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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-eviscerate
Homework Blues
by Margo Lemieux
This writing assignment’s assigned out of spit
I’ll only complete it by working all nit
To eviscerate words with a pen not a sword
Is a miserable problem allrit.
Miriam Webster gives support so fin
I’d really do well if I only had tim
To insinuate spaces can function as specious
A legitimate challenge sublim
I can just justify jilting an E
And then to eliminate H and a G.
To exterminate letters might really be better
Than getting an F, you’ll agree.
vs.
5-suited
Snow Day Fun
by Jean Daigneau
I’m playing with my sisters since
We have a day off school.
We’re thrilled. It’s snow day number nine!
This winter’s been so cool.
Celeste and June are trying to
Out-yodel one another;
And Tess is playing bagpipes while
She’s skyping with our brother.
Susannah’s got her ipod cranked.
Lane’s watching the T.V.
I’m talking on Mom’s cell phone while
I’m bowling on the Wii.
Mom says she’s better suited for
A life of peace and quiet
And if we had a volume knob
She’d be the first to try it!
