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The Poets’ Challenge: Each poet is assigned a single word based on their bracket seed, ranging from 1 (intuitive) to 16 (seemingly impossible). Poets must write a kid-appropriate poem using the prompted word in under 36 hours. Once both final poems have been received, they will be pasted into the body of this post, and then the reader poll will be open for voting.
Voter Instructions: Read each poem as many times as you’d like. Then use the poll to express your preference. Votes are counted in real time and cannot be changed once entered. As a guideline for voting, consider the criteria on which the contestants on the cooking show “Chopped” are evaluated: presentation, taste, and creativity. Translated roughly into poetry terms, presentation might include technical aspects such as meter, rhyme, form/shape, etc.; taste might be the net effect — did the poem move you to laugh, cry, think, kill, etc.; and creativity might include the poet’s approach toward a certain subject, image evocation, clever wordplay, etc.
“This is awesome, where can I find more?”: All results and scheduled matchups, including a glance at the round-by-round writing windows and voting windows, are visible from the Live Scoreboard page. In addition, results will be tweeted from @edecaria as they become final.
Here are the poems:
*serendipity
The Money Tree
by Debbie LaCroix
My Aunt Seren Dipity
Gave to me a money tree.
I planted the tree and watched it grow
And waited for the money to show.
Nothing, nothing. Then one day
Lemons grew on a proud bouquet.
But still, no money. Nothing to pay.
My friend saw the lemon on my proud bouquet
“It’s perfect! I want it!” he had to say.
I pulled one off the branch to share
And then my mind became aware.
It is a money tree,
Look, you see.
We picked our harvest, then made a sign
And watched as they came and formed a line.
Serendipity brought me a money tree.
Lemonade! Lemonade! Two for a buck fifty-three!
Thank you Aunt Seren Dipity.
vs.
*pandemonium
The Poetry Games
by Greg Pincus
This year the arena is packed to the rafters
With fans cheering loudly for favorite word crafters.
We all have our heroes. We call out their names.
We root and we hoot at the Poetry Games.
Our friends tell us stories of tourneys gone by
When last second sonnets would make the crowds cry.
When two well-versed poets both wrote clerihew…
When strong double dactyls defeated haiku.
Now, this year we listen and hear poets score
With assonance, consonance, slant rhyme and more.
We sigh for a stanza that sends our souls soaring.
We hide as the similes fall like rain pouring.
Crowd favorites emerge from the tales that they tell
In free verse, in ballad, and in villanelle.
A triolet sends one opponent to doom.
Another one drops to a perfect pantoum.
Soon only two stand. We all watch them fight on.
Nobody leaves as they write until dawn.
Then they lay down their pens in this battle of brains…
And a winner is named! Pandemonium reigns!
These Games are a fiction, though here’s what is real:
The power of poems to make us all feel.
Poetry speaks of the world as we know it,
So celebrate words, and go cheer for a poet.
VOTE NOW!
*serendipity vs. *pandemonium: Which Poem Did You Prefer?
- *serendipity (Debbie LaCroix) (51%, 305 Votes)
- *pandemonium (Greg Pincus) (49%, 291 Votes)
Total Voters: 595
Loading ...GET OUT THE VOTE.
The average pairing in Round 1 generated 154 votes.
The average pairing in Round 2 generated 178 votes.
The average pairing in Round 3 generated 224 votes.
The average pairing in Round 4 generated 354 votes.
A nice trend!
Use the share buttons below and mention the madness wherever you go so that these poems reach more kids! And remember, encourage voting on BOTH of the Final Four matchups, not just this one!
