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Voter Instructions:
- The countdown at the bottom of each pairing indicates how much time is left to vote.
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Things to Consider in Making a Choice:
- How well the poem incorporates the authlete’s assigned word.
- Technical elements: meter, rhyme, form, shape, and other poetic standards.
- Creativity: wordplay, imagery, unusual approach, etc.
- Subtle elements that make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
- Your overall response: emotional reaction such as admiration, tears, laughter, terror, or some indefinable feeling.
Here are the poems:
12-amicable
Swimming Toward the Light
By Penny Klostermann
On a lonely, lightless bottom, fathoms down below,
a solitary, stalk-eyed shrimp is swimming to and fro!
“Look! A luminescent, phosphorescent, incandescent glow!”
On that lonely, lightless bottom, fathoms down below,
a serrated-saw-toothed anglerfish’s lure waves to and fro—
Thus…the luminescent, phosphorescent, incandescent glow!
Snap!
…and what to shrimp seemed amicable, never would be so.
vs.
4-scrappy
The Battle
By Callie C. Miller
Adelyn fought and she schemed and she sought
To avoid the injustice impending.
She squirmed and she squiggled. She cried and then wriggled!
But lost to the bitter black ending.
A scrappy young brawler, a give-it-your-all-er
She knew how to win during war time.
But she was defeated, like each time she greeted
Her favorite blankie at naptime.
12-amicable vs. 4-scrappy: Which Poem Did You Prefer?
- 12-amicable (Penny Klostermann) (40%, 185 Votes)
- 4-scrappy (Callie C. Miller) (60%, 282 Votes)
Total Voters: 465
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