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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:
7-espouse
Loaded Verses at Dawn
By Susan Taylor Brown
Beware the skirmish just begun, poetic lines are drawn,
my dictionary and thesaurus whimper on the lawn.
Broken pencils surround my bed, red ink stains all the sheets,
I need to channel Dr. Seuss or Silverstein or Keats.
My garbage bucket overflows with pithy paper bits,
while bloody blisters fill my hands like rows of zombie zits.
For the poetry I espouse I’ll make myself the clown,
I’ll wrestle any word you want and take that big wolf down.
vs.
10-asymmetric
A Perfect Pair
By Allan Wolf
My feet are asymmetric, so
no pair of shoes will ever fit.
The left one is a bit too tight.
The right has room to spare.
By miracle genetic, though,
my sister’s just the opposite.
We may be asymmetric
but we make two perfect pairs.
7-espouse vs. 10-asymmetric
- 7-espouse (Susan Taylor Brown) (62%, 149 Votes)
- 10-asymmetric (Allan Wolf) (38%, 90 Votes)
Total Voters: 239
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