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’d 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.
- In the Public Vote, anyone may vote, but only one vote is allowed per IP address.
- In the Classroom Vote, you must be registered and logged in to vote.
- Official voting classrooms should read and discuss each poem and then submit one vote as a class.
- Students can then vote again individually from home.
- In the Authlete Vote, you must be a 2015 authlete and logged in to vote.
Things to Consider in Making a Choice:
- How well the poem incorporates the authlete’s assigned word, given its level of difficulty.
- Whether or not the poem adheres to the poem requirements for the contest.
- Precision: structure, meter, rhyme, syntax, etc.
- Personality: creative imagery, language, metaphor, etc.
- Power: makes you laugh, cry, want, sigh, think, dream, wince, scream, etc.
- Plus One: it is a poem you feel drawn to share with another person for whatever reason.
Apply your own criteria as well! For more on the above concepts, check out POEMETRICS™.
Here are the poems:
5-plainclothes what does it mean?
LEAFY SEA DRAGONS – A WISE DISGUISE
By Lill Pluta
Lacy, drifting dragons, deft underwater spies,
dressed in fairy seaweed, a shrewd plainclothes disguise.
Through forests of kelp ribbons, past craggy slabs of stone,
these creatures, named for legends, discreetly glide alone.
They fade when danger threatens; their meals can’t swim away.
Fine leafy costumes cloak them from predator and prey.
vs.
4-sandwiched what does it mean?
Three Dog Night
By Buffy Silverman
A gusting windstorm slammed the door as snow swirled overhead.
The frosty breezes froze my toes and followed me to bed.
I lay there sandwiched by my pups: Bella, Bear, and Bree,
and snuggled in their furry warmth till sleep washed over me.
Someone bellowed! Someone cried! A squeak! A bleat! A moan….
Who was hooting, wailing, whooping? I blinked and heard a groan.
I found no owl, no fox or moose—no wild menagerie.
‘Twas just the roaring, snoring snorts of Bella, Bear, and Bree.
