I’m delighted to report that my poem “My Mother’s Ghost Looks Away When I Say Her Father’s Name” has been awarded the 2021 riverSedge Poetry Prize.
Many thanks to editor-in-chief José Antonio Rodríguez and the staff of riverSedge for taking this and several other pieces over the past few years. You may find it interesting that the poem had been rejected eleven times before landing at riverSedge. Such is life in poetry. Persistence is key…
O at the Edges 
Congrats! 😁
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Thank you, Joanne!
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Wow! Congratulations, Robert!
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Congratulations!
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Thanks, VJ. It’s nice to receive these little unexpected gifts!
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Definitely.
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How wonderful! Congratulations.
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Thanks, Alison. Totally out of the blue, and more appreciated for it.
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How wonderful! I am so happy for you!
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Thank you, Barbara! It’s quite the honor!
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Good news! Congratulations. (K)
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Thank you, Kerfe!
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What’s never shared forever haunts those left behind. Questions refuse to stop reseeding themselves. And till we too are gone, we keep wondering …
Great “attitude” in this: somehow I think he would endorse my inabilities, and if we should meet, I’ll ask.
I see riverSedge has another of your Mother’s Ghost poems also …
Congrats on the prize!
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Exactly! And thanks, Jazz!
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Congratulations, Bob! Lovely poem, well-deserved! The title hooked me right away.
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Thanks, Lynne. I’ve had good luck with the handful of My Mother’s Ghost poems that I’ve written.
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That is so great! I just went over and read it. A good one, indeed!
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Thanks very much, PJ. It was particularly exciting because riverSedge was one of the first lit pubs I submitted to way back in the 80s, when I first entered this weird and wonderful world of poetry.
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Congrats, Robert. Well deserved.
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Thank you, AMS! It was a surprise, to say the least. 🙂
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This is awesome, Bob. Congratulations!
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Thanks, Ken. Made all the more awesome by my history (of failure) with the publication!
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Congratulations. I think that’s interesting that this poem was rejected so many times and now has won a prize.
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It happens. Another of my poems was rejected 16 times before getting published and subsequently nominated for a Pushcart. That made me giggle, I must admit.
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I love this RO, it is a prize-worthy poem and cheers to persistence! I’m always tempted to revise a “failed” work into something else before sending it out into the world again, but I’m starting to dig in my heels more and trust I just haven’t found the right home for it yet…
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Thanks, Sunshine. I’ve learned (well, mostly), to trust my instincts and NOT rework a poem to death, and simply resubmit it until it finds a home. There are those pieces that do indeed need work, but I’ve gotten better at identifying those. Still, it’s a crapshoot. 😉
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Congratulations, Robert!
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Thanks, Suzi. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise!
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Those are the best kind! 🙂
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