Weekly Contest Results 10/2/17

This is my fault entirely because I did not recruit a second sub judge, but we only have votes/comments from 3 full time judges and 1 sub judge this week. A couple of the mods are/were out of town, including myself. Alas, here we are! Thank you so much to our judges who have committed to serving full terms, and to the mod who subbed in as a 4th judge this week. It's getting harder to recruit judges and to keep them for their full terms, so to those who have served and are currently serving, you have my extreme gratitude. Back to the contest at hand, we have two clear winners: free verse and ddavidd. The third poet to grace the front page this week is Valiantpenguin, whose poem won the three-way tie-break with Aries Rising and ddavidd (a second poem by ddavidd to garner points this week). Congratulations to all! Very well done.
-Jane

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WINNERS:
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My soul
by free verse
7 + 7 + 4 = 18

"A beautifully worded piece and I love the beautiful tone too. Simply an enchanting write, full of poetic beauty." (7)

"I am IN LOVE with the softness and delicate way you have placed these words, not to mention the effortless way you have painted these images on a canvas.

I always like when poets experiment with punctuation or add their own breaks for emphasis. Likewise, I thought it was neat to do the outward parentheses to signify the birth of life, and then inward to signify death.

There's also that fascinating concept of the cycle of life, giving and taking, and how we thrive off of each other.

I do have a few, simple suggestions that are of course up to you as the author. In the first stanza, I feel like 'shall I give birth to the sun' would be more eloquent than 'should'. In the second stanza, I did have to read several times over. The three -ing words right after another could be shortened perhaps? It feels a bit too wordy. In the third stanza, I feel it would be less awkward to say 'how about' instead of 'what about'.

Beautiful write!" (7)

"The beauty in this piece is very serene alongside the imagery, the piece itself just flows and is so smooth to read especially aloud. This is done so delicately even if a little sad in my opinion." (4)

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Lonely Eve
by ddavidd
10 + 4 = 14

"I am not certain if your piece is referencing the biblical characters of Adam and Eve, but it is something that I pondered, especially since I had never exclusively explored Eve's perspective. We are told that Eve, the first woman, is lonely and so God creates a man to be her companion. To me, it is almost this inevitable sense of doom. Eve is tempted then shares that temptation.

But you pen something quite unique, almost this sense of Eve knowing and having far greater expectations than others could ever set for her. The fact that this man does not "put all of himself" in his lips, as if he only gives himself in various degrees, he gives partially but never his full self. Never with his whole heart and passion.

Eve is strong, yet knowing your companion is not there in the midst of darkness, that his presence is somewhat shallow or not full committed, that's troubling...

I did have to google search 'coruscation' which I'm glad I did and I thank you, after all it immerses me even more into the poem when I can take the time to learn more through words I may have never heard of. I find it interesting and a well-chosen word, it seems so carefully picked instead of just saying 'gleam' or 'flash' or 'flicker'. There's more of a heaviness here...

Well done with the emotion and depth in this, that forlorn feeling that doesn't just go away." (10)

"This was richly worded, a gripping read that explores well the feelings of a woman towards her significant other when love is lost. Brilliant imagery, it’s written in an expert hand from start to finish." (4)

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Ocean
by Valiantpenguin
10

"An ocean is a scary thing and a mighty thing. They hold so many perils, many have been lost to their depths and many more will follow.

They are also places of tranquility and beauty. A sunny day with no wind would make their surface seem like glass.
A day true sailors would despise for they require the wind.

They hold so many things of beauty and they hold so many things that would make the hardiest and strongest of men wet themselves.

The deepest part of our seas/oceans is called Challenger Deep. It is close to 11,000 feet at its deepest point. Almost seven miles at a quick guess.

It is still not as deep or as impressive as your words.

Whoever your sea may be I hope you are fully immersed in them and that you float together. Thank you for the imagery in this poem and the beauty within.

A perfect (10) well done." (10)

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HONORABLE MENTIONS:
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Mimicking Nothingness
by ddavidd

"The title is amazing by itself! A stunning write; explorative and deep. This tackles an interesting subject and is a great pleasure to read. Great work." (10)

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Dying in stages
by Aries Rising

"At first I thought this was going to be about being terminally ill because of the title and then when I read on I thought out loud "this is misleading" then I reread the whole thing at least thrice and thought to myself no this isn't misleading at all because love or should I say lack thereof can sometimes make us feel undernourished and therefore kill us off slowly as it breaks our hearts then I realized what Craig had actually meant with the title that the relationship he speaks of here is "dying in stages" I then read this a further time and wondered how many people this could resonate with or whether it was just my bad experiences that made it resonate so much with me anyway I really enjoyed this piece and the rhyming is spot on. Thanks for feeling you could share this here as I feel this is most certainly raw, honest and personal" (10)

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How Joyous It Would Be
by Mark

"Here we have yet another astounding piece by Mark one that oozes with his love for a special person and a longing that this person would feel the same and he gets his happy ending. Everything about this just flows perfectly, the words, the beat of the piece and the rhyming." (7)

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Romance of Pen and Paper
by Meena Krish

"I found this to be an inviting and enticing write by Meena,

The subject matter and the way it is formed combine to work fantastically and makes me really wonder if there is a deeper meaning.

I suspect there may be and it will take a better analyst than I to fathom exactly what that may be, but Sometimes things seem evident and I'm sure we all hope this is the case.

If this is simply love of Pen and paper, then In your hands may it long continue.

Beautiful poem." (7)

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Alternate Reality
by Mr Darcy

"Sometimes I read a poem and think this sounds familiar. Not familiar as in I have read it before. Familiarity of thought.

This poem talks. It talks about knowing someone and loving them. It talks about change. A thing that is inevitable and sometimes we are not prepared or ready for such a thing.

But there is also the rain! Sometimes that downpour has a cleansing effect and the branch that slaps you in the face may be the one to cling to if the rain does not cease.

This is a truly resonating poem and I think many will agree a well deserved nomination and worthy of my vote.

Thank you." (4)

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Own
by lyrical madness

"Just one suggestion. In the first stanza, fourth line: 'your' should be 'you're'.

There is a lot of wisdom that can be found in your words, and this piece reminded me of my own journey that I cannot tie someone down to love. Even if I am willing and ready to give my love, that person may not be, and having to force that can enter into dangerous territory.

I liked the simple phrases you used yet the deeper meaning behind them, especially in contemplating how free nature is, yet we as humans try to control and measure it for our own use. We cannot own what is not ours. Just like this land is not ours to claim, we cannot enslave others for our own gain and confidence.

Poignant piece!" (4)

I am honored. Thank you so much judges, thank you Jane, and special thanks to Andrea, Hellon, and Mr. Darcy for nominating me.

love
ddavidd

Congratulations all winners and HMs! Thanks Milly for nominating! A special thanks to Kitty.

Hello all.

Thank you mods and judges. We are lucky to benefit from your time and dedication. *whoops and claps raucously*

Thanks Ben for nominating me. Well done to the winners and fellow HM's

Congratulations to all the front page winners and HM's! Stellar all around - Jane thank you for hosting and always thank you judge's for your tireless time you put in each week making the hard choices.

Sorry for my slow response it's kinda been one of those days,

Firstly thank you to our Mods for the honest opening. (Do you all ride vespas by the way?) Sorry personal joke inside my head!

Anyway as always we all salute you. I think we realise the organisation of this must be a headache.

To our winners "whoopitiedoda" (ya's can have that word it means wow but better).

There has been so many things both nominated and not, that I've found to be inspiring, uplifting and sometimes crushing.

To all HM's, again bloody brilliant works peeps.

To Em thank you for your stealth nomination of my poem (sneaky bugger) and to whoever voted thank you also. I didn't even realise it had been voted upon until reading our judges comment.

Ben! thank you also for pitching I light a light into the melee.

Love you nut jobs.

Peace out

Craig

Congratulations to all winners, HM recipients and nominees :-)
Thanks to all those behind the scenes for keeping it going and giving up your precious free time to do so ... it's great ... love it! ;-)

Kitty =^.^=

Congratulations winners and HMs! We have really amazing pieces this week. Thank you Jane for hosting. Thank you judges and mods you are always appreciated. :-)

Congratulations to the front page Winners and HM's!
Thank you Dagmar for the nomination and thank you to the
judge who commented on my write :)

Thank you MA for hosting and thank you judges for all your time!

Jamie (our very own beautiful soul), this win is just because of you.
Thank you so much for the nomination.
I never got the chance to talk with you, but you are a beautiful soul.
You nominated my poem from your heart and the comment you gave really boosted me to write much much better.
Jamie like everyone else, I want to request you please come back as soon as possible.
We all miss you, brother.

Congratulations to everyone and thanks to judges for choosing this poem for the front page and even more thanks for the suggestions. I am going to make the changes. How is better than what.

Thanks to mods too for hosting these weekly contest.

And thanks to our senior pnq members.
They are and will always be an inspiration for me and many other in the future.

I just hope I didn't forget anyone.

Jane thank you for hosting and don't blame yourself we know how much you (and other mods) do behind the scenes and that you all have your own life's to lead so sometimes even if you know you need to do something it slips your minds anyway I digress....

Well done and congratulations to the three front page winners
Well done and congratulations to all who received an Hm
Well done to those who were nominated.

Thank you to all the judges for taking the time to read through every poem that is nominated in your own time and also
a thank you to those people who nominated such wonderful poetry too because without you guys alongside the mods and judges this competition would not be running and I say this as not everyone votes who are able to (as was noted on the suggestions thread by Mark)

Take care guys and gals and here's to another fab week of glorious poetry

Thank you. I really needed a little time to reflect on things, i realized after talking to my therapist that this site is my home and i need it more than it needs me. Hell i didn't even write anything while i was gone, but as soon as i come back i write. Go figure. But i am glad your poem won. It IS excellent and one of the best poems I've read in a long time.