FLAPPER PRESS SUMMER POETRY CONTEST WINNERS!
- Flapper Press Poetry Café
- Jul 4
- 7 min read
By Flapper Press Poetry Café:
It's time to announce our five winners for the Flapper Press Poetry Café Poetry Contest!
This summer, we decided to do something a bit different with the contest, calling all poets to submit villanelles! We also thought it appropriate to choose the theme of "freedom" for the contest, encouraging poets to interpret the theme in their own unique ways.
You may ask: what exactly is a "villanelle"?
The Villanelle Form:
It is a poem of 19 lines.
It has 5 stanzas of 3 lines each and a final stanza of 4 lines (6 stanzas total).
The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas.
The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas.
These two refrain lines follow each other to become the second-to-last and the last lines of the poem.
The rhyme scheme is a-b-a. The rhymes are repeated according to the refrains.
See Eavan Boland, The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms
As you can see, the poetic form is a strict one, but well worth the effort. We were overwhelmed with submissions, and we want to thank all of the poets who contributed their work to this year's contest. Please stay tuned for upcoming contests and consider submitting your writing and poetry via our regular Submission Guidelines. We would love to feature your work on Flapper Press!
Congrats to our five winners! Here are the final selections in alphabetical order. We hope that you enjoy these Villanelles of Freedom!
Shamik Banerjee
The Housewife
When daylight gifts the earth its early hours,
the only sound I hear is of her broom.
The yawning sky salutes her steadfast powers.
Once done with bathing all her child-like flowers,
her piety pervades our worship room
when daylight gifts the earth its early hours.
And when her knuckles play with oil and flour,
white patches soil her kitchen-time costume.
The youthful sky salutes her steadfast powers.
Although refreshened by a hasty shower,
lunch spices steal her sandalwood perfume
while daylight slowly ends its early hours.
Piled in the sink, the dishes that she scours
gaze at her strength now ceded and consumed.
The ageing day salutes her dwindling powers.
At dusk she finds brief freedom midst the bowers
of sleep before her nightly chores resume.
The daylight halts till its next early hours.
The dimming sky salutes her resting powers.
Shamik Banerjee is a poet who lives in Assam, India, with his parents. His house is located on a foothill, and when he isn't writing, he can be found strolling these alluring, hilly paths. He recently completed his higher studies in marketing, and although his dream is to relocate to some thinly populated, tranquil region and run a self-owned business, his current ambition is to work in the corporate sector. Some of his latest poems have been published by The Society of Classical Poets, Spelt, Pensive, San Antonio Review, Modern Reformation, Ekstasis, Ink Sweat and Tears, and Third Wednesday, among others. He recently secured second place in the 2024 Southern Shakespeare Company Sonnet Contest.
Maril Crabtree
Hometown 4th of July: Then and Now
The gods of freedom smiled upon the day.
Dark clouds and thunder? Nowhere to be seen.
Parades and banners offered up their play.
Dancers and fire trucks lined up on Main.
Crowds waved at convertibles and prom queens.
The gods of freedom smiled upon the day.
Marching bands and cheerleaders led the way
while children filled the air with joyous screams.
Parades and banners offered up their play.
When darkness fell, the fireworks made us stay
as sparkling colors rose, transformed the scene,
and gods of freedom still smiled on the day.
Back then, no crowds brought fears into the fray.
Back then, we heard no guns, no tearful screams.
Parades and banners offered up their play.
We’ve learned the fragile truth of freedom’s way
and pledge allegiance to our nation’s dreams.
May gods of freedom yet smile on our days,
parades and banners offer up their play.
Maril Crabtree grew up in Memphis and New Orleans but has called the Midwest “home” for many years. A former French teacher, lawyer, peace activist, environmentalist, energy healer, and yoga instructor, she is grateful for poetry (hers and others’) as the loom that weaves her life-threads together. Her full-length collection, Fireflies in the Gathering Dark (Kelsay Books), was published in 2017. She has also authored three chapbooks and edited four anthologies of poetry and essays published by Adams Media. Her poems, essays, and short stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including I-70 Review, Main Street Rag, Persimmon Tree, Third Wednesday, Literary Mama, and Poet's Market. She previously served as poetry editor for Kansas City Voices and contributing editor for Heartland! Poems of Love, Resistance & Solidarity. More of her work can be seen on her website.
Faith P. Nelson
Our Bodies Our Country
Freedom fledgling, baby tender, in need
Gut of Indigenous warned in morse code
The young’un clutching. Mouth sucking. Must feed.
Tubman’s bunion hunts dandelion weed
La Flesche’s hospital, a swollen lymph node
Freedom fledgling, baby tender, in need.
Frederick used his ‘fro to fight hate and greed
Kinky hair moves into good-hair’s zip code
The young’un clutching. Mouth sucking. Must feed.
Bell snored and the phone was a done deed
Morgan calmed traffic chaos on the road
Freedom fledgling, baby tender, in need.
While Kamala, Hillary crucified, bleed
Martin and Maya become hoarse anode
The young’un clutching. Mouth sucking. Must feed.
Flags lovingly mended are buried like seed
Steel scaffold swaddles the monument’s code
Freedom fledgling, baby tender, in need
The young’un still clutching. Mouth sucking. Must feed.
Jamaican by birth and a Washington, D.C. transplant, Faith P. Nelson gained years of experience working behind the scenes at Black Entertainment Television, a Viacom network. She was also an actress in Jamaica’s National Pantomime and other productions, sharing the stage with some of the island's most iconic actors, including Charles Hyatt, Leonie Forbes, Brian Heap, and Oliver Samuels. Faith is an award-winning soprano under the tutelage of the esteemed musicologist Noel Dexter. Her new chapbook, Luminescent Ships: Love Songs to Caribbean American Life, celebrates the diaspora in this region. Her poetry has been featured on the international hunger activist website Poetry X Hunger, and she is one-third of the US-based Tamarind Arts Collective: A Caribbean Diaspora Writing, Media, and Performance Collective. Learn more about Faith P. Nelson on her website here.
Cydnee Reese
The Peace of Me
I have been many versions of what this world wants of me.
Through being misled and despite intuition’s gut rejection, I stayed.
And after losing the world, I have found peace. I can finally just be.
Bondage is not just rope to hands, neck or feet.
It can be the illusion of choice or false promises made.
I have been many versions of what this world wants of me.
No one tells you that the price of the world is you. Your suffering, your sacrifice, they’re key.
Understand that this purchase was never inevitable and the price was not already paid.
And after losing the world, I have found peace. I can finally just be.
The best parts of me can exist for free.
There is no rush, no limit to changes. I’m not delayed.
I have been many versions of what this world wants of me.
The world never slowed my self-betrayal or allowed me to flee.
I never even wanted the world, just to be loved, just to be safe and okay.
And after losing the world, I have found peace. I can finally just be.
Now, I want my life to matter to me. My journey to joy is my souls plea.
Though I’ll miss the world’s “me,” I leave behind the roles I’ve played.
I have been many versions of what this world wants of me.
And after losing the world, I have found peace. I can finally just be.
Cydnee A. Reese is a 2017 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, a captain in the United States Air Force, and has over 500 combat flight hours. Outside of her military career, Cydnee is a writer through and through. She is a singer-songwriter (Cydnée Alyxzan), spoken word artist (Wanderer), playwright, and screenwriter. Her writing is recognized as an agent of representation, hope, love, and change. She experiments with the unconventional by telling stories of everyday life while simultaneously challenging the audience to question everything they know. Her work introduces diverse perspectives and duality in a new light.
Mary Ellen Talley
Urban Mosaic
Now a senior citizen, I’m free to traverse my city cheaply
Orca Cards put me on the bus with every social class
I wait at my bus stop under a protective canopy
Some look at transit apps as if in an awful hurry
Besides no parking fees, we save an awful lot on gas
Now a senior citizen, I’m free to traverse my city cheaply
Many of us with eyes cast down on phones so silently
Neglect to admire etched art on side-paneled Plexiglas
While we wait at bus stops under a protective canopy
We avoid politics, mention weather and sports affably
Say it would be awesome to add panels of stained glass
To view art, while we freely travel across our city cheaply
Think mosaics of blue, rose, sunshine honey and purple navy
We’d all like beauty to gaze upon if feeling stuck in a morass
I’d prefer to wait at my bus stop inside a vivid canopy
Save money, gas, wear and tear as well as traffic anxiety
We’ve earned this perk, even though it’s not quite first class
Soon we’ll all be seniors, free to travel our urban cities cheaply
After waiting at bus stops under each pleasant canopy
Mary Ellen Talley’s poems have appeared in journals including Louisville Review, Deep Wild, and Trampoline, as well as in multiple anthologies. Her chapbooks are: Postcards from the Lilac City from Finishing Line Press, Taking Leave from Kelsay Books, and Infusion online at Red Wolf Journal. She resides in Seattle, WA and is a retired school-based speech/language pathologist (SLP).
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