Tommorrow is Deed Day, the 152nd anniversary of Gundlach Bundschu and the date of our second online writing contest! Hope your pencils are sharpened, you've selected a bottle of wine to get you going, and you're planning to submit your entry tomorrow between 12am and 11:59pm!
One last example to help inspire, the beautiful first place winner from the 2009 contest. Deborah Parker Wong set the bar pretty high, so be sure to bring it!
Ode to Mountain Fruit
What twists and turns of Darwinian fate
brought humble vine to hallowed grape
Look not to meadows lush and green
nor to reaches deep and wide
Though in these places vines do thrive
from them fleeting wines derive
Listen to the whistling wind
across the mountain tops it winds
Through the vines it rushes wild
a stirring chorus for a hapless child
Perched below the ragged peaks
it is their want to suckle deep
and from earth’s yielding breast
their darkest secrets are not kept
What game did Mother Nature play
with bits of rock and earth and clay
From fruitless soil and little rain
a vine that knows the drinker’s name
- Deborah Parker Wong