Pop-Up Poetry Competition

Every week in the kidlitosphere, dozens of poets and poetry aficionados gather to share their latest poems, inspirations, interviews, reviews, news, and more. It so happens that I am hosting the gathering this week here at Think Kid, Think. Well, one thing led to another, and yada yada yada, it’s time for a pop-up March Madness-style poetry competition!

Similar to the official March Madness Poetry tournament (codename: #MMPoetry) that I hosted earlier this year, today’s pop-up contests will pit poems against each other in pairs, but this time all of the poems come from this week’s rich pool of Poetry Friday originals. None of these poets had any idea this was going to happen when they woke up this morning! (And neither did I.)

As a reader, you have three simple jobs: 1) read each pair of poems as many times as you’d like, 2) vote for your favorite in each pair before the clock runs out, and 3) SHARE THIS PAGE with your family/friends/followers so that they too can enjoy these great poems! Just click the share buttons at the bottom of this post or send the link via e-mail. One thing that we learned back in March is that kids LOVE to participate in this type of thing, so if you are a teacher or librarian or parent, this would make a great surprise 10-minute activity for your kids.

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Here are the poems. Use the poll below each pairing to express your preference. Votes are counted in real time and cannot be changed once entered. Consider the following three criteria when you vote: presentation, creativity, and effect. Presentation might include technical aspects such as meter, rhyme, form/shape, etc.; creativity might include the poet’s approach toward a certain subject, image evocation, clever wordplay, etc.; and effect might be whether the poem moved you to laugh, cry, think, scream, etc.

Group A
My Cousin Chats with Chipmunks
by Samuel Kent

My cousin chats with chipmunks.
He utters words to cows.
He’ll jabber with a gibbon
and shares the cat’s meows.

He’ll chatter with chimpanzees,
or verbalize with dogs.
He’s eloquent with emus,
and chews the fat with frogs.

He lectures lines of llamas.
He’ll yack with any sloth.
With gnus he’ll choose to gossip.
He’ll mumble at a moth.

Although he speaks to creatures,
I find it most absurd
that when it comes to people
he’s never said a word.

vs.

It’s a bit of a laugh,
in the bath
by Matt Goodfellow

It’s a bit of a laugh,
in the bath

there’s bubbles and squeaks
when I slide on both cheeks

there’s soapy-white pearls
in my undersea world

there’s toes in the tap
and a warm flannel slap

there’s wrinkly skin
and shampoo on the chin

there’s wishing and washing
and splishing and sploshing

there’s dancing about
when it’s time to get out

it’s a bit of a laugh,
in the bath

VOTE NOW!

 

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Group B
Grandmother Rising
by Sally Thomas

She raised the window, heard the sycamore
Breathing darkness, cool invisible strands
Of air that seemed to lift her by her hands,
Stand her, turn her, loose her pinned-up hair,

Slip her through the screen. The blue wind bore
Her wingless body over fields and ponds
Till, skimming chimneys, clotheslines, raveled ends
Of cedar woods, she came to where the shore

Bared its one white shoulder. There, the moon
Drew a thumbnail-line as though to trace
A road where the sea pushed back the land.

Leaving her yellow nightgown on the sand,
Her image in the water’s wrinkled face,
She waved like drying laundry and was gone.

vs.

When The Moon Is There
by Renée LaTulippe

When the moon is there,
at half past six tonight,
we’ll sit out in the garden
to watch the fading light.

And when the moon is there,
we’ll have a bite to eat;
a slice of bread, a glass of milk,
and maybe something sweet.

And when the moon is there,
when it looks so small and far,
we’ll gather at the window
to name the brightest star.

You’ll stare up to the heavens,
your eyes so round and bright—
and when the moon is there,
I’ll kiss you all goodnight.

VOTE NOW!

 

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Group C
First Time for Everything
by Matt Forrest Esenwine

One cool October afternoon
I lay down in the grass
And watched the falling leaves of red
And gold and orange pass.

It must have been quite comfortable,
The sun and autumn breeze;
I closed my eyes and fell asleep
Beneath some maple trees.

When I awoke, I was amazed –
I could not see the sky!
A mound of leaves had covered me
Completely, three feet high.

Well, I must say, I’ve jumped in leaves
A hundred times or more,
But never had a pile of them
Jump onto me before.

vs.

Instrumental
by Mary Lee Hahn

Startled, I silence my alarm
Get up and feed the cat
Turn off the porch lights
Turn up the heat
Fill the teakettle and light the burner
Check email
Decide on cereal for breakfast

And still
I cannot for the life of me
Decipher the phrase that was in my head
Just before the alarm went off:

This is the kind of test with mandolins in it.

VOTE NOW!

 

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Group D
Melancholy Haiku for Autumn
by Andromeda Jazmon Sibley

three rakes; one in use
on the tide of fallen leaves
another leaf falls

vs.

Etto’s Voice
by Greg Pincus

Etto had the deepest voice.
He boomed out his words, and it wasn’t a choice.
So when he tried singing as high as a bird,
“False Etto!” was yelled…
And we got a new word.

VOTE NOW!