Roberta Pipes Bowman began writing and publishing poetry at the age of eleven. She is the author of eight books of poetry, one of which won the Lucidity Chapbook Award. Her chapbook Writing That Certain Poem is in its fourth edition. Her book, Wind, Be Still was accepted for the Pulitizer Prize Contest. She received the Hilton Ross Greer Service Award given by The Poetry Society of Texas in 1998, and her poem, "November Court" won The Therese Lindsey Award given by PST in 2007. She has held offices in poetry groups at local and state levels. She has lectured on writing and judged poetry contests. The Poetry Society 2007 Book of the Year is dedicated to Roberta.
Other achievements include two nominations for Poet Laureate of Texas, nomination for the Pushcart Prize, recipient of the Boswell Alumni Poetry Award given by Texas Christian University, World Peace Award given by Composers, Authors, and Artists in New York. She read at the Lincoln Center in 1995, and has had poems published in numerous magazines and anthologies in the United States and in England, and in Poet (a magazine with subscribers in fifty countries). Her short stories have been published in Suddenly. Her book From Flour Sacks to Satin, the story of a blind sharecropper and his family during the twenties and thirties, is being published by Author House. It is scheduled for marketing soon.
“ Poetry says it best” has been emphasized many times. Poetry delves into the depth of words with imagery and metaphors that prose cannot present since its efforts are mostly to instruct, inform, and influence the reader.
Suppose you have an inspiration, a moment you wish to preserve and help others share with you. With words you must lead the reader into that realm so the reader goes with your poetry into a world that points out beauty, shares emotions, and leaves a memory.
Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate of Congress, is often called the Robert Frost of the west. He takes ordinary situations of life and gives an insight into the personality of the person in the poem as well as a graphic description of the landscape. In his book Delights and Shadows the poem, “Applesauce,” describes the homey making of apple butter and in these lines tells about Kansas:
And with every third or fourth jar
she wiped steam from her glasses,
using the hem of her apron,
printed with tiny red sailboats
that dipped along with leaf-green
banners snapping under puffs
of pale applesauce clouds
scented with cinnamon and cloves
the only boats under sail
for at least two thousand miles.
In “The Beaded Purse” he presents a father’s devotion and protection for his wife and daughter. In this narrative poem the man, “dressed in his church suit” waits :
“On the wooden depot platform
three feet above the rest of Kansas”
for the train to bring his stage-struck daughter’s body home. When the station agent goes to his office, the man examines the coffin and then:
He opened the purse and found it empty,
so he took a few bills out of his pocket
and folded them in, then snapped it closed
for her mother to find. . . . .
Then, clapping his hat on his head
and slapping the plump rump of his mare
with the reins, he started the long haul home
with his rich and famous daughter.
There are magazines and contests that will not consider poems of this type. A poet should to study the market to avoid as many rejections as possible but rejections may not be a bad thing, nor losing in a contest. Dr. Shuford of North Texas State University mentioned in one of his addresses that he failed to win a $25 contest and was greatly disappointed. Later, he entered it in another contest and won $250. I have found that to be true. There is one notorious example of rejections about the poem “Rear View Mirror.” He entered it over 200 times until it was finally accepted, became famous, and a movie was made from that idea.
Great emphasis should be placed upon continuing to send out your work after you have checked it thoroughly for errors. Also, if you are entering an ongoing contest, it is wise to read what has won before, because a judge is most likely to reject something that seems like a previous win.
Keep on writing! Only you can write your poem.