Richard Ali:
I got a pile of about 500 submissions and cutting it down to 46 was merely time consuming, relatively easy. But I had headaches and hesitation every step of the way cutting those down to my best 15, and when 15 each came in as well from Kgafela and Joanne Arnott, it was almost as if some special gravitational field had stayed my scroll-read-appraise-delete functions. Choosing the very best 5 poems called up all the strength I had, for it takes strength to be brutal, to decide which is the fine poem of a lot of fine poems, which possesses the slimmest space between word and emotion, which should make it in because it better turns out the fresher metaphor, the more intriguing image, the pure emotion--to pick five of these from such a rich hoard . . . I wondered, at times, if God would forgive me!
Joanne Arnott:(Canada/Metis mixed)
_”Stepping into the river of poetry submissions was a cool immersion, some poems leapt out while others called from the waters. I learned about the contents of the poets’ minds and hearts, about their landscapes and weathers, about their rhythms and songs. In the end, I could carry away only those few.
Kgafela oa Magogodi (South Africa)
Chopping down was hard. But I had to stop the heart from bleeding for my darlings and chop.
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