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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.
- Mark the poem you like best by clicking the circle next to its name.
- Press the “Vote” button to record your vote.
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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-slough
Field Trip to the Museum
by Debbie LaCroix
I look at Lee. Lee looks at me.
“I’ll race you to the top of that cardboard tree.”
“You’re on,” he says. “I’m much too fast!”
“You think?” I say. “Nope, you won’t last.”
I slough my coat and climb the trunk.
Then snap, I hold a jagged hunk.
We sway, we swoon, the class goes scram.
And now we’re banned… from that museum.
vs.
13-galvanize
The Galvanator
by J. J. Close
The Terminator has a cousin, twice removed and not related,
who is clearly more superior with powers underrated.
With galvanizing muscles and a galvanizing grin,
he can galvanize a coat of carbonate upon your skin!
With zinc infused to molecules of oxygen and air,
this galvanizing power keeps you perfect and in care.
I tell you, friend, this process is complete and total must,
for without it, we’d be worse for wear… and all of us would rust!
