Arc’s Poem of the Year

The winner of the second annual Poem of the Year Contest put on by Arc Poetry Magazine is Shane Neilson for “The Barn.” The judges said, “the poem plays between two worlds, a derelict barn and a body in sickness, without losing its focus or giving the allusion up to a simple denouement. Its syntax is synaptic and full firing. This is a complex and arrhythmic poem that eschews easy vocabulary and cursory readings but, given the space full attention, its meanings build and twine together like DNA.” Along with this poem, you can also read, in the Summer 2013 issue, both the editor’s and the readers’ choices among the submissions.

The issue also features Mike Algera, Jesse Anger, Tammy Armstrong, Gerard Beirne, andrea bennett, Gregory Betts, Mike Caesar, jesse chase, Margaret Christakos, and many more.