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:
4-apex
Playground Problem
by Elizabeth McBride
A hippo on a teeter totter
teetered with his tiny daughter.
They tried to go up and down,
but he never left the ground.
From the apex she soon scolded,
while he felt his knees had folded!
Nothing budged, although he tried.
That’s how it became a slide.
vs.
13-carnivorous
Poet Hunting
by Angie Karcher
Psssttt…Have you seen a poet? Yes, you there, at the screen.
I smell their rancid poetry, malodorous and lean.
When hunting herds of poets I listen for the sounds
of clicking-ticking-typing…they stop when I’m around.
My stealthy occupation of eating them for lunch
is tawdry and distasteful, but I like the way they “CRUNCH.”
Poetically carnivorous; my appetite immense.
So let the feeding frenzy of hysteria commence!
