Agnes Scott -- Literary Festival

I hate to admit type this..... I am a procrastinator through and through, but if you really know me, well, you already know this. My talent of procrastination is what kept me from entering in last year's 35th Annual Writers' Festival Contest sponsored by Agnes Scott College; however, I'm happpy to say I didn't lose the battle to procrastination this year. I entered in the 36th Annual Festical Contest. College students may enter five poems or no more than ten pages. I entered three poems from a series that I read over the summer at the Subliminal Messages and Subversive Influences at the Fulton County Library; the other two poems are ones I'm quite fond of.

The 36th Annual Festival visiting writing and judge for poetry is Yusef Komunyakaa. Currently, I am reading his book Talking Dirty with the Gods. Talking Dirty to the Gods. Even though I am only about a quarter of the way through the book I don't see myself be disappointed as I continue. Enjoy this sample from the book:


THE CENTAUR

Shape-changer caught in the middle
Of rehearsal, here between beast
& man, like a young Chiron,
You pretend birthright,

Hoping Atalanta's arrow
Finds you on a lost path
In bloom. Yes, sometimes,
You can be loony as a drunken

Stunt man in Paradise, a bit
Of Theocritus's sad metaphysics
In your bones. One half tortures
The other for the romantic songs

Crooned at sunset. Unholy
Need & desire divide the season,
As you eat sugar from a nymph's palm.
Before she mounts & rides you into a man.
~ Yusef Komunyakaa