Winner of 2010 Left Coast Eisteddfod Poetry Competition

Bruce Lader's poem "Iberia" has won first place in the English language category of the annual  contest sponsored by the Welsh-American organization, Americymru.  The award includes a payment of $150, publication in The Seventh Quarry, and a subscription to this literary journal located in Wales, UK. The winning poem first appeared in the journal, Talking River. It is posted below and can be found along with an author interview http://americymru.net/profiles/blogs/an-interview-with-bruce-lader 
                      

                      Iberia

Within the dark fortress
of your immemorial waters
are the sands of a moon to be born.

Mediterranean of no tides, you hold
the vast audience of stars in a bullfight arena.

At night, on the shore, the ripples
come lapsing arabesques
in your Alhambra of shadows.

For eons encamped in caves of your gut
eels have thrummed guitar, wailed

as gypsy fires dance duende from earth
like poppies of blood
flaming Andalusian mountains.

And there, on the distant Castillian mesa,
your armored attacker of windmills
astride his dauntless horse

dreams adventure, in despair.



Read more: http://americymru.net/group/leftcoasteisteddfod2010poetrycompetitionsubmission/forum/topics/iberia-by-bruce-lader#ixzz1MoZ4HwdT 




"Paper Trail" won second place in the 2011 Paris Lake Poetry Contest. The award includes a payment of $100 and publication in the magazine, Old Red Kimono, at Georgia Highlands College.


                                     Paper Trail

 
We saw you hurry out of silver Cadillac--a woman
with dark hair, about five-seven, snatch our bag of papers
from the curbside recycle bin, drive away in the dusk--
didn’t even bother to wait till our lights were off.

My peace of mind is a handful of scraps scattered
in the fraud-ridden economy . . . What if I
tossed a bank account or credit card number
in with the crumpled drafts of poems and rejection slips?

Please don’t pirate the poems. I’ve been revising them
for years . . . Do you know how much poets get
for their work? Not only have you ripped off my sleep,
my wife’s warning to buy a shredder has returned
to haunt like overdue credit card payments.

When you browse our private transactions: shopping lists,
supermarket and bookstore receipts, notes like
Please buy two bags of cat litter with this coupon,
does it give you a naughty thrill the way twisted
burglars get off with articles of clothing they swipe?

Why not just declare bankruptcy, or target upscale houses
and sift their squandered trash, instead of preying on
thrifty low-income people? . . .We’re seniors struggling
to save our last dollar to pay the utility bills.

You’ve probably rummaged our recycles before, prowling
like a raccoon . . . So I’m leaving this letter on the bin
to think over, let you know we can’t even afford
a nest-egg or a vacation . . .you’re wasting your time.