Poppies in fields

Bullet holes ripped through the world

Each one a screaming mouth

A protest to atrocities

A medal of the brave

The ranks of good people who fought to save

Who stood up to adversity

Bullet cases jettisoned in the heat of war

Now cool and buried under a civilian law

How easy it is to forget

To disrespect

That's why it's important to take a moment

A little time

To remember

Remember the fear

The hurt and the pain

The loss

The ones who gave with nothing to gain

The brave that endured

So that we could thrive and be free

A minutes silence for you and me

Echoes of explosions and gunfire for the ones that served

The quiet that can never be preserved

The silence never quenched when you witness people die

Your friends and colleagues

The good times and the highs

Shot down by treachery and lies

Conflict and denies

Trodden underfoot in demented trenches

Ripped overhead by barbed wire fences

How do you quiet the spoils of war?

For the ones that served

One minute silence is the least that they deserve...

© Richard Withey. All rights reserved.

Several months ago we were approached by a Proser who expressed the desire for some killer reading material. “I’m just not finding as much of it anymore.”

“It’s all around you,” we told him, “you just have to know where to look.”

That was not the response he was hoping for. He told us that he wanted to help kick things into high gear around here. He wanted to see new work, new writers. He wanted to see people taking their work seriously, respecting the language and pushing themselves harder. The fact that writing matters, it’s a given. “I want to see writing that matters,” he said.

If you have ever read his work, you know what it’s like to read writing that matters. If you haven’t, treat yourself to writing that leaves a sting in the back of your throat, a hot ball of fire in your gut, persistent waves of gooseflesh all over your body. Writing that sticks with you, haunts you, and doesn’t stop even after you’ve read it a hundred times.

We had a few phone calls and exchanged emails with this Proser, all of which further revealed this man’s commitment to excellence. He offered to sponsor a challenge on Prose for the next five years. And so, a creative collaboration was born: a writing challenge like Prosers have never seen before.

With the support of Rolando Hernandez (whom you all know here as @rh), we are proud to announce the launch of the first ever Copperplate Awards.

“By recognizing writing that matters we are reminding writers that there is still a place for their work and the practice of delivering uncompromising truth to the masses,” Roland says of the Copperplates.

The Copperplate Awards, an annual Prose challenge, begins November 1 in conjunction with National Novel Writing Month to recognize excellence in less lengthy works including short fiction, creative non-fiction, and poetry.

Anyone, anywhere can enter by visiting https://theprose.com/challenge/2469. Submissions will be accepted in three categories: poetry (250 word minimum), short fiction (500 word minimum), and creative nonfiction (500 word minimum).

Prose and a trusted panel of judges, including @rh, will be looking for form, content, fire, and creative edge. Each category will have a first and second-place winner. First place winners, in addition to global bragging rights, will receive $500 and an iPad. Runners-up will receive a variety of writerly “swag.”

We’ll share more details about The Copperplate Awards and some of the prizes up for grabs in the coming weeks, so stay tuned. For now, get back to doing what matters: writing.

5/6/14

I wanna grasp each pixel

Not only the whole picture

I want to remember

Every little grin

When joy overflowed

And spilled from within

Life is short, it won't last

Every moment becomes the past

Each simple detail flees

minutes are experienced once

seconds take flight and get lost in the trees