[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:
11-nether
BOTTOMS UP!
by Tiffany Strelitz Haber
In Wackytown where up is down and night is bright as day
Santa Claus comes twice a year and drives a backwards sleigh.
It travels in reverse- a curse! But Santa’s got it made.
He’s got a secret weapon in his great reindeer brigade.
Rudy Booty leads the pack, attacking through the snow…
and sticks his tushy out, you see
his nether regions glow!
vs.
14-marginalize
The Harlem Skunktrotter
by Stephen W. Cahill
It’s not a surprise when they marginalize
The skunk who signs up to their team.
His terrible stink is so bad that they think
He’s icky beyond the extreme.
But soon there’s a reason, first match of the season,
To drown him with kisses and roses.
This basketball skunk performs dunk after dunk
As the other team squeeze on their noses!
VOTE NOW!
11-nether vs. 14-marginalize: Which Poem Did You Prefer?
- 11-nether (Tiffany Strelitz Haber) (50%, 193 Votes)
- 14-marginalize (Stephen W. Cahill) (50%, 196 Votes)
Total Voters: 388
Loading ...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!
