2019 April 08, Weekly Contest Results

Sometimes the creation process incorporates lamentation. Ben’s allegory of destruction in the midst of supposed progress laments the abandonment of the child-nymph, perhaps harkening to a deeper personal loss. STAR’s lament for a departing piece of her soul is haunting and even feels like a caress. Craig’s lament for his time on the road encased in metal while the engine hums at least holds the promise of delivery. The seeming inability to spontaneously express her feelings without stricture of form is lamented by Meena, yet flows eloquently in its protests of missteps.

Front Page Winners
She sought shade by Ben Pickard 10+7+4=21 points
Jack In A Box by CJ Maleney * 4+10=14 Points
Winter Spirit by S.T.A.R * 4+10=14 points

*Tie Broken by member

Honorably Mentioned
Filled by your rhymes by Meena Krish * 7+7=14 Points
The Ladies of the Woods by Daniel 4+7=11 Points
Aftermath by Larry Chamberlin 10 Points
No Regrets, No Loss by Larry Chamberlin 10 Points
Nuckelavee (The Devil of the Sea) by Daniel 7 Points
Gone by BOB GALLO 4 Points

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She sought shade by Ben Pickard 10 points
Ben has written a sad telling piece about the destruction of this earth. The earth is eroding because of the chemicals continually spewing out. It has choked the oceans and killed off both flora and fauna alike. What really captured me with this poem was Ben's unique way of telling this story. His woodland nymph has perished along with the trees and he is left, alone, bereft and knowing full well who is to blame. A solid 10 this week!

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She Sought Shade by Ben 7 Points
Not only is this a gorgeously rhymed piece lush with imagery and a reverence for nature, but it also tells of the deep despair that destruction of such woodland homes can bring about. It's a heartbreaking commentary, because you managed to still create this wonder and awe yet I could feel the almost held back anger that the woods have become something for humans to call their own. Destruction will only welcome more chaos.

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She Sought Shade by Ben Pickard 4 points
These words do not only resonate with meaning, they are melodic, making reading them an absolute pleasure. This is no accident, of course, as he often writes like this – 4 metric beats that sound like a heart gently drumming. Meter like this is often used depict a happy, sensual love. This poem is love, albeit sad and lost and gone. Sometimes when we find the light to bright, we seek the shade. Ben, thank you for this beautiful poem.

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Filled by your rhymes by Meena Krish 7 Points
Meena has written a poets’ poem and for me it spoke to my heart. It reminded me of those nights I would sit bold up right and grab my pencil and note pad and scribble my dreamed words, knowing that if I did not capture them in my butterfly net, I would lose them forever. But what to do with my bounty? Would I, like a pillar, would I constrict it to a form, squeezing until it barely resembled my dream of dreams? Or maybe, just maybe I, like Meena, would allow the words to dance and become the swirling cinquain of my heart.

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Filled by your rhymes by Meena Krish 7 points
Meena's poem this week struck a chord with me. She writes of how this person she loves inspires her to write. This love also fills her with fear that maybe her feelings aren't shared by this other person. So instead of writing from her heart she reins it in, writes constrictively, metaphorically, not necessarily giving her feelings away in such an obvious fashion. I adore the way she put 2 things she loves dearly into this, her love of poetry and all it encompasses and the love for this person. My hope for her is she finds the courage to truly express how she feels to the person and they accept her and her beautiful poetry.

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Jack In A Box by CJ Maleney 4 Points
I know this piece is supposed to be about life and society, for me personally it is a little dark as well. Jack in a box simile is creative, not wanting to be like it; forcing a smile, being controlled by others and being connected to the metal box (anchored to one thing in life so you can’t move on). The dark part for me, is the hidden part of the spring that connects Jack to the box (which has not been mentioned in the poem, but came up to me). Everyone has something to hide, it is that part. But I find the poem inspiring as well. Creative piece, well done!!!

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Jack In A Box by CJ Maleney 10 Points
The poet feels needing to compare himself with Jack in the Box. But due to the fact that the poet is not a spring toy, with such a painted smile upon his face, or no rosy glowing cheeks, he instead fells: “pure exhaustion, That has built for years, not weeks.”
Perhaps the reason of this comparison is that the poet is a truck driver, and even though his name is not Jack and he does not have rosy... he still relates to the irony: “No hand of man doth force me in It is just what I've become A dweller in a metal box, To endure an engines hum.”.
The comparison goes on. The poet feels that Jack is lonely too, despite his painted smile. And the brief moments of freedom that is given to both of them are so insignificant like: “droplets in the Nile.”
So from the verge of this comparison, the poet reveals his view, his philosophy of life that: “You dwell upon what you choose. You gauge what you accumulate against everything you lose.”
And comes to conclusion that CJ on the truck is better off, in the final analysis than jack in the box because “in time it will not be for me. But unlike poor Jack, I'll take life back, And finally be free.”

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Jack In A Box Tie Break
An absolutely charming poem, a heartbreaking one. It feels so much relatable. But also very lonely and sad and the comparison is out of the box. I never owned any of those Jack's however you made it so transparent and clear how it feels to be one. I am touched with this piece and I have admired the analogy. Thank you for sharing.

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Winter Spirit by S.T.A.R 10 points
Spring is in the air and with it the new light of inspiration. I liked this poem, it certainly showed me without telling me. It showed me more than the dresser and its alluring contents. It showed me a metaphor and allowed me to ‘fill in those gaps’ with the ‘cold and heavy’ and much more. It made me think of what has past and what is to come. It made me lighter and somehow, like spring filled me with optimism. Thank you, S.T.A.R.

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Winter’s Spirit by S.T.A.R. 4 Points
“I left my dresser-drawer slightly open,
for your spirit to slip and escape this suffocation”
but there is a guideline for the scape: “And when you get away don’t let the reflection
on the mirror fool you it is a hallucination.”
In the two sentences, we realize that we are experiencing a fantasy-scape, a feeling or spirit that has been left in the dresser and needs to get away and flee.
Why the poet is absent when this fleeing takes place? We only can guess.
So the spirit is advised to breathe her flowery incense as a point of reminder in order to feel out the gap of her absence.
Maybe the poet needs to escape from something part of her is still trapped. Maybe she does not want her there since she is not there anymore (poet). She offers her assistance and a detailed fleeing map with all the necessary instructions.
The poem takes you to a state of feeling that you leave parts of you in places that need to be recalled.

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Winter’s Spirit Tie Break
A creative and expressive piece. So much nostalgia, emotions and yet coldness in this one. The title and the word choice and the adjectives used have all together made a perfect scene, a sad one for me. I have seen different images by the help of your words and have been left with mixed emotions at the end of your last verse. Letting go, sense of blame and sense of release and surrender. A deep poem.

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The ladies of the woods by Daniel 4 points
Daniels poem this week is a cautionary tale of being lured in to a seemingly innocent waterway that really is a tomb of the un-wedded ladies of doom. You might be intrigued by a trinket or two strewn about on its peaceful looking shores but anglers beware for death lurks there. His storytelling and imagination lend a whimsy to this piece that I thoroughly enjoyed this week.

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The Ladies of the Woods by Daniel 7 Points
The story the legend or the myth of Ladies of the wood that come out under the honeyed moon with their bestial cacophony. The poet does not mention what are the “trinkets and jewels” Upon the lakeside since: “Besides the lake, the flowers won’t bloom” and: “their tongues replaced with silver spoons”
Here one could ask whose tongues?: The unwedded ladies? Why did it replace with a silver spoon? I hope the only reason isn’t that spoon rhymes with the moon.
The imagery is spot on. The wording of this poem could not be any better. Daniel is such a seasoned poet. You can be always sure that you are going to read a well put together piece coming across his works. This poem also is no exception and creates its own spot on the front page.

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Aftermath by Larry Chamberlin 10 Points
This seems much more poignant in this small yet significant forms, and the tangible "aftermath" of her memory. Reading a few times, I even feel like "passing" may not directly mean death but the passing of her presence from that place, from a moment in your life where she graced your days. There's almost an apathy in the world now that her smile is no longer trailing or should I say inspiring the sun to shine or the elements of nature to move. The note about it being a drizzle almost highlights the pain. That even that sharp pain cannot be expressed in a downpour or heavy rain, just a slight rain that makes the heart ache.
It's interesting how there is no punctuation in this (I am not sure if in a traditional senryu and tanka, if there is not supposed to be) and there's almost a starkness about it that works. The lasting image of the dogwood blossoms, of their passion and purity, of having to face her passing and perhaps look within.
I felt the traumatic loss in this, though not to the same degree I am sure. But its traces were there, and they lingered. Well done.

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No Regrets, No Loss by Larry Chamberlin 10 Points
I got all kind of emotions reading this. It made me angry and sad for not doing much with my life at the moment. It made me feel thankful for the breaks I took while spending long hours getting work done. Everyone makes mistakes, we are human not machines, we learn from them we grow. I realized it completely OK to take in life slowly; step by step. Thank you so much for sharing this.

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Nuckelavee (The Devil of the Sea) by Daniel 7 Points
As I was reading this I got chills!! I just couldn’t stop reading, and I didn’t want it to end. Language is Daniel’s strength, which is why taking on the inspiration of those mythological creatures suits him. And I love the form, although the poem was long it flowed smoothly from one section to the other.

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Gone by BOB GALLO 4 Points
The way we feel loss, the way one can actually portray the heaviness and horror of losing someone, of losing a presence that loved and lived and breathed, a being that felt and moved... that hits the heart hard. I thought the second stanza had a bit too much use of "his", such as "his smell in his clothes" but perhaps you wrote that to emphasize further the absence of him. That clothes will just be clothes but his scent and the way he moved and lived in them has faded into a memory. The last stanza was the most gut-wrenching, and I think the repetition of "throbbing" worked to give even more voice to the presence of grief. In absence, we can find presence, yet it's presence of mourning and conflicted feelings that the heart has to try to process.

Congratulations to the winners and to the other honorably mentioned. Thanks judges for your work. I’d also like to thank the two judges for the comments on my poems and thanks to Dagmar and Rania for nominating them.

Congratulations to all winners and HMs!

I really appreciate, once again, the comments and feedback on my poetry. :) The judges here do an excellent job sifting through the weekly poetry here.

One comment:

'Here one could ask whose tongues?: The unwedded ladies? Why did it replace with a silver spoon? I hope the only reason isn’t that spoon rhymes with the moon.'

Haha! There is an old idiom about people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. The women, the victims in this piece were killed for a reason, but I don't particularly want to spoil the reason why! Why would someone replace someone's tongue with a silver spoon post mortem? It's a mystery after all. ;)

I am truly touched by the comments, and I am so thankful for them and the votes. I had no expectation for an HM, to see my poem on the front page is huge. So thank you so much!!

Congratulations all, once again great poetry this week :)

Congratulation to all the front page winners and HM's! So many wonderful poems! Larry thank you for hosting and our judges for judging lol!

Thanks to our Moderators and judges for showering so much love on all of us.
Congrats everyone

Much love
S....

Stunning! Congrats everyone and great job. Thank you judges for your time and everyone else for being a part of this place <3

Thanks, everybody involved. To the judges, the host, and to Dagmar Wilson and CJ Maleney who nominated my works.

Thank you once again to the judges for their thoughts and time on my poem; it really is truly appreciated. Well done to the other winners this week and those honourably mentioned and nominated. Also, the new process for breaking a tie seems to be a much better option.

Take care, everyone.

Hi All :)

Congratulations to all the front page poets this week, and all HMs awarded.

Thank you to each and every judge for your time every week.
Thank you to naaz for my nomination

Much love, M :)x

Congrats everyone for this week's entry's.. Winners, HMs and all nominated so so deserved to be so.

Thank you so much to the judges who voted on my poem and left such insightful comments. They are humbly received. In fact to all judges. If it was not for you the contest simply wouldn't work.

Gotta say massive thanks to Ben for nominating it too. Thanks man.

Finally big up to Larry for hosting and all those who make the cogs click

love to one and all

Craig

ps sorry for the slow response. I do try to catch up when I can.

Congrats to all! Thank you to our judges and Larry, for hosting.

Congrats to the front page Winners and all those who received a HM!
Thank you Mr Darcy for the nomination and thank you judges for the comments
on my poem. Thanks to Larry for hosting :)