I Didn't Mean to Forget

Winner of the 2018 Blue Light Poetry Prize

"Christine Vovakes' I Didn't Mean to Forget is homage to love's spectrum of emotions and impact; it is cinema of the heart. At times raw, 'to open your mouth and share, tongue to tongue.' Beautiful, 'for us to smooth the love rumpled-bed.' Tender, 'then, gently cradling me in your strong arms.' Unwavering, 'loving fiercely through the distance.' Transparent, 'a lover as vivid as this fuchsia.' This collection is a transcript for those who have loved, do love, and will want to love again after reading this book. I Didn't Mean to Forget makes 'the heart flutter."'

Christine Vovakes, winner of the 2018 Blue Light Poetry Prize, lives in northern California. The Cape Rock, San Pedro River Review, Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace, Poetry Breakfast, Aethlon Journal of Sports Literature, California Quarterly, JAMA, Eclectica, Boston Literary Magazine, Watershed, Apple Valley Review, Shamrock Haiku Journal and the Marin Poetry Center Anthology are among the publications where her poems have appeared. Her articles and photos have been published in The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, Sacramento Bee and San Francisco Chronicle. Her short story won a Patricia Painton Scholarship at the 2005 Paris Writers Workshop.