This one I think is my new favorite from you. I nominated it and I truly think this can win. My only nitpick as always is the capital letter at the beginning of each stanza. It bugs me and to me takes away the flow but it's not huge lol. Just my OCD xD. Anyways.

I really loved the first line it is really powerful and sucks the reader in. The comparison of flowers and poetryis perfect. They both hold a unique beauty in their own way :). It seems like this person or you are talking about being a free spirit. And nature and writing really do free your soul. I liked how you did 2 stanzas too. One when you were younger and one when you older. And in the second half it seems like you have fallen away from all the things you used to love. I understandabout bbeing a perfectionist. It's hard whenyour mind is cluttered. Life grows more cold as you grow older. Anyway the imagery and mmetaphors here are stunning and I hope you win. <3

I so much enjoyed this poem in the contest, you done well with your prompt, and you really kept the poem together and did not stray away into non-relevant places.

I feel you really captured the true idea of perfectionist here, that even something that does seem perfect, will never be good enough, we always want it more perfect.

I loved your title, and the way you compared your old writes and styles to your newly skilled writing and abilities, and intentions within poetry.

Interesting read, well done

I was writing you a comment this morning via my ipod. The battery was low and I didn't realized it. I lost it. But any who, I like what you did with this poem. I mean the way you divided how you used to write... to how you now write.

Before you used to write freely, without any boundaries. You just let go and felt free. You didn't care whether the poem was "perfect" per se. It was perfect to you, regardless of how it was written. But eventually, something change, "the ambition" grew. I can only wonder what the ambition is?

I think being a perfectionist doesn't hurt so long as the perfectionist is down to earth, realistic... Being a perfectionist can be a good trait to a certain degree, that is. Everything should have some sort of balance.

I like the first stanza, however, in this line:

"I would pick words like flowers "

It may sound better if you say:

I picked words like I would pick Flowers

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Then on this one:

"Which I would wear as my crown"

^ I think it would sound better if you just said, "which I wore as my crown." The "would" sounds like a filler to me.

As I danced in sunlight,
Grass kissing my naked feet

^ these two lines, ( at least to me) sound like they are not connecting very well in the first stanza. They add imagery but when I read them, they made the flow of the poem kind rocky.

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Overall for stanza one:

I was born a poet
And, as a young child,
I picked words like I would pick flowers
Contorting them, absentmindedly
Into little woven chaplets
Of pinks, blues, and yellows
Which I wore as my crown,
With grass kissing my naked feet
as I danced in sunlight.

What do you think about what I did with the last two lines? Do they sound smoother when you read them? Or not?

As far as the second stanza, I would also suggest using a little more of punctuation. Just to add more clarity to the poem.

Above all, it was good. Continue writing but write in which ever way it is that you enjoy writing the most.

Thank you for participating in the contest :)