[click image to view matchup in full screen in a new window.]
The Poets’ Challenge: Each poet is assigned a single word based on their bracket seed, ranging from 1 (intuitive) to 16 (seemingly impossible). Poets must write a kid-appropriate poem using the prompted word in under 36 hours. Once both final poems have been received, they will be pasted into the body of this post, and then the reader poll will be open for voting.
Voter Instructions: Read each poem as many times as you’d like. Then use the poll to express your preference. Votes are counted in real time and cannot be changed once entered. As a guideline for voting, consider the criteria on which the contestants on the cooking show “Chopped” are evaluated: presentation, taste, and creativity. Translated roughly into poetry terms, presentation might include technical aspects such as meter, rhyme, form/shape, etc.; taste might be the net effect — did the poem move you to laugh, cry, think, kill, etc.; and creativity might include the poet’s approach toward a certain subject, image evocation, clever wordplay, etc.
“This is awesome, where can I find more?”: All results and scheduled matchups, including a glance at the round-by-round writing windows and voting windows, are visible from the Live Scoreboard page. In addition, results will be tweeted from @edecaria as they become final.
Here are the poems:
4-wired
Wake Up Call
by Greg Pincus
Earlier this morning
I was droopy, draggy, tired,
Then I drank my daddy’s coffee –
Now I’m wired, wired, wired.
“Do that again,” my father said
(I skittered, jittered, bounded),
“You’ll be like past tense coffee beans –
Grounded, grounded, grounded!”
vs.
13-falsetto
Changing His Tune
by Dave Crawley
A bass-baritone from Loreto,
Reading notes from a brand new libretto,
Flew into a rage
When he fell from the stage.
Alas! He now sings in falsetto.
VOTE NOW!
4-wired vs. 13-falsetto: Which Poem Did You Prefer?
- 4-wired (Greg Pincus) (53%, 239 Votes)
- 13-falsetto (Dave Crawley) (47%, 211 Votes)
Total Voters: 449
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Wow! I knew this head-to-head was going to be a tough call! Nicely done, both.
Enjoying the competition!
Oh, jeez, Dave. Did you have to do that? Couldn’t I have disliked your poem? OK, fine. I don’t like your font. Yeah. That’s it. I don’t. Like. Your. Font. It looks good on mine, however. Slimming, even.
I opened up your entry hoping for mangled meter and ear-jangling “almost-rhymes.” In stead, you give us perfection! Why did you have to go and do that?
These are both terrific. What a lot of fun this is.
THIS! IS! HARD! good stuff! really good stuff! I laughed out loud on both. Gonna have to knit-pick to vote…hmmmm!
Well, I think that’s easy, Pam. Has Loretto EVER produced an opera singer? I mean really… Dave is just making things up! Whereas past tense coffee beans are a common, real-world issue, ripped from today’s grammar book headlines. (OK, fine. I laughed at Dave’s poem, too, and think it’s fabulous. So, so many of the poems are in this first round. It’s great.)
All very clever, but I’m a sucker for grammar jokes!
I voted! Wow, what fun…a great idea for the dreary month of March.
Well done, both! I was worried for you, Greg, when I saw “wired” because it is so overused… put you pulled it off wonderfully! And okay, giggle giggle at Dave’s resulting falsetto.
This was one of the hardest match-ups to decide on. Wonderful contributions, truly. Congratulations to both of you.
Dudes go head to head with laugh-out-loudness! I vote for both of you.
Awesome! Both of you!
Clever poems!
I predict this will be a close-one, folks. Allowing for one of those crowd-pleasing squeaker victories at the buzzer.
Very funny poems. A difficult decision!
Very clever, both. But love the coffee play on words most, most, most.
BOTH of these made me laugh out loud! Three cheers! No, FOUR, so you can share them equally!
Love Dave’s–couldn’t get the meter right on Greg’s–so I think maybe he didn’t either–sorry.
Fantastic Idea! I plan on turning both my students and my own kids on to this competition! They will love it!
Thank you!
That’s what we like to hear, Amy. Spread the word to other teachers, too. We can write all the kids’ poetry we want, but it means nothing if kids don’t read it! THANK YOU! -Ed
I’m all “wired” for poems ;D Great way to spread the love for poems. Keep it coming plse <3
More madness is coming, Mariam. It cannot be stopped!
Ed, this is a whole lot of fun and I think you have something here!! Hope you will do it again next March and can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeve. I have been telling teachers about this, but I fear some are so swamped they do not think they have the time to read all the poems. But I won’t give up. Maybe I can get them more into the Sweet Sixteen round. Love how Mrs. Harvey got her kids on to vote!!! Also loving the sweet surprises these creative/harebrained words are inspiring. Will you leave all the poems up for us teachers to use with our students? I hope so, but promise to give full credit whenever sharing!!! Heidi, love your idea about the birthday poem to use in Kdg in September!!! Maybe there is a March Madness Poetry Anthology in the making on here!
Janet/Anyone Else:
Do you live in/near Chicago?
Do you want your school to be featured on TV avowing its love of poetry?
E-mail me to discuss!
-Ed
What an amazing match-up. Another really tough choice. Great job, guys!
Okay, this is crazy/funny. Although it would make me hyperventilate and collapse to play (or vote. The best part is the repartee!
So much fun! More, Please.
Doesn’t anyone play defense in this game?
Defense is overrated. Kids dig slam dunks.
These are both so funny!! Well done!! I must say though that, working with students, some of whom are ‘wired’, I had go with ‘Wake Up Call’.
Learned of your site via Twitter ~ @Robertleebrewer ..glad he shared!!
It’s like an NBA all-star game, Dave, where defense is not required. Or something like that, but more college basketball-y. We’ll work on the metaphor later….
Both poems were pleasurable. I really enjoyed the child like humor (and surprise) in Dave’s and enjoyed Greg’s narration. This will be close.
More! More! More! This is fun.
Poor 13-falsetto … it gets 50 more votes than any other poem written so far EXCEPT 4-wired! I don’t know what kind of promos you two are running, but I think EVERY pairing should have 500+ votes!
Great run, Greg! Hope I don’t have to face you in the next round. Wait…I won’t have to!
Thanks, Dave. I hate that one of us has to “go home.” Seems so unfair.
This is what this event is all about, and this is why I am drawing the line only between winners and “non-winners”.
These were two great poems. Using 4-wired in a funny way that did not seem tired, and capturing the very essence of 13-falsetto in a five-line limerick. Seriously — great work by both.
If that version of 13-falsetto can get beat, we’re in the midst of a serious (but still silly) competition!
Thanks for joining, Dave — not bad for the last man in! Please do keep coming back!
-Ed
Go Dave!!!
Both poems had something to offer, but wired by coffee so tired me as off key. A bass-baritone, hey? He fell by the way. Fell to the orchestra pit… he must have been lit. Well, so much for my rhyme, but I guess it’ll be some time before I’m hired to prefer “Wired.” Both verses were good, I thought; gosh, what have I wrought!!!
DAVE’S BRAIN’S LIKE A NON-STOP RACE HORSE
GRIT AND GRIST FROM A BOTTOMLESS SOURCE
ONCE HE GETS IN THE THICK OF IT
HE GOES TIL HE’S SICK OF IT
AND HE COMES OUT A WINNER…OF COURSE.
Both such good poems. Dave, it’s a shame that you’re out of the running so early, but I think you couldn’t have lost to a more worthy competitor.
Thanks, Kenn. Greg wrote a great poem. On the bright side, I never would have thougt to add a “falsetto” limerick to my repertoire! Congrats to you for a good poem and a great win! Good luck.
Waiting for Dave’s follow-up, libretti and Jedi.