Congratulations to the Nominees for 2014/5 Best of the Net

copyright 2014, Regina A. Walker

Last night I nominated six poems for the Best of the Net Anthology.  To be eligible, poems must have been published online between July 1, 2014 and June 30, 2015.  It was fun to go back over the previous year's work, but it was also difficult as so many poems stand out.  Below are the ones I finally chose.  

The first is Regina A. Walker's "Hireath" (published on October 1, 2014):
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/10/hiraeth.html

Next is Martin Willits, Jr.'s "The Elephant on the Keyboards" (published on October 16, 2014):

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-elephant-on-keyboards.html

Ed Schelb's "Bird Call Dance Hall" is a graphic poem published on November 6, 2014:
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/bird-call-dance-hallcoming-soon.html

Felino A. Soriano's "Underneath" (published on November 21, 2014) was inspired by the music of pianist and composer Vijay Iyer.
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/monk-iyer.html

I would also like to nominate Avis D. Matthews' "Chicago, 1971, for my Aunt DeWana" (published on March 10, 2015):
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/03/in-place-of-memory-trying-not-to-be-in.html

My final nomination is Mary Jo Balistreri's "Star Light, Star Bright," which was published on June 2, 2015:  http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/06/in-mourning-and-memory-by-mary-jo.html

And thank you, Holly Holt, editor of Walking Is Still Honest, for telling me how to nominate these fine poets and their poems.  I am looking forward to nominating more poems next summer.

I'll finish with some music to accompany these wonderful poems and take us back through the past year.

"Hireath" started off the Gene Clark contest, so I will post his "In a Misty Morning," a song that continues to impress me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne-ba3QDWmw

Here is a different take of Thelonious Monk's "Ugly Beauty" that ended up being included in the 1988 documentary Straight No Chaser:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In16H9J72HY

If you prefer music without dialogue, here is the album version of this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vofbnkQcW_Q

When I posted "Bird Call Dance Hall," one of the songs I included was Clark's "Life's Greatest Fool," so here it is again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzvKS5QD2nU

One of Felino's many inspirations, Vijay Iyer performs here with the Brentano String Quartet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_YwHwjObNg

I'll play Fanny's "Summer Song" to accompany Avis' poem for her aunt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O63MzT2pPSs

Although I didn't know about Jan Lisiecki's performances of Chopin until recently, I am posting this to accompany Mary Jo's beautiful poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGAnCaIAdYE

Best of luck to our nominees!