Weekly Contest Results, 14 March 2022

Loss of Faith in Humanity. It’s easy to see this theme took the attention of the judges. More subtle, though, is the silver lining each poem carries between the lines. Jane’s robbery and escape from assault leaves her thankful for not having a worse outcome yet mystified by her forgiveness of the perpetrator. Michael may lament that mankind is not kind, yet he leaves a dram of hope for the future. Star’s form-poem explores the all encompassing evil from a demon-of-person yet leaves a crack in the cocoon initiated by a smile - is it the demon’s hope that withers in the face of love?

Congratulations to all, Winners and Honorable Mentions alike and thanks to the two stalwart judges.

Front Page / Winners
*edited to reflect error: we had 3 judges this week and had a mishap in adding votes to Shruti's piece, which should have been front page
Flower (By Shruti) 10 + 4 points = 14 points
January 26 (By silvershoes) 10 points
Not my type! (By Michael) 10 points

Honorable Mentions
between the horizon of interpretation and dejection (By Star) 7 points
Euphoria in a name. (By Poet on the Piano) 7 points
have a little faith in me. (By Poet on the Piano) 7 points
Healing (By Katrynn) 4 points
Waltzing back and forth (Palindrome) (by Michael) 4 points

Comments:

Flower (By Shruti)
10 points
All poems are personal, and how they are shared among readers brings a curiosity of a poets perspective. Simply put, here the poet expresses colour that in a way captures their emotions (through colour). Colours are so part of our lives, and how we relate them in our feelings is a wonderful way to express. Also how colours are put into an image of a story is also powerful and meaningful. Really liked reading this poem. Well done.

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4 points
Such a beautiful write taking care to pay excellent care with the beauty of nature, with the beauty of love. Drawing parallels from the vulnerability love brings to nature (thorns). It works on such a high level. Glad to see Shruti has returned, they have not missed a single beat!

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January 26 (By silvershoes) 10 points
Having been a victim of SA, there's a lot of times where I wondered, why me? So I can imagine the feelings you're going through, and there isn't any right or wrong way to process this. It's a scary, unthinkable thing that can happen to anyone. There's some comfort to be had knowing they're off the street. I hope it was cathartic in some form to write this. It takes true strength to be able to write about this openly. Thank you for sharing this with us, and I hope you have all the support.

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Not my type! (By Michael) 10 points
This is a very simple poem with a very strong undertone. Yet it is not that simple.
Sometimes we must question who we are and who we surround ourselves with.
Mankind's existence is but a luxury.
Tasty little poem to read

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Honorable Mentions

between the horizon of interpretation and dejection (By Star) 7 points
The format of this poem was the first thing that grabbed my attention.
Then I had to read it time and time again. Isn't it a wonder how all the things we trust and hold as solid can fade to the grey.
The divide between trust and hope is minuscule.
Amazing poem that leads the head in directions

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Euphoria in a name. (By Poet on the Piano) 7 points
Such an interesting title drew me in. The poet expresses such an honest feeling. As i read through, it really did make me think how important we treat one another – how we want our identities to be addressed. Our ethics, beliefs and passions are what we are, and the poet writes with a strong tone, because of the importance of respecting whoever we are. A powerful piece, that says it all to me. Thank you for sharing.

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have a little faith in me. (By Poet on the Piano) 7 points
Loss is one of the strongest emotions we can feel, we can feel the aftershocks of grief for years to come. It's never easy losing what meant a lot to us. Elliott packed a gut-punch in every verse, their words just feel so heavy to utter, giving the readers insight into how heavy their grief is.

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Healing (by Katrynn) 4 points
At times a poem can be one of many words, or very few. When I read this piece, i felt how simplistic this poem was written, but delves deep into what resonates with me. Then also expresses a deeper story of what lies beneath the poet. All I would say is that the first word ‘When’ isn’t really needed, and just to start with ‘where’. A nice, short to the point poem.

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Waltzing back and forth (Palindrome) (by Michael) 4 points
Palindromes are not an easy thing to compose. They test the fabric of our mentality. That the poet has managed to do so and still convey emotion is not without understanding.

Hi all :)

Congratulations to Star and Jane on their win along with all HMs awarded.

thank you to the judges for their time and effort each week. Thank you to the judge for my comments and votes on 2 poems, very much appreciated :)

Thank you to Scott for nominating.

I hope all are well as can be.

M x

Wow. these judges are overloaded specially the one from the previous weeks. To make there works a little easier, I release them from voting and consequently even reading my nominated poems. It might be easier a little.: here by I consciously release you from that duty. Just assume that I am not there. Please do not do it. You are encouraged to look away, and I am okay whit it. They are not that good anyway. This is a hardest time in P&Q. This has affected the weeklies also.
I am more than enough happy by being only nominated by the good members of this site.
Also Judges, Cole aders, I hope we are honouring the rule of not voting for the poems we nominate. (my humble advise.
I am sorry if this seems unusual, I hate clichés.

I love your introduction as always, Larry. It's that little extra effort that makes you such a great weekly contest host. Thank you!

Congratulations right back atcha, Michael! And congratulations to Star, and to all of the honorable mentions. Great work.

Thank you to those who nominate poems, and thank you to our generous judges. You guys rock.

EDIT: Shoot, I'm in the wrong account... this is Jane. Sorry.

Ohhh love your intros Larry!! Thank you for hosting!

Congrats Winners and HM and thank you judges for your time!

Love the introduction!! I think it’s better than my poem lol.

Thank you for the vote and comment it’s humbling :)

Thank you judges and Larry for your time!!

Thank you Larry for hosting, you somehow always find the perfect theme to connect all the winning poems together! Thank you judges for all your hard work, congrats to the winners, and those who picked up a HM. Really strong showing of poetry this week!

Also Bob, my memory might be hazy, it's been a while since I was a moderator/judge, but if memory serves me right, a judge cannot vote on poems they've written, or poems they nominated, Janis implemented that functionality when he updated the site.

Thank you for the lovely comment! ^.^
Beautiful poetry this week, congratulations to the winners and fellow HMs~

Wanted to explain real quick that there was an error on our part and I sincerely apologize! A judge's votes and comments were overlooked, so I updated the post with them. Shruti's "Flower" should have been on the front page, and the error wasn't caught in time. Again, my apologies and it won't happen again!

- Poet on the Piano

Then at least in this post please put Shiruti’s poem as a winner, instead of mine. I feel bad having my poem on the front page instead of hers.

Thank you so much for editing!

Oh did not expect this, but thank you.

Also wanted to add that Star, your poem is equally deserving of a win. It's beautiful and I'm still glad that it is on the front page! ^.^