or do we just titillate
ourselves gazing into the black
our feet frozen with indecision?

2007 Poetry Contest Guidelines

About the Judge
Accomplished writer Kazim Ali, is the author of The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books' New England/New York Award, and Quinn's Passage, named by Chronogram magazine as one of The Best Books of 2005. His new book of poetry, The Fortieth Day, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in 2008. Kazim is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Shippensburg University. He also teaches in the University of Southern Maine Stonecoast MFA program, and is the publisher of Nightboat Books.