[click image to view matchup in full screen in a new window.]
The Poets’ Challenge: Each poet is assigned a single word based on their bracket seed, ranging from 1 (intuitive) to 16 (seemingly impossible). Poets must write a kid-appropriate poem using the prompted word in under 36 hours. Once both final poems have been received, they will be pasted into the body of this post, and then the reader poll will be open for voting.
Voter Instructions: Read each poem as many times as you’d like. Then use the poll to express your preference. Votes are counted in real time and cannot be changed once entered. As a guideline for voting, consider the criteria on which the contestants on the cooking show “Chopped” are evaluated: presentation, taste, and creativity. Translated roughly into poetry terms, presentation might include technical aspects such as meter, rhyme, form/shape, etc.; taste might be the net effect — did the poem move you to laugh, cry, think, kill, etc.; and creativity might include the poet’s approach toward a certain subject, image evocation, clever wordplay, etc.
“This is awesome, where can I find more?”: All results and scheduled matchups, including a glance at the round-by-round writing windows and voting windows, are visible from the Live Scoreboard page. In addition, results will be tweeted from @edecaria as they become final.
Here are the poems:
10-forensic
An Important Mystery!
by Debbie L.
The cookies are missing! Where could they be?
It’s time to solve a mystery.
No need to worry, a forensic expert is here.
Crumbs! A clue! The criminal is near.
It leads this way and that. Then the trail stops…
What’s that sound? Munching…crunching… now snores?
Daddy, why are you hiding behind that door?
vs.
2-empty
This and That
by Melinda Harvey
Frigid:hot, push:pull
North:South, empty:full
Normal:queer, out:in
Near:far, stranger:kin
Knock-kneed: full of grace
Ten hut: About face
Wondering how to pass the time?
Think of opposites that rhyme!
VOTE NOW!
10-forensic vs. 2-empty: Which Poem Did You Prefer?
- 10-forensic (Debbie L.) (50%, 130 Votes)
- 2-empty (Melinda Harvey) (50%, 129 Votes)
Total Voters: 259

GET OUT THE VOTE. For Round 2, our goal is to double the average vote total for all matchups compared to Round 1. Use the share buttons below and mention the madness wherever you go so that these poems reach more kids!