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Voter Instructions:
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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:
6-speculate
A Bargain
By Laura Shovan
At dinnertime, I speculate about the green stuff on my plate.
This gloppy mess, was it alive? Could it be spinach, kale, endive,
or maybe radioactive peas floating on a zombie’s sneeze?
Its pungent smell is deleterious enough to make my brain delirious,
but I will eat the thing I hate, if you’ll just let me stay up late.
vs.
3-rigged
Oil and Water
By Robyn Hood Black
A bottlenose dolphin said to her calf,
“Let’s go where the Gulf’s not so deep.
We’ll visit our friends from pods closer in
and find a soft current for sleep.”
The calf after swimming whistled and squeaked,
“The sandy floor here is all digged –
This playground’s a 10 with its jungle gym!”
“Not quite,” said his mom. “It’s been rigged.”
6-speculate vs. 3-rigged: Which Poem Did You Prefer?
- 6-speculate (Laura Shovan) (65%, 125 Votes)
- 3-rigged (Robyn Hood Black) (35%, 68 Votes)
Total Voters: 193

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