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#MMPoetry 2013: Round 2 Flight 2 Words Unveiled

Congratulations to the other 16 authletes who emerged as winners in last night’s polls.

They now move on to Round 2, which starts … NOW! Here are our Round 2, Flight 2 matchups. Individual matchup pages will be posted at a later time.

6-speculate (Laura Shovan)
vs.
3-rigged (Robyn Hood Black)

7-irritation (Marcus Ewert)
vs.
15-variables (Eric Ode)

1-mob (Victoria Warneck)
vs.
9-contraction (Ken Slesarik)

5-casing (April Halprin Wayland)
vs.
4-mutual (Buffy Silverman)

6-finagle (Cheryl Lawton Malone)
vs.
14-pragmatic (Lissa Clouser)

7-jostle (Susan Taylor Brown)
vs.
15-euphemism (J. J. Close)

16-deleterious (William Peery)
vs.
9-fathom (Samuel W. Kent)

12-amicable (Penny Klostermann)
vs.
4-scrappy (Callie C. Miller)

Enjoy the madness …

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March 16th, 2013 | Tags: , , | Category: MMPoetry2013
  • http://www.robynhoodblack.com Robyn Hood Black

    Laura – I was hoping not to have to go up against you. I speculate that this is rigged.

  • http://www.thinkkidthink.com Ed DeCaria

    Too bad you can’t finagle your way out of it …

  • http://susantaylorbrown.com Susan Taylor Brown

    Oh no, Robyn vs Laura? I was looking forward to lots more poems from both of them.

    Wah!!!

  • http://www.authoramok.com Laura Shovan

    Robyn, knowing what an amazing poet you are is pushing me to bring my A game. Mutual excellence!

  • http://kraftyellenwrites.com Kathy Ellen Davis

    I’m looking forward to finagle, scrappy, and jostle :)

  • http://quidforquill.wordpress.com Lissa Clouser

    Pragmatic against finagle? Oh dear heavens…

  • http://julielarios.blogspot.com Julie Larios

    I know I’m in a perpetual fog about the whole seed thing, and I DO understand your nice chart, Ed, that shows 1-16 getting progressively harder. But when I vote I totally don’t get why certain people are seeded low and others are seeded high. In basketball, what’s the seed number correspond to?

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com Ed DeCaria

      In basketball, the seed number reflects the quality of the team itself. So the best teams are #1 seeds and the not-as-good teams are #16 (but they’re still happy to be playing in the tournament!).

      I did not want to get into the business of ranking poets (nor do I think most poets want to be in the business of being ranked by me!), so I thought it made more sense to create a challenge that seeded the WORDS and then assigned poets to those seeds randomly. The seed of each word is only an indicator of difficulty for the authletes and voters. It has no direct impact on voting.

      Does that help???

  • http://i.droo.it Samuel Kent

    Oh this is going to be a lot of fun!

  • http://i.droo.it Samuel Kent

    I’m not that pressure to anybody, but I think I’ve already got a pretty good poem written!

  • http://i.droo.it Samuel Kent

    Forgive my typos in my above comments. I’m on vacation and I’m having to use speech to text on my phone.

  • http://katswhiskers.wordpress.com KatApel

    I may be odd, but I’ve gotta admit that sometimes the higher seed words inspire me more – though I’ve also gotta say, that RoundOne 2013 had some very difficult words that I’d hate to have had to work with! (And I’m really enjoying being on the sidelines this year. :P )

  • Josh Close

    “Euphemism”

    I hope you’re all prepared for what you’ll likely be getting from this word…

    It’s not my fault… I didn’t choose the word!

    But, I have a feeling kids will like it.

  • http://susantaylorbrown.com Susan Taylor Brown

    I am still staring at a blank page but I am off for a day of lure coursing and beach running with a pack of big dogs so I’m thinking there will be lots of jostling to inspire me. Just not much time to write it when I get home.

  • http://www.NoWaterRiver.com Renee LaTulippe (@ReneeMLaTulippe)

    Laura vs. Robyn – nooooo! On the upside, that should be a good match-up. :) And I agree with Kat Apel – those harder words are inspiring for the most part.

  • http://www.NoWaterRiver.com Renee LaTulippe (@ReneeMLaTulippe)

    Good luck to everyone on the “other” side of the bracket!

  • http://www.pennyklostermann.com Penny Klostermann

    Why is amicable sounding so unfriendly???? LOL

  • http://www.allanwolf.com Allan Wolf

    Marcus Ewert vs Eric Ode? I’ll be at the local pub watching that one on the big-screen TV for sure.

  • Cheryl Lawton Malone

    hey that’s my word!

  • Cheryl Lawton Malone

    I mean finagle – that’s my word

  • http://www.ericode.com Eric Ode

    I’d love to join you, Allan! Save me a Guinness!

  • Marcus Ewert

    Hey Ed dear-
    Eric Ode and I (who play together nicely) are doublechecking- are our poems due by 10 am Monday, Central time. That’s what i thought- and that’s what I told him- but I don’t want to tell him the wrong thing! (That wouldn’t look good, for starters! “Oh, yeah, Eric- our poems aren’t due till FRIDAY.”)

    Also- i sent you my poem earlier this morning- I haven’t gotten a confirmation letter – but I’m trusting it’s just an action packed day //Mercury is still retrograde for about another hour…

    M

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com Ed DeCaria

      Oops. Missed this. Round 2 Flight 2 poems are due 9am Monday. Most have already submitted! (You guys are truly amazing.)

  • http://www.ericode.com Eric Ode

    In the interest of fairness and good sportsmanship, I must come clean. My wife is right now making chocolate chip cookies. Certainly this creates an uneven playing field and is against the National Poetry Committee’s anti-cookie policy.

  • Marcus Ewert

    AHEM!
    Eric “Livestrong” Ode is acting in FLAGRANT DISREGARD of our “no performance-enhancing substances” policy!!!
    I for out am shocked and appalled.

    M

  • Marcus Ewert

    *I for one

    (curse this no editing of comments business!)

  • bill

    Well, I have thirteen or fourteen poems in my files using “deleterious”. Oh, the agony of which I shall choose. I believe Kent is spent. I don’t fathom him moving on, but there is always next year;)

  • http://i.droo.it Samuel Kent

    Oh, I wouldn’t count me out just yet…

  • http://i.droo.it Samuel Kent

    But, “In my files?” Do you mean that you’re not intending to use a brand new poEm?

  • Carrie Finison

    I think Bill is not answering because he is feverishly writing the 13-14 poems he referenced above. :-)

  • Josh Close

    haha I think he was being facetious

  • Carrie Finison

    Ed, it’s clear that you’ve thought so deeply about this. I think the seeding of the words is a brilliant idea, and makes the tournament really fun. I love seeing what people can do with the difficult words. However, by keeping poets assigned to the same seed/level throughout the tournament, doesn’t that, in effect, seed the poets too? It seems to me that if the seeds were reassigned each round, that would be a more level playing field. Or…not?

    • http://www.thinkkidthink.com Ed DeCaria

      Carrie, re-seeding would make it more level for a given authlete as he/she progresses through the tournament, but it will be much more difficult to follow. Within the bracket, the seeds have a very specific arrangement.

      Imagine it blank with nothing but numbers — no names. The winner of 1-vs-16 must face the winner of 8-vs-9 in Round 2. So using the Humor bracket as an example, Renée won as a 16-seed and Kai won as a 9-seed. So how to re-seed?

      On one hand, you could say that 16 still faces 9 but that all Round 1 winners get shifted around all over the place into parts of the bracket randomly. But that’s awkward when you look at the “path” of the bracket.

      The other option is that you leave the authletes on their path (i.e., Renée and Kai must face each other in Round 2), but that you then shift the numbered seeds all over the place. Either way, it is hard to follow.

      The cleanest and fairest way is how I’m doing it. Now, some will argue that it is unfair to Renée that she must write using a 16-seed word throughout the 2013 tournament. I concede that that OUTCOME may be unfair, but the PROCESS (100% randomization) used to assign Renée to her 16-seed this year was, by definition and design, fair.

      Over time, seed assignments to authletes statistically must even out. Last year, random chance awarded Renée a 3-seed. Next year? Who knows?!?! Does that mean that the poor luck of authletes like Eric Ode and Dave Crawley (both 13’s last year and 15’s this year) will end soon? Not necessarily — they could be wallowing in double digits for decades. But they have an equal chance of landing a 1-4 seed as they do another 13-16 seed.

      It all comes down to how long I leave my finger on that button in mid-February …

  • http://julielarios.blogspot.com Julie Larios

    Ah – random assignment of seeds. I finally GET IT! Thanks, Ed – I can now settle in for the duration.

  • Josh Close

    Maybe I’m weird, but I’m happy with the 15 seed!

    I’ll voluntarily take a 15 seed next year as well.

    Maybe have a seed draft – probably be more work though. Have the first eliminated this year get first pick at seeds next year if they participate in tourney again, in order of least votes received. Then second round eliminations. Then newcomers choose. Then 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th round. Champion with leftover seed :)

    I don’t know… an idea. Probably too much work, haha.

  • http://www.thinkkidthink.com Ed DeCaria

    Actually the idea of “drafting” seeds is something I’ve been thinking about in a broader context. Not ready to share yet, but keep the ideas coming …

  • Josh Close

    Yeah, or simply randomize draft order I suppose. Didn’t think of that in last post.

  • Carrie Finison

    See? I knew you had given this a lot of deep thought. :-) Thanks for the explanation. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what that fickle finger of fate gives me next year…

  • http://susantaylorbrown.com Susan Taylor Brown

    Whatever you come up with Ed, we will all love the chance to play along. It’s a super challenge and I love every minute of it, even while I pace around the house whining that I have no idea what to write about next. :)

  • http://www.thinkkidthink.com Ed DeCaria

    FYI: I screened a comment that was made on this thread so as to not make it a bigger deal than it needs to be, but if ANYONE is wondering, I am 100.00% certain that Bill was JOKING about having 13-14 poems in his files using “deleterious” and he just posted his favorite among them. Maybe that proposed \sartalics\ font is a good idea after all (sartalics = sarcasm + italics = reverse direction italics to signify when sarcasm is being used in writing, where it is often misinterpreted).

    More constructively, YES this competition requires that authletes write NEW poems using their assigned words. They cannot just reach back into their archives to pull one out. I would consider that to be cheating, and I think any authlete would consider it that, too.

  • http://www.allanwolf.com Allan Wolf

    It only took two years for the seedy underbelly of MMP to show itself. Eric Ode admits to purchasing rhyme-enhancing Chocolate Chip Cookies from Marcus Ewert. (Looking back it makes perfect sense, how could a poet possibly be named Ode without some sort of “boost?”) Not only that, but over the winter dozens of poems using the word “deleterious” went unaccounted for during the DEA’s “limericks for lucre” program, a program meant to keep really hard words out of the hands of children’s poets. Plus I hear that Ed DeCaria has traded in his Ford Pinto for a new VW Jetta. Has he been playing fast and loose with the so-called-seed-number-randomization button? Where will it end? Is there no depth to which poets will not sink in order to have their name’s permanently etched in the faux brass placard at the base of the coveted Thinkier?

  • Cara Slavens

    Cookies! That’s the secret. I went for the cake. I’m thinking “variables” is the perfect word for another “ode” to mathematics.