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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:
3-avid
Thief
by Kyle Hart
My little brother Mark has been avid for weeks.
He brings this up every time that he speaks.
He’ll look in my eyes while he angrily squawks,
“Something or someone’s been stealing my socks!”
“You’re fibbing,” I tell him. “Get out of my room!”
And I slammed my door with a thunderous boom.
Well… last night at 10, Mark proved me the liar.
When he showed me a squid living inside our dryer.
vs.
14-concurrent
Train Wreck
by Vikram Madan
My poem wasn’t very tight – a word slipped out and fell
It landed on the line below and ruptured that as well
What opus could withstand the weight of words with such impact?
My rhymes were shaky from the start, but now my structure cracked!
The meter flailed, the rhythm quailed, the syllables played dead
Concurrent with this brouhaha, the verses cursed and fled
More lines caved in…! More words fell through…! The end is nigh, I guess 
I hope you’ll still make some sense of this train wreck of a mess.
My poem wasn’t very tight – a word slipped out and fell
It landed on the line below and ruptured that as well
What opus could withstand the weight of words with such impact?
My rhymes were shaky from the start, but now my structure cracked!
The meter flailed, the rhythm quailed, the syllables played dead
Concurrent with this brouhaha, the verses cursed and fled
More lines caved in…! More words fell through…! The end is nigh, I guess
I hope you’ll still make some sense of this train wreck of a mess.
