Milton J. Kessler Memorial Prize for Poetry
And when everything moving has stopped.
like fiberglass horses when the carousel
goes childless each night and the music has
nowhere else to go but inside us,
the mind is set free to shape new names for
lost movements. The invincibility
of youth hardens into hopefully there will be.
a tomorrow. Your softening heartbeat
grows slowly into I’m sorry. And the song
hesitates, uncertain what you might make of it,
if it will remain unburnt kindling or flame
wildly into chorus. Is this what it means
to find peace, to finally be alive? And when the horses
rediscover their limbs and the children return
to take back what was never really theirs, will the names
I’ve tied to things loosen and fray or,
just this once, hold tight their knots?
John Schneider’s debut poetry collection, Swallowing the Light, (2022) is Pinnacle Book Achievement Poetry Best Book winner 2023, New York City Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite for Poetry in 2023, International Book Awards Poetry 2023 and nominated for the Hoffer Award. His non-fiction book, Dreaming and Being Dreamt, was published by Routledge in 2023. His poetry was chosen by Victoria Chang as a finalist in Atlanta Review’s 2023 International Poetry Competition, where he was a Merit Award Winner in 2021 and 2024. In 2024 he was a finalist for the Rash Award and Crosswinds award in poetry. He is also a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. He resides in Berkeley, California.