Callahan's 1999 Poetry Contest

Poems About Work

It was not an easy job, but certainly a rewarding one, to judge a contest consisting of poems about work. Irony is easy: scores of poets showed up at the union hall, yet only four were hired. (But see the Honorable Mention pages for other worthy contenders.)

Reading the words of the winners and the runners-up, you can vicariously experience work that is different from yours. Our poets make their jobs seem immediate and real.

Peter H. Desmond

Here are the winners:

First - Second - Third - About Callahan's

And Honorable Mentions:

Blue Collar - White Collar

First Prize:

Force Equals Distance Times Weight
for the pipefitter apprentice at the Hynes
by Susan Eisenberg

Consider this skin-encased bundle of fat and muscle
each intricate organ protected by bones
known to splinter on impact: a man.

Consider the marble stairs patiently
waiting smooth hard cold below.

Consider the distance: fifty-five feet
not the carefully-arranged
landing of a diver or parachutist.

a come-as-you-are unexpected arrival
human body meeting metamorphic rock.

Once it begins this
unruly fall from the steps of a ladder
past where a guardrail will be installed
within the hour

the details
of his particular life step back
the wife the new baby
each kindness each wildness --
everything that will be chewed over
later so many times --
until this delicate collision of physics
and fate
lands.

Susan Eisenberg worked as an electrician for fifteen years. This poem is from her collection Pioneering: Poems from the Construction Site (Cornell, 1998). Her nonfiction work We'll Call You If We Need You is also published by Cornell (1998; paperback 1999).

First - Second - Third - About Callahan's

Second Prize:

Teaching Tech
by David G Brewer

Display the workings of the arcane art
Of blending coloured shadows, light, and sound.
With wizardry all sorted and unwound,
Suggest how senses work to sway the heart.

When students have the spark, let them begin
To use their new-found magic tools and skill.
Step back. Allow their struggle. To fulfill
Potential, first they fail; then rise; then ... win.

Return; and if wild elements are tame,
Submitting to the will of new-trained crew;
If I have let them learn to show their truth,
I've seen a spark grow into living flame!
No claim can bring delight more fresh and new --
My life is filled with song, and light, and youth.

David Brewer is a Canadian theatre tech whose specialties include lighting and stage management. His interests range from writing poetry to discussing such diverse subjects as philosophy, chaos, entropy, symbolism, and, of course, Elizabeth Kate .... (grin)

First - Second - Third - About Callahan's

Third Prize:

Business
by Brian Tierney (FBT1)

When a stranger asks, "What is it you do?"
I turn and ask, "When?"
"During the day," he says.
"Which day?"
"Any."
"Well," I start, "I get out of bed
and get about the business of the farm
...unless a detail calls my attention first."
"Such as?"
Such as, "Serving my dog an opened door
so that he can run free,or maybe,
during the windy night before,
a limb fell from its tree
and now needs placing among the others
for kindling or compost
(I will make that decision later).
There is mail to be opened
and answered, too,
and the babies need milk that is fresh.
Sometimes, the grass grows longer
than custom allows
and it must be mown.
Other times, the grass longs
to be touched with bare feet,
large and small,
(and we must listen when our Nature calls).
Then there is this business of painting
an old room new, which makes it
a more pleasant place to be
(that is, if you can't be in the meadow
tickling the earth with your toes).
Sometimes it rains
and the windows must be shut
to keep out the water that would
bow the sills. (Oh, you know what that is like;
stripping them down to prime and paint
after the straightening is done.
But before all that, the sills need to dry
so) we pick up the toys
and play with a few
until the playing is done
and it is time for a bath and a bottle
and a bed near which we read
a story or two before laughing
and saying 'good night'
and 'see you again tomorrow
after the chickens are fed'."
"But, sir, you have no chickens," the stranger says.
"And, friend, I have no farm,
yet that has never stopped me
from getting things done."

Brian says, "My favorite writers are Robert Frost, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, J.D. Salinger, and an Author To Be Named Later. I write and doctor screenplays and hope to finish soon my first novel, but my greatest joy and distraction (read "work") has been raising my three children, ages 7, 6, and 3 years old."

First - Second - Third - About Callahan's

Prize for Poetry about Callahans:

In Solitary
by Elizabeth Kate

By day we stay in separate worlds,
Held hostage by geography
At gun point.

Whose prisoners, reality's
Possessive, grasping hand is curled
To keep us.

Such captives, will and circumstance
Could liberate; instead they daily
Disappoint.

We decorate the cells that jail
Our souls--wait for night's second chance
To meet us.

But we're united--not in dreams,
Which authorize the tangible
To seep in.

Communion becomes possible
Because imagination beams
As moonlight

Across a silken spider's net.
Thus tentatively joined, we are
Soon deep in

A friendship built on avatars.
Released by modern magic--yet
Confined tight.

Elizabeth Kate abandoned the business world for her true love (David! Hee, hee!), teaching. She's currently teaching first grade, where she's trying to impart her knowledge of poetry, life, and the importance of sharing, accepting, and love.

First - Second - Third - About Callahan's

Honorable Mentions

Blue Collar - White Collar

Poetry Page - Callahan's Saloon