Summary
I first go over a submission that has a great personal emotional take of family betrayal and it's ability to portray events similar to a film. The next submission had its ups and downs, I felt most of the poems were great but Press53 didn't think so. I am now near the end of my internship with Press53 as all submissions have been marked and read. But there are still submissions I haven't discussed yet.
Beginning with a memoir of prose poems, “The Formation of a Lady.” The real title is certainly better. These poems had great imagery, many of which could reach out to broad readers. There were two poems that acted as a series containing a memory of a family member’s betrayal. The speaker never knows why, leaving the feeling of unfinished tension, it was a great read with satisfying cliffhanger. Another poem is also filled with great imagery, focusing on the wilderness and the emotion of desperation. It felt like snippets of a movie.
The next day, I worked on “Sky Worship,” which begins with a long prose poem, reading like a diary journal. I remember not being a fan of this poem, it was just a recall of specific memories. The next poem was about observing the anatomy of organs. It created an interpretative art piece with the spinning of a brain with burning cigarettes in a jar slowly resembling a glowing carousel. This was quite an odd abstract experience. And then the second stanza got weird, it had hints of cannibalism, although not graphic. The speaker seemed to have had some sort of obsession, like a mad scientist.
Continuing, “Sky Worship” another poem I didn’t like was one about cryptocurrency, it had many computing terms. This was definitely not meant for the average reader. But the few poems after it, made up for this poem one about superstitions of wishes and a transitional imagery of a dragonfly’s transparent wing to the melting of clear icicle. The ending poem was planet-related, which had different sections examining exoplanets, the overall message expressed the longing for closure, giving the sensation of loneliness as we explore planets, searching for lifeforms. In the end, Tom didn’t enjoy the submission, so it was rejected.
There are many more submissions to report but, I will save that for the next blog post. Currently, all submissions have been read and marked and now I am assigned to contribute to voting for the WINNER. I hope I made the right call and I am curious to see what the team of Press53 thinks. It has been revealed to me how much money the winner would win, and I have to say I wish I had made a submission!
