Poetic Reincarnation

Student Caeley Flowers Wins First Elizabeth Bishop Poetry Prize.

Reincarnation By: Caeley Valentine Flowers We’ve been brothers and sisters since fire We’ve worn shoes and cut hair since morning We’ve broken bones and smoked the forests since noon We’ve eaten from the hands of our father We’ve been brothers and sisters since fire

We’ve never talked about the light from the seven We’ve never cracked the crystal mountains We’ve never crossed the river We’ve been awake all this time, and it’s getting colder

We’ve been brothers and sisters since fire My eyes close now, but I’ll see you tomorrow

We’ve been to and from Earth so often, This has to be heaven.

On a quiet night sitting on the edge of campus, overlooking the dark water and its occasional ripple, you might think it was a scene from Lagoon Landing Residence Hall that Elizabeth Bishop described when she wrote, “After dark, the fireflies map the heavens in the marsh/ until the moon rises.” So it goes with many of Bishop’s Key West-inspired poems. So it is not surprising that many student writers at The College of the Florida Keys are writing poems inspired by these same surroundings and their experiences in their time as students here.

It seems fitting, then, to honor Bishop’s legacy on our campus, where many students pursue their interests in writing inside and outside of the classroom, with the Elizabeth Bishop Poetry Prize. The prize was the idea of The Key West Elizabeth Bishop Committee in order to cultivate a deeper awareness of Bishop’s place in Key West’s literary history and to recognize the role that CFK students have in that same literary history. The awards for first place and runner-up were made possible by the generous support of Rosanne Potter and Bill McCarthy in conjunction with the committee.

In 2020 the first annual contest for the Elizabeth Bishop Poetry Prize was held. The first place award is for a remarkable poem written and submitted by a current CFK student, and a second entry is awarded as runner-up. The 2020 winner was Caeley Valentine Flowers (AS, Marine Env Tech ’20; BS, Marine Res Mgmt) for her poem, “Reincarnation,” which observes landscapes and uses repetition in order to investigate the speaker’s sense of place. Flowers received the prize of $100 and will read her poem at the Elizabeth Bishop Committee’s annual Elizabeth Bishop Birthday Celebration.

Flowers’s poem was chosen from many applicants by this year’s guest judge, former Key West Poet Laureate Flower Conroy. Conroy is the author of Snake-Breaking Medusa Disorder, winner of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies 2018 Stevens Prize for Poetry, as well as “Facts About Snakes & Hearts,” “The Awful Suicidal Swans,” and “Escape to Nowhere.” Conroy also chose Kaitlyn Ricci’s poem, “Awareness,” as this year’s runner-up.

As creative writing faculty, director of the CFK Poetics series, and the advisor for the Creative Writing Club, Dr. Emily Weekley worked with the Elizabeth Bishop Committee to bring the contest to the CFK campus. This contest only adds to the enthusiasm for poetry on campus, where verse is celebrated in many ways throughout the year. For over a decade, an annual open mic has been held on campus in celebration of National Poetry Month, and 2019 marked the inaugural season of CFK Poetics, a visiting writers series that brings national voices in poetry to CFK and is open to the community. Weekley is also a poet and the author of Rest in Black Haw.

Bishop wrote many poems while she lived here that were stimulated by Key West imagery and that still resonate in the landscape. Our CFK students continue in the long tradition of Key West poets and writers, which makes this new recognition of the great deal of talent roaming our collective campuses so important. Bishop left her home on the island decades ago, but the inspirations for poetry are still alive at CFK.