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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.
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- 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-portal
Alien Invader
by Elizabeth McBride
Last spring I went to Space Camp! It was a dream come true –
a portal to a whole new world: I joined “Kids’ Space Camp Crew!”
Ignition Juice and Lucky Stars began our Training Day,
then orbiting the Plan-It Room, we chose what we would play.
I tried out anti-gravity – I bounced and swirled and spun,
walked ‘on the Moon’ ‘til half past noon, when our free time was done.
We ate our “launch” of Booster Bars and drank some Milky Whey,
and played a Sonic Soccer game, and Comet Keep-Away.
Space Camp Control then radioed that it was time to swim.
We practiced splashdowns and re-entries over and again!
Countdown to dinner soon eclipsed the afternoon’s advance.
We jettisoned from there to dress up for the Retro-Dance.
I put on my Canaveral Cape, Moon Boots, and Turbo-Pack
and flew over the dance floor trailing moon dust from my back.
We toasted Mars-mallows on sticks before going to bed.
Next year I’ll tell my students, so that they can come instead!
vs.
15-unsustainable
The Magnificent Ford
by Karyn Linnell
On the high diving board, The Magnificent Ford, prepares to perform his stunt.
Below on the stage, a water tank in a cage. In the cage, tigers growl and grunt.
In the white spotlight, his straight jacket tight, he steps off and falls to his doom.
Wrapped tight in chains, he twists and strains, as he sinks in his watery tomb.
The water churns, as Ford writhes and turns, and strives to defy certain death.
Cruel seconds count the unsustainable amount of time he’s been holding his breath.
Once foaming with violence, the water’s still silence fills the crowd with great fear.
It’s been much too long. All hope is now gone that Ford will ever appear.
Then..something’s afloat! Could it be his white coat? But still no sign of the man.
Then with great derring-do, all at once he bursts through, as only the gallant Ford can!
Ford was soaked but alive from that perilous dive. The crowd was greatly astounded.
But though free from the chains, the steel cage remains: Ford was still, by tigers, surrounded.
Though fiercely they glowered, Ford was no coward. He dropped down from the tank’s ledge.
He’d be no tiger’s snack! But on each tiger’s back, he walked till he reached the cage edge.
Ford showed his ability and climbed with agility, moving deftly without pause.
He leapt out over the cage, and stepped onto the stage, as the crowd stood in thunderous applause!
15-unsustainable (Karyn Linnell) wins the tiebreaker (weighting vote by # of students per classroom): 262-231.
