“Prime 53 Poem” Summer Challenge
In the spring of 2019, Press 53 poetry editor Christopher Forrest and publisher Kevin Morgan Watson invented a new poetry form, the Prime 53 poem, which has a total of 53 syllables: three stanzas of three lines each with a syllable count of 7/5/3 and a final two line stanza with a syllable count of 5/3, for a total of 53 syllables. The stanzas must adhere to a rhyme pattern of a/b/a; c/d/c; e/f/e; g/g.
Each summer, from July 1 to August 30, we ask writers to send us their Prime 53 Poems. Chris and Kevin select four of their favorites to share with our readers. There is no cost to enter. This year’s winners are:
Scroll down to read our four favorite Prime 53 Poems for 2021.
Barbara Conrad
What I Did When
the Do Not Touch Signs
at the Modern-Mid-Century
Furniture Exhibit Drove Me Mad
Threw my leg over the rail
stroked the Eames, sexy
guard paling
as I rubbed my fingers on
plywood and leather,
velvet soft
then climbed onto the Murphy
bed, lured him in for
a perfect
bloom on heirloom sheets,
retro-sweet.
# # #
Barbara Conrad is author of three poetry collections: The Gravity of Color, Wild Plums and There Is a Field; and editor of Waiting for Soup, an anthology from her writing group with folks without homes. Her poems have appeared in Tar River Poetry, Atlanta Review, Nine Mile, NC Literary Review (finalist for James Applewhite Prize), Broad River, Pembroke and numerous anthologies. Her subjects range from ironic takes on life to hard truths about social injustice—hopefully with a bit of attitude.
Joanne Durham
Ready
Grams, I’m ready for morning,
I hear your eager
voice chirping,
your gallop across the floor,
see your face peeking
in my door.
I feel my dear dreams scatter,
treasured sleep denied.
No matter,
I’m always for you
ready too.
# # #
Joanne Durham is a retired educator living on the North Carolina coast, with the ocean as her backyard. Her Prime 53 Poem is in honor of her mathematician father, who imbued her with a love of googolplexes and logic puzzles. She won an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Lena Shull Book Award and was a finalist for the 2021 NC Poetry Society's Poet Laureate Award. Her poems appear in Third Wednesday, Gyroscope, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily and other journals. https://www.joannedurham.com/
Lenny Eusebi
Setting Son
I watched our light depart. Each
arterial red
finger reached
To disquiet the brown-fluffed
crown, soaking into
lovely tufts.
As golden smile curled--too hard
to look, too near to
breathe--in shards
sparkling off my cheek,
Darkness leaked.
# # #
Lenny Eusebi lives near Boston with his wife and kids. He has studied physics, designed computer games, built a career in applied science, and told many stories to his two young daughters. Inspired by the sci-fi and fantasy masters and his dad's love of writing, he casts short fictions into the depths of the web. This is his first published piece.
Marion Lougheed
Rooftops
flash of wings upon the sun-
lit rooftops, upward
dance begun
cawing cooing mating song
forlorn as mourning
dusk, pre-dawn
pigeons dance toward their love-
lorn early summer,
days thereof.
I sat with you on
rooftops then.
# # #
Marion Lougheed grew up in Canada, Benin, Belgium and Germany. Her writing has been published by The Capra Review, Black Hare Press, Gypsum Sound Tales, and Paragon Press, among others. A former tutor at Memorial University's Writing Centre, she holds a professional writing diploma, along with degrees in anthropology. In 2021, her poem "Pavane for a Dead Letter" was selected by the League of Canadian Poets for their Poem In Your Pocket Day booklet and postcard series. Marion works as an editor and runs a monthly writing contest through Off Topic Publishing.