At Last...voting for the fall contests!

Starting Feb. 21 and continuing to March 7, you will be able to vote for your favorite poem or flash fiction in one to four categories -- and your favorite visuals.  Each person may vote once in each category and in one method (email to thesongis at gmail dot com *or* Facebook).  Poets may vote, and they may promote their poems.  The same goes for writers of flash fiction.  Musicians may vote, too!  When you vote, though, be fair (and kind, if you comment).  Winners of the contest will be announced shortly after March 7.  And yes, there are prizes.

The categories are Thelma's Prize (all poems and flash fiction included as full text in the e-zine are eligible), Monk's Prize (poems in honor of Thelonious Monk , Clark's Prize (poems in honor of Gene Clark), and Poetry...Is Local (for poets within the DC metro or Maryland). Callie's Prize will be for artwork submitted to The Song Is...  (Note eligibility.)

Please vote for the poem, not the poet.  Many poets have several poems in the race.

Now, who shall win Thelma's Prize?

Regina A. Walker for "Hiraeth": http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/10/hiraeth.html

Felino A. Soriano for "Trio of incorporated interpretations": 

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/10/thelonious-monk.html

OR "Underneath" OR "Morning, this"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/monk-iyer.html

Martin Willits, Jr. for "The Elephant on the Keyboards":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-elephant-on-keyboards.html

OR"Ugly Beauty":

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/monk-iyer.html

OR "Epistle on Healing":

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/epistle-on-healing.html

OR "Now That You Are Gone..."
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/martin-willits-jrs-entry-in-gene-clark.html

Joan Dobbie for "Tripping with Ryan...":

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/10/blog-post.html

Ethan Goffman for "Song of My Selfie":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/10/song-of-my-selfie.html

Jerry A. Scuderi for "Autumn Glow" OR "Treble Goddess":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/avis-d-matthews-images-and-jerry.html

OR "Emerald Ridge in Spring"  OR "Fertile Ridge in Summer" OR "Abandoned Ridge in Autumn" OR "Barren Ridge in Winter":

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/jerry-scuderis-vineyard-poems.html

OR "Salsa Island"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/san-juan-puerto-rico.html

OR "A Christmas Sonnet" OR "Why Come for Me?" OR "Mama's Keys" OR "At 96th and 2nd" OR "Crystal Ladies" OR "Calendar Cowboy":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/christmas-and-more.html

OR "Soul Maiden"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/juan-tituana-and-jerry-scuderi-return.html

OR "Do You Recognize Him?" OR "Broken Then Crumbled" OR "Tiny Hands" OR "Love and Justice":

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/more-in-memory-and-sorrow.html

Ed Schelb for "Bird Call Dance Hall":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/bird-call-dance-hallcoming-soon.html

OR the poems at Mourning and a Sense of Martyrdom (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5):
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/mourning-and-sense-of-martyrdom.html

OR "Dogbelly Auditions..."
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/ed-schelbs-dogbelly-auditions-to-play.html

Vasile Moldovan for haiku (1, 2, 3.or 4)
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/words-and-images-for-what-would-have.html

Allyson Lima for "After Mario Bencastro's Algo tiene el otoño":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/after-mario-bencastros-algo-tiene-el.html

OR "Turn":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/more-from-fall-contest.html

Joan McNerney for"Monk" OR "Pablo Picasso Night Fishing at Antibes (1939)" OR "Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night (1889)" OR "On Viewing Buddha in the Museum":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/11/monk-andpoems-about-painting.html

OR "Night Garden" OR "Another Small Death":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/joan-mcnerneys-flash-fiction-and-valeri.html

OR "For the Mothers"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/in-mothers-voice-amber-smithers-and.html

A.J. Huffman for"Honey, You've Got to Slow Down" OR "Singing Without Words":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/aj-huffmans-honey-you-got-to-slow-down.html

Valeri Beers for "October Road":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/joan-mcnerneys-flash-fiction-and-valeri.html

Pijush Kanti Deb for "A Devotee or a Beggar" OR "Your Cat and My Dog" OR "Two Languages" OR "A Poor Hand" OR "Though She Is My Best Friend"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2014/12/poems-by-pijush-kanti-deb.html

OR "I Surrender to the Tradition" OR "To Read a Brand New Book" OR "The Rhino-Skin" OR "A Magnificent Painting" OR "Me and My Poorness" OR "A Scared Idea":

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/poems-by-pijush-kanti-deb.html

Adelaja Ridwan Olayiwola for "I Sing" OR "My Harmattan Song" OR "The Coin of Life"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/i-sing-harmattan-song.html

Amber Smithers for "A Lullaby to My Son"

http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/in-mothers-voice-amber-smithers-and.html

Prince Adewale Oreshade for "a bird in the sky for jennifer aduro" OR "olives and doves" (an acrostic for oliver onyibe" OR "send her to the north" (an acrostic for shade mary-ann olaoye):
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/poems-by-abdul-kabir-abu-irfan-or.html

Catfish McDaris for "Elephant Tusk Boogie" OR "Six Headed Dog":
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/catfish-mcdaris-returns-us-to-monk.html

OR "Sweet Jesus" OR "Beware of Po-Po"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/01/flash-fiction-and-poem-by-catfish.html

Will Mayo for "Haunted by the Night" OR "The Sounds of the Night" OR "Window Shopping" OR "Phantasmagoria"
http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/02/poems-by-will-mayo.html

The other categories will follow but not on this entry.

However, here is some music for you.  Unfortunately, this won't be a greatest hits of the fall, but I want to find some new songs for you.

I don't think that I've played Monk's "Don't Blame Me" for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KshrtLXBdl8

Here Monk is performing "Rhythm-a-ning" with Gerry Mulligan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M0CthOfSMM

"Sweet and Lovely" is from the same collaboration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J8aGX7OsOw

I'll finish with a 1957 version of "Blue Monk" that he did with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98CuS9zFoWQ

Did I ever post "In Walked Bud," one of Monk's famous pieces?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6wLaVCRgCw