We are now just nine days away from the start of the March Madness Poetry 2014 tournament! Last year, I counted down to the madness with a one-a-day reveal of my top ten favorite poems from #MMPoetry 2012. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, so I decided to do the same this year. But why did I start on day nine this year instead of day ten? BECAUSE, as it turns out, two of my favorite poems from #MMPoetry 2013 were paired against each other in the same matchup!
Having already narrowly defeated three authletes each, ubertalents Renée M. LaTulippe and Marcus Ewert were seemingly destined to meet each other in the Regional Finals of the Humor Region. They did not disappoint their readers, each bringing their very best to the matchup. Here are the poems that they delivered:
16-manifestation
HAPPY: a pantoum for a perfect day
By Renée M. LaTulippe
What manifestation of happy is this?
Striding outside where the grass greens my feet.
Dragonflies darting in dragony bliss.
Morning and I promenade down the street.
Striding outside, where the grass greens my feet,
I greet swooping bluebirds out-bluing the sky.
Morning and I promenade down the street:
We’re fluff of a milkweed, as soft as a sigh!
I greet swooping bluebirds, out bluing the sky…
“Tick tock!” say the shadows as sun pulls them long.
Like fluff of a milkweed, as soft as a sigh,
afternoon falls to the whip-poor-will’s song.
“Tick tock!” say the shadows as sun pulls them long,
dragonflies darting in dragony bliss.
An afternoon falls to the whip-poor-will’s song—
what manifestation of happy is this!
vs.
7-harbor
The Ex-Mermaid
By Marcus Ewert
She had a tail like knitted gems —
Now sneakers hide her blisters;
A sweatshop girl – she darns and hems —
Unthreaded from her sisters:
Her fearless and wave-racing kin —
Wild girls composed of ocean!
She lost them when she lost her fin,
With a vile gulp of potion.
Adrift on land for seven years,
(She once swam benthic trenches!)
Tonight she treads the human piers,
And something in her wrenches.
She shivers in her winter coat,
(Foam once sufficed to garb her!)
She wonders, “Will I sink or float?”
Apparently everyone who voted was as torn as I was, because Renée’s poem captured just 51% of the vote to Marcus’ 49%, nudging her into the Final Four. Click here to see these poems as they originally appeared in #MMPoetry 2013 along with comments from fans and the authors themselves.
