Poll: What TiME is it now? Poetry Contest

[qimissung]

This poll is now open for voting. Please choose the one you like the best. The poll will close (for definitely sure!) on December 15 at 10 p.m. Central Standard U.S. time.

Happy Voting.

[cacian]

Ok I have now voted. An impressive turnout of poetries and all worthy of a win.
Good luck everyone.

[Lokasenna]

An impressive turnout indeed - it's been a while since a poetry contest had this many submissions.

There is also clearly some very good poetry here - I'll take a little time before voting, as right now I'm hard pressed to pick a favourite.

[Calidore]

I wish a cascading point system was possible in the polls, since I hate having to pick just one when I like several.

Also, is it normal to do public rather than private polls for contests like these?

[tonywalt]

Excellent poems. Is it too late to make the results private?

[qimissung]

I'm sorry, it is. I hope you'll vote anyway, Tony. No one is going to track you down, I promise. And yes, we have always done public polls.

[Varenne Rodin]

Really fantastic poems. Worth keeping. Tough decision.

[prendrelemick]

A three way tie as far as I'm concerned. Will sleep on it - for a week.


Edit: There, I've voted.

[DocHeart]

No one is going to track you down, I promise.

/me lubricates chainsaw

[qimissung]

Sounds like you've got the makings of a ghost story there, DocHeart!

[DocHeart]

Methinks it is TIME for some more votes

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes thanks, I'll vote later.

Cheers, Neely.

Whoops, I didn't mean to post on the thread.

[Bar22do]

I wish I could vote for more than just one poem... Another good choices would be the Box in a Bigger Box or Dandelion, but all these poems are interesting! and so very different one from the other; I spent a delicious long (?) MOMENT pondering time... Thank you all the poets, thanks Qim for your initiative!

[MorpheusSandman]

This is a spectacular collection of poems, all of them with very fine moments and things to recommend them (and those here that know me know I'm not an easily impressed critic). A few words about each:

God Only Knows: I love the aphoristic, almost parable-like humor in this. That last line definitely had me grinning. I also like how, despite the brevity, we get the detail of St. Augustine fetching the watch “from the poke by his side.” Only negative is the lack of meter given the rhymes and half-rhymes.

The Photon’s Frame of Reference: Love the subject matter, and we need more poets writing about the innately poetic nature of quantum physics. The paradox of the photon being everywhere, so not feeling itself moving has an almost metaphysical quality to it. Only negative is that the last rhyme seems a bit arbitrarily tossed off.

Time: Love the sound play in this one. The lack of capitalizations and the fable-like quality makes it read like a piece by ee cummings. Again, only negative is that last rhyme pair; not sure what “flies the truce” means, and is it “its duce” or meant to be “it’s duce”? Either way, I’m not sure of the meaning.

Time it Goes Slowly: Reminds me of a Renaissance poem. The line “their song was sung” is reminiscent of Tichborne’s “My Prime of Youth is But a Frost of Cares” in its almost hymn-like refrain. I also like the unique use of hexameters. Again, I think the ending is a bit haphazard, but I like everything else.

Inside a Box Inside a Bigger Box: I like reference to Dali’s “melting” clocks. The metaphorical conceit of the great writers awaiting us like dogs is wonderfully unique. The whole piece has a wonderful combination of modern and classical techniques. I especially like the ending’s “Not as… But as…” construction, where the “But as” clause is given three lines over the “Not as”’s two, emphasizing that, however numbing the latter is, the former is a kind of oasis.

Godsong: Beautiful—like George Herbert or Gerard Manley Hopkins meets modernism. There is certainly that Biblical combination of simplicity and poignancy together. I also love the soundplay, especially in the “The silent sea / stood unheeded, / fields unfarrowed, / fire unheeded, / mountains and meres, / but men unknown.”

The Time is Now: I love the line “Living in the moment is all we can afford,” as well as the closing couplet. I wish the meter was more consistent, given the rhyming quatrain construction.

Dandelion Clock: Ravishing images, wonderful rhythms. I love the subtle repetition of subject/verb always being placed at the beginning of lines, as it gives the piece a kind of tick-tock rhythm, and every time the pattern is violated, there is a purpose behind it (eg, in ho the “feathered seeds” take their time getting to verb “found” in the next line). I also love the asymmetrical stanza construction, with the first, lengthier part recounting what happened before the goodbye with its wealth of verbs and selective use of imagistic details; and the second what happened after, ending with three lines of wonderfully composed images in perfect balance. A sublime poem; better than anything I’ve read recently in any major poetry magazine.

Our timing was good…: I like the combination of the simple, anapestic dimeter ABCB verse and all the hints of something rather dark going on under the sing-song rhythm and rhymes. The fourth stanza is especially outstanding, with the almost Burns-like “Your kisses are sweet” leading to the darker idea of the heels being red, and that redness connecting to the blood of the dead.

All good pieces; my vote is for Dandelion Clock.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Enjoyable reads, well done, but there was one clear outstanding piece for my money, very good indeed.