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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:
16-colonize
Colonization Remix
by Peter Patrick Langella
I fall asleep and fantasize
of nations set to colonize
They’ll cross the sea to settle down
they’ll plant their flags into the ground
But in my dreams there are no tears
there is no fight, there are no fears
Vikings share and work with others
Romans treat all men as brothers
The Greeks provide for sick and poor
Conquistadors don’t go to war
The British never tax the tea
All native peoples will stay free
When I wake up I smile wide
and look ahead with joy and pride
We’ve messed up big-time in the past
but we can make a world that lasts
vs.
5-churn
“If you can’t take the heat…”
by Kathy Ellen Davis
At the 25th annual Texas State spelling bee,
little Pat Butter was on quite a roll.
He correctly spelled spreadable, salted and soften,
but the pressure was finally taking its toll.
his stomach started to churn,
as he patiently waited his turn,
and the temperature rose ever higher.
It soon got unbearably hot,
and he melted, right there on the spot,
when they told him his next word was “friar”
VOTE NOW!
16-colonize vs. 5-churn: Which Poem Did You Prefer?
- 16-colonize (Peter Patrick Langella) (63%, 118 Votes)
- 5-churn (Kathy Ellen Davis) (37%, 68 Votes)
Total Voters: 186
Loading ...GET OUT THE VOTE. The average pairing in Round 1 generated 154 votes. The average pairing in Round 2 generated 178 votes. Use the share buttons below and mention the madness wherever you go so that these poems reach more kids! And remember, encourage voting on EVERY MATCHUP, not just this one!
