Consequence Prize in Poetry

Consequence features the winner of their prize for poetry in Volume 5. Selected by the judge Fred Marchant, Michelle Bonczek won for her poem “Aria.” Here is a small section of the poem:

I am reading this to you from a stage,
from a bathtub full of mineral salt, from a canoe

lost in the Pacific like a paperclip
holding a death certificate. I am reading this from a drop

of water, a sand speck sunk
to the bottom, a little island dome.

We are on Jupiter’s smallest moon, in a poppy,
in a bean field. We are sunflowers and a herd of cows.

This is a field of vision. It grew long before me, before
you. Before I walked for the last time

to the rail of my grandfather’s bed, away
for the first time from the rail of my daughter’s crib.

You can view the rest of the poem online here, or in Volume 5. The finalists include Jared Coffin for “Hollandia,” Dawn McGuire for “After Finding a Firefighter’s Ax at the Thrift Store,” Wesley Rothman for “White Flag,” and Danielle Sellars for “Thoughts From an Army Girlfriend.” The rest of the issue includes the work of David Abrams, Andrew Barlow, Stephen Dau, Bruce Felming, Peter Balakian, Martha Collins, Lee Sharkey, Paul Wasserman, and more.