Click here for authlete instructions.
Voter Instructions:
- The countdown at the bottom of each pairing indicates how much time is left to vote.
- When voting closes, timer will disappear.
- Read both poems as many times as you like.
- Mark the poem you like best by clicking the circle next to its name.
- Press the “Vote” button to record your vote.
- Votes are counted in real time and cannot be changed once entered.
- You can only vote once from a given IP address.
- Classrooms should submit one vote as a class.
- Students can then vote again individually from home.
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:
2-girth
Said The Captain To The Hippo
by Bruce Balan
I’ve scrutinized your résumé,
its pros and cons I now can weigh:
You have aquatic pedigree
and never joined a mutiny
You’ve diving skills, but there’s… your weight
and I can’t have a drowsy mate
My ship has no sufficient berth
for one of such substantial girth
vs.
15-inchoate
in-ko-it
by Jeanne Poland
inchoate deeds are tap roots
primum well springs
inspiration stems
innate KINGS
early QUEENS
elementary births of greatness
inchoate, explicit, initial beginnings-
inch worms in the soil
