Betsy K. Brown

Culture of Life Poetry Award Winner

A Potter’s Field

We meet there, in the sunken gravel lot
    below the knot where three brusque freeways meet—
    a placeless place, too loud to build a house,
Too small to build a business, and too grim
    for gardening. Instead, the rows of circles,
    pressed wide and flat like long-forgotten coins,
The cheapest markers for the poorest dead,
    stretch on and on. No granite rises here,
    no seraphim or crosses hewn of stone.
And if you glimpse the field from your car,
    you’ll see a yawning hole and nothing more.
    The only ways to see the graves are two:
up close, like us, to squint at nameless signs,
    or from above, perhaps the clearest view.

About Betsy K. Brown

Betsy is a poet, essayist, and curricular writer. Her work has appeared in many outlets, including First Things, The New Ohio Review, and The Circe Institute website. She is the author of Leading a Seminar on Frankenstein and City Nave. She chairs the humanities department of a classical school. You can read more of her work at betsykbrown.com.

---

Award Shortlist

Modus Vivendi by Robert Charboneau

Pygmalion by Robert Charboneau

"Shell Station, Tennessee" by Kelly Scott Franklin

And the Birds Sing by Susan Mulder

The Doctor and the Patient in the Next Exam Bay by Midge Goldberg

Whale Watch by Midge Goldberg

A Passenger by Robert Crawford

A Row of Stones by Robert Crawford

Voice from the Womb by Philip Brown Rosenbaum

Seeing the Work by Philip Brown Rosenbaum

Lambing, Upstate New York by John Jackson

Dark Matter by Dorothy Nielsen

In the Garden by Grace Claire Przywara

Even if the Years Are Not Golden by Tamara B. Nicholl-Smith

---

We are planning a round table discussion with the judges and award winner. Subscribe below for updates.