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.
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/2020072715405047