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 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.
- You can only vote once from a given IP address.
- 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:
8-minutiae
Minor Details, Trivia Equal Minutiae
by Jane Yolen
Minute by minute,
The tick-tock of time
Quite overwhelms me.
A victimless crime
Of passion that fashions
A villain of Fluff.
Working me over?
Minutiae stuff!
Minute by minute
I’ll fight to get done
All of my chores
Till I finish each one.
Homework and housework
And work-work and all–
Small moments of mayhem
A trivial brawl.
vs.
4-buoyant
Before You Ask Me for an Explanation…
by Elizabeth McBride
In science, we talked about floating and sinking
and what “buoyant” means, and it started me thinking…
we could run our own “tests” (my friend Ryan and I),
call it “science,” and play where the creek’s running high
on the way home from school! What a great way to “study”-
throwing things in the water – just me and my buddy!
We tried stones (none would float, but they skipped and they SPLASHED!),
then we tried Ryan’s sandwich he’d sat on and smashed.
Then we blew up the sandwich bag, zipped it real tight
(after adding small rocks so it wasn’t too light),
threw it in – but it caught on a stick in the stream!
And we wanted to free it; you know what I mean?
Well, we’d thrown all we had when I turned round to look –
just as Ryan reached back…and he grabbed my math book!
As it sailed toward the water, I saw my one chance.
I leaped in to save it – and came out with wet pants!
