Second Annual Wild Violet Writing Contest Winners (2004)
Poetry
— First Place
Mary Ellen Walsh has been writing poetry since she was a teenager. She is also an avid reader, her favorite poets being Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. She enjoys reading biographies, horror and critiques of other authors and poets.
The
Hissing of Cygnets
By Mary Ellen Walsh
It won't happen today.
The sun,
that is.
The clouds have won
dominion
over bright
daylight.But there is beauty —
look —
an arched swan.
Like a downy barge
she divides the water
into a triangle ripple.At the base
of this parade
are the ugly offspring,
waiting to be elegant
someday.And can their mother
not know
this reality,
by her own
reflection in the pond?Now
as for me,
I will never be
a standout.I will never
cry
out my poems.My words
must propel
themselves
like the hissing cygnets —over the mirrored
waters of time.