THE CAPE ROCK
I presently serve as an associate editor of The Cape Rock, the poetry journal produced by the Southeast Missouri State University Department of English with support from the Missouri Arts Council.
The Cape Rock appears twice a year, spring and fall. Submissions and other correspondence are welcome, but a self-addressed, stamped envelope must be enclosed to guarantee a return or reply. Contributors' names and complete addresses should appear in the upper right-hand corner of each submission. We do not accept previously published material, and we do not read poetry submissions in May, June, and July. The Cape Rock pays $200 for the best poem in each issue. All contributors are paid in copies.
The Cape Rock also features the work of one photographer per issue. Several photographs (preferably treating a particular place or theme) should be submitted in 8-by-10" black-and-white glossy prints. The featured photographer will receive $100.
The general editor of The Cape Rock is Harvey Hecht, Professor of English, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, MO 63701. All submissions and correspondence should be directed to him.
Here is the prize-winning poem from a recent issue:
THE SWINGS
Why did we wind ourselves up
in the swings, ropes or chains
raising us towards the sky,
a friend helping when our feet
could no longer touch the ground
to spin us further?
We wound higher and higher
till we could twist no more,
then paused for that long second
of waiting till it all began,
and we unwound in a frenzy of delight,
the world spinning in a green and blue
blur until we jerked to a stop,
twisting only a little, back and forth,
heads lolling, eyes out of focus,
finally sliding off to stagger across
the sloping world, our bodies wonderfully
out of control, the earth rising to meet us,
slanting away as we careened towards
a horizon that wouldn't hold still,
seeing everything with the motion
that the earth really has, and
for those few amazing moments,
every atom of our being knowing
what life was really all about
as we spun with this planet
that loves us so much
it won't let us fly off the edge
into darkness before it is time.
--Grace Butcher
Chardon, Ohio