I entered my poem “Ode to la Conquista” in the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest by Winning Writers and it won an Honorable Mention this month.
This poem is a sonnet, and one of the poems from my chapbook manuscript “How to Ride a Train in the Andes” which is unpublished and looking for a publisher.
Judge Soma Mei Sheng Frazier had this to say about the poem:
“Ode to la Conquista“ by Lupita Eyde-Tucker
This ceremonious ode, with its rich imagery, shrewd metaphor and mesmerizing anaphora, lays bare the savagery of human exploit. Like Ferrero’s opera, like colonization itself, the poem gives and takes—yielding beauty “to bet a kingdom on,” then reproaching with “brine rotting on boards / shrieks of secret spoils in island forests.”
“Ode to la Conquista” first appeared in Raleigh Review’s Spring 2020 print edition.
Please let me know what you think of this poem. I love comments!