Phoenix Rising Contest And the Winner Is...........

Phoenix Rising just completed a contest, write a poem about a trip to the circus and use the words CLOWN, TENT, BEARD in your poem. Tough part was to get and keep judges. Had two, one of which was a stand in at the last moment so that is the reason for no comments, just scores from Judge Two. The announced "Prize" was that I would post a topic in this forum for the Winner of the Contest and here is the topic for the Winner as I promised.

Scoring Used:
Points Per Poem (Per judge)
Presentation of assigned subject (Trip to the circus) -10 Points
Use of required words (Clown, Tent, Beard) -10 Points
Keeping verses to a maximum of 6, minimum of 3 - 5 Points
No Spelling Mistakes - 5 Points
Correct Use of Punctuation - 5 Points
Total Maximum Points Per Judge Per Poem - 35 Points

Congratulations goes to our Winner and that is Everlasting (Lucero). Here is her winning entry.

POEM 5
A Child's Trip to the Circus
By Everlasting

In my town - not a city like Rio Verde,
The Circus arrived with January's festival.
Acres of desolated fields were inundated with fragrances-
Popcorn and Churritos; Tortas and taquitos.
That mixture of scents made the event extra special.

Grownups made lines at the Ticket Office,
Children leapfrogged to multitude of fences
while I held my mom's hand. It felt ethical.

Parents caught up with their children.
Tickets and tickets were counted. Lines and lines
were diminished. I was skeptical.
But when I walked into a huge tent, it was celestial.
Animals wore clothes, they performed.
Monkey's drove mini-cars. Clowns laughed out loud.
Everything was conventional.

Elephants walked in circles. Lions were tamed.
Bears were She's wearing dresses, carrying babies
on their paws. It was exceptional
until it became delusional. Bearded women
were boneless. They bended backwards.
They split legs on floors, on opened air.
As per my father, they were contortionist.
To me, the atmosphere seemed extraterrestrial.

Noises everywhere. Neon Lights anywhere.
Laughter - all over, but just like the Circus,
Everything ended in my memory.

JUDGE ONE
This poem seems to take a "small town" from the setup of the circus, what goes on during the circus and then it ends and is left to their memory. When you read this, as I think we should do with all poems, is to relax and let the writer pull us into the scene, the circus and relive with them the feelings, images, emotions, the awe felt by youngsters, the long lines, food, the acts, the whole circus. If a writer can accomplish that I feel they have more than done a very good job and this writer accomplished it as far as I am concerned. I think the writer did a wonderful job with theme.

JUDGE TWO - Per note, no comments

JUDGE ONE POEM 5
Presentation of assigned subject 9
Use of required words 10
Verses 6 maximum, 3 minimum 5
No Spelling Mistakes 5
Correct Use of Punctuation 4
Total Judge One 33

JUDGE TWO POEM 5
Presentation of assigned subject 8
Use of required words 10
Verses 6 maximum, 3 minimum 5
No Spelling Mistakes 5
Correct Use of Punctuation 4
Total Judge Two 32

Combined Judges Scores 65

Lucero congratulations on winning. Your poem was delightful and a joy to read.

Congratulations, Ms. Lucero :-D

Congrats

Thank you Sylvia, Mahal ( D) and Beautiful soul!

It was a fun contest. But also congrats to Mahal for coming up in 2nd place.

Congrats Everlasting for your win..

Congratulations Lucero & to all the other participants...some great poems indeed :)

Congrats, glad this is posted for many to read here!

Nice going, Luce
Go Houston!

^^^^
Poet on the Piano - Congrats, glad this is posted for many to read here!

There really isn't a way to give a prize for a contest other than making comments on the winning poem so I thought maybe this would be a way to honor the winner. Wasn't sure is this was the "place" to post it but did.

Congrats Lucero :)