'Lost in Mind' selected as winner for PRESS 53's Prime 53 Poem Summer Challenge

I am pleased to announce that I have been selected for Press 53’s Prime 53 Poem Summer Challenge. It was a unique challenge open to writers around the world to celebrate a poetry form created in 2019 by Press 53 poetry editor Christopher Forrest and publisher & editor in chief Kevin Morgan Watson. This form, known as the Prime 53 Poem, uses the following rule set:

• ·         Total syllable count of 53
• ·         Eleven total lines
• ·         First three stanzas are three lines each with a 7 / 5 / 3 syllable count
• ·         Final stanza must be two lines with a 5 / 3 syllable count, for a total syllable count of 53
• ·         Rhyme scheme (slant/soft rhymes work) aba cdc efe gg

Summary: The total line count of a Prime 53 Poem is a prime number (11), the syllable count in each line of the three, three-line stanzas are prime numbers (7 / 5/ 3) and each line of the last two-line stanza are prime number (5 / 3), making the poem’s total syllable count a prime number (53).

 

I’d like to thank Christopher and Kevin, and everyone at Press 53 for running the contest and for facilitating creativity with the structure of their poem. After reading the rules, I was immediately propelled into action. I had with me at the time, a small Blackwing journal and pencil, that I had bought when in Tokyo in March. I instantly began scribbling into it. The first stanza I wrote actually made it into the final poem, so I’m cutting it out of my example here.

 

X xxxx xxxxxxx x xxxxxxx x xxxxxxx

xxxxx xx x xxx xxx

xx xxx xxx

Yesterday might be today

if time stopped running

fast away

 

I look back on my life now

and see the young boy

life made bow

unforgettable

yet so brief

That’s just an example of the kinda energy I was feeling when I wrote the winning piece a few months back. The final submission kept with a similar theme of brevity and how time can slip away from you, which, as someone with an attention disorder, is a constant battle for someone pursuing a craft such as writing, which beckons for your every moment. I think that the short nature of the poem was a great example of “less is more” and a fun exercise in expression through reduction – and I thoroughly enjoyed making the poem that ended up getting selected. You can read that hidden contest winning stanza up above, and the rest of my poem called ‘Lost in Time’ when it appears in Issue 251 of Prime Number Magazine upon its release on January 1, 2024.

 

If you’d like to read more of my writing, you should pick up my debut short story anthology – The Sunday Stories – available now here on my website, and also on Amazon. If you buy direct with me here I am running a special promo code PRESS53 which will give you 53% off your order for a limited time only.