Ithaca College

 Katharyn Howd Machan's sonnet, "30 September," was selected from 451 entries as top winner of this year's Maria W. Faust International Sonnet Contest.

 Katharyn Howd Machan's sonnet, "30 September," was selected from 451 entries as top winner of this year's Maria W. Faust International Sonnet Contest. The honor includes a prize of $250. Although Dr. Machan has taught at Ithaca College since 1977, she hopes the poem will not yet prove to be autobiographical.

                        30 September

                        Where autumn claims its red, its crickets’ cries,

                        I lie in bed, a black cat at my feet,

                        as through an open window summer dies

                        and makes the loss of equinox complete.

                        Dark sooner now, dark heavy as the breath

                        that gains momentum in a woman old

                        and waning as she understands that death

                        will welcome her into wide fields of gold.

                        Oh, yes, I’m her. I understand that time

                        has seasoned me to know the seasons’ turn

                        as more than reach for poetry’s sure rhyme

                        about a crimson maple’s fiery burn.

                        Before spring calls its green to brightly rise

                        I’ll watch my last white winter through clear eyes.