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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:
16-chicanery
The Raven and the Apple Pie
by Margo Lemieux
A Chicken, a Goose, a Dog on the loose, a Raven high up on a wire
Smelled a cinnamon breeze, a delectable tease, from a pie just baked in the fire.
But the sill was too high, it denied their desire, so they sadly admitted defeat.
Till the Raven flew down, knocked the pie on the ground, and promptly proceeded to eat.
He took a big gobble and started to wobble, keeled over as if in a faint.
Goose shrugged as she said, “He looks mighty dead. It must’ve been something he ate.”
When they hurried away, Raven whispered “hooray,” and he jumped up intention quite plain.
As he finished the pie the gleam in his eye said chicanery triumphs again.
vs.
9-patsy
Dog Gangsters
by Damon Dean
That lanky greyhound is a schmuck.
But with her high-rise snout
off-limit treats on countertops
we never do without.
I watch, she thieves—we split the take.
She’s such a naïve sucker.
And if we’re caught, my puppy eyes
can make a patsy of her.
