Flicker

Poetry. FLICKER by Lisa Bickmore is the winner of the 2014 Elixir Press Antivenom Poetry Award. "Lisa Bickmore gives us a powerful new collection, in which 'there are two lives, / the tranquil one and the conflagration.' These are poems rich in both—and in their interplay—where, as the poet says, 'Wildflower seeds exploded there / with the flicked matches I walked away from.' What makes the poems in FLICKER such a rich experience is their fierce honesty as they demonstrate a willingness to alchemically enter the fire of one's life in order to attain tranquility. Bickmore offers generative complexities of transformation, as when the cat in 'Thaumaturge' eats a bird, and 'the bird's heart [becomes] a power inside her.' Read these poems with a sincere desire to connect with others and with the world. Taste these poems, savor them, and bring them—most dearly—into the body's cells. They will reward you and become a power inside you too."—George Kalamaras, contest judge