Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2015: Editor’s Choice
Photo by Howard R. Debs. Used by permission, Frederick County Division of Parks and Recreation. “Offering” was written by Arnold Perrin for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2015, and selected as the Editor’s Choice winner.
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OFFERING
The stick ladder leads
to the other dimension
where the hand winch lifts
January
out of the empty pit.
The cold rope hums
as the last block is placed
on the altar of August.
—Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2015
Editor’s Choice Winner
__________
Comment from the editor on this selection: “In just eight lines this little poem seems to honor and conjure the ghosts of what the ice house used to mean—both winter itself as a time capsule, and a last prayer for the end of summer’s heat. It was a sentiment many poems tried to capture, but none as concisely or musically.”