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.
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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.
Ok I have now voted. An impressive turnout of poetries and all worthy of a win.
Good luck everyone.
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.
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?
Excellent poems. Is it too late to make the results private?
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.
Really fantastic poems. Worth keeping. Tough decision.
A three way tie as far as I'm concerned. Will sleep on it - for a week.
Edit: There, I've voted.
/me lubricates chainsawQuote:
Originally Posted by qimissung
Sounds like you've got the makings of a ghost story there, DocHeart! :D
Methinks it is TIME for some more votes :)
Yes thanks, I'll vote later.
Cheers, Neely.
Whoops, I didn't mean to post on the thread.
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!
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.
Enjoyable reads, well done, but there was one clear outstanding piece for my money, very good indeed.
Voted.
Good showing.
Sancho voted!
Nice work, everybody. I enjoyed reading the poems so much that I'll now add my short analysis of each of them...Whoa!...would you look at the time...I've gotta get to work!
As usual I am deeply grateful for all your participation, poets and voters. As you've all said, the poems in this poll are of a particularly high quality, and so I appreciate even more that some of you came here and perused them with such thoughtful care.
The contest ends tonight at 10 p.m, U.S. Central Standard Time, which will be 6:00 Greenwich Mean Time (I think). Last chance to vote!
We're actually Greenwich time -6, so 10 p.m. CST is 4 a.m. GMT. FYI.
The vote was cast and I wish I could have voted for more than one. The thread has offered a very pleasurable read. A hug to all contestants!
Thanks, Calidore. I looked it up on a website, but I believe you. My biggest talent, I think, is getting anything to do with a number wrong.
And you're running a poll? :yikes: :reddevil:Quote:
Originally Posted by qimissung
Fortunately most polls are automatic nowadays :p
If you use Firefox or Chrome, there's an add-on called FoxClocks that tells you the time in all cities of the world that you choose. Its database is updated constantly, so it's very accurate :nod:Quote:
Originally Posted by qimissung
Here's FoxClocks' website, with download links for both browsers: http://foxclocks.org/
Thank you, Max. The poll is easy, Calidore. A child could do it, fortunately.
Alright, folks, this poll is now officially closed.
And the winner is "Dandelion Clock" by JerryBaldy.
Dandelion Clock
Sitting in a field brushed wet with cowslip gold
you blew the dandelion clock.
Feathered seeds in the still summer air
found their own way down.
We shared sun warmed orange squash.
Tea time was a month away.
We had time for chinese burns.
I could count your freckles,
twenty seven sun bronzed kisses.
We imagined we were orphans.
Picking blackberries for tea,
fingers stained with blood and juice.
Boatmen skimmed the stagnant pond
beneath the dying tree.
You said goodbye, you had fishfingers for tea.
I watched you skip away
your summer ballet, mapping nettles,
white socks skipping muddied puddles,
their depths still yet to take you.
All entrants are now free to post their work under their name in other parts of the forum. Again, my heartfelt thanks to all of you for your beautiful work.
Congratulations Jerry! :)
Jerrybaldy, that was great. It reminded me of the very best of Betjeman.
Now at last I can say my other favorites were A box in a bigger box, and Our timing was good - because I always look for a story.
Congratulations, Jerry! Brilliant work.
DH
I loved all of these so much! If I could have voted for all of them, I would have. Jerry, this is a truly brilliant poem. You must be so proud! I will always remember it.
Congratulations Jerry! It is a very fine poem, and an entirely deserved victory.
Many well done Jerry!!
Hail! Poetry Cesar! another wonderful poem by you! warmest congratulations!!!
Congratulations too to all who contributed in this contest!
Congrats!
Thank you very much everybody who took part writing or voting or commenting. I am honoured. The biggest thank you to qimissung for organising the competition in the first place.
Jerry, you actually won with 9 votes, not just 8. I read the poems early on but didn't get back in time to vote, Dandelion Clock was my pick. It's just lovely.
i feel so silly
three pages of comments
everyone has seen the poems and voted
but i don't see any poems
i've clicked on every speck of dust
i've single-clicked, double-clicked,
clicked on all the color bars of the poll,
clicked my heels, ticked, and frog kicked
i've clicked numbers, poem titles, page numbers,
clicked on thread tools, search box, and rate thread,
clicked on ads with arrows, clicked blank spaces
i've flicked, flipped, and tripped (don't ask on what)
i even did card tricks
The winner's poem was posted but can someone tell me how to view all the poems please? I asked this on a previous poll thread but the next day all poll comments were mysteriously deleted (thread titled "Don't Know Much About History").
Oh, I get it...this is a secret society and i have to go through hazing first? :grouphug: :wink5:
You went through a lot of trouble to read poems that don't exist anymore! :p The thing is that once the voting period comes to an end, they are erased, and then the winner is announced. I wouldn't say it's out of being a secret society, but rather that it's done in order to protect the authors' right to do with their writings as they please. However, I've often thought that it would be nice to pay them another read, maybe by reposting them in a special section or something like that :)
Thank you for taking the time to explain,Max. That's helpful to know. Maybe I'll catch the next one if I'm quick enough. Nice to meet you ^__^
Welcome, and nice meeting you too! http://smiles.kolobok.us/personal/hi.gif