Sue Cardwell and I (I am Cricketjeff) are partners in rhyme, and we are both rhymers!
We both write in rhyme most of the time and enjoy reading other rhyming poetry.
We feel that rhymers don’t always get the exposure they should on AP so we want to encourage you all to write in rhyme.
Good rhyming poetry uses a steady rhyming pattern and should flow like melting icecream over hot jam roly poly, so this is what you will need to do to win, not just find a bit of prose with random line breaks and a few random words that sound about the same.
To promote good rhyming poetry, Sue has put up 10,000 points for a series of contests to find the best rhyming poets on AP.
Since then with donations from PassionsPromise, Dragon Tamer and a range of others who wish to remain anonymous the prize fund has topped 20,000 points.
Now we are approaching the end of the first series of rounds we can reveal what comes next.
First is to say that we will regard the winner of the Finale, which is purely for fresh writes, as the rhyming bard of AP. This contest, number 10, will start in just a few days.
Next every poem entered in every round has been carefully read, more than once and we are selecting a "best overall poem" obviously the winner of this prize will already have a gold, but silver and bronze and HMs may have won lesser trophies, this will not be judged against a theme so some very good poems that were in the wrong section may have an outside chance.
The best poems will be invited into a special contest where we can reward them.
Also every prizewinner, whatever the colour, has been accumulating points towards the title of "Best All-Round Rhyming poet on AP", it will be immediately apparent to all of you that actually means "Best All-Round Poet Alive". We do currently have a leader slightly ahead of the pack but following the leader are six poets that are too close to separate. There are enough points left in Sad/Nostalgic and Feelings and the double point scoring Finale for even a new entrant to win the overall title"
Finally all the main prize winners will be invited into a special contest after these have finished. This will be for a very large prize and a lot of kudos no doubt!
Back to the main series:-
We started with a 2000 point challenge to write the best Christmas poem on the site, and are moving through 8 more contests to a grand finale, with a 5000 point contest for new writes.
You may enter as few or as many contests as you wish.
If you can RHYME and SCAN these contests are for you
Contest 1 Christmas 2000 points
Contest 2 Children’s 1000 points
Contest 3 Nature 1000 points
Contest 4 Love! 1250 points
Contest 5 Fantasy 1500 points
Contest 6 Sensual 1500 points
Contest 7 Humour 1500 points
Contest 8 Sad/Nostalgia 1500 points
Contest 9 Feelings 1500
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GRAND FINALE 5000 points - This will be for fresh writes only and will include all the previous titles as options, or if there is something you think we have missed, please let Sue or I know and we'll add that as an option too. We will leave the finale open for two full weeks including three weekends, possibly longer to give everyone time to produce a great poem or two.
Each will be a separate contest, so please only post poems pertaining to the subject of that contest.
We will endeavour to interpret the themes quite widely.
Our aim is to see as much really GOOD rhyming poetry as we can.
We encourage you to read other entries and if you comment in rhyme, Jeff will be giving away bonus prizes as we go!
Rhyming poetry only!!!
======================
Rhyming means at least end rhyme and organised rhyming pattern, poetry means it flows!
A large element of how we judge each round will be on the quality of the rhyme, the flow and the poetry. HOWEVER and two or three entrants have commented on the winners. The best poem will win, not the best written poem, the most difficult poem or the cleverest poem. The poem that feels best to the judges, it will have to have nearly faultless rhyme and flow but after that content will count.
You are much more likely to win with a well written poem that skirts the topic, than a piece of prose with line breaks that is right on the theme, but you are most likely to win with rhyme and flow and emotion and content and word choice all combined into a truly great read.
We are judging all rounds on our own feelings about each poem. We are not implying that the winners are better than those who don't make the final what we are saying is the winners have written poems that appeal most to two inveterate rhymers. Look at the winners of the previous rounds if you want clues as to how to win I would suggest something along the lines of a poem with as near to perfect end rhyme as you can get (if you think your accent differs from two judges from Southern England suggest how any words you think could vary should be pronounced in your poem), wonderful flow, this means partly getting your syllable counts right but mainly read the poem out loud and listen to the result! And pour passion into the content, we are both somewhat sentimental!
For a guide on what we like please read this column
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CONTEST NUMBER 9
==================
The theme this time is
Feelings
====================
You can use the picture Sue has chosen to illustrate your poem or one of your own but no picture is necessary. Please try to make the poems readable!
Here we are after all feelings and emotions, either evoke them or write about them, be creative, use the theme in ways we haven't thought of or be literal. Either way rhyme and flow are what we want so go through your best poems or write us something perfect.
Free verse can work well in this area, but not in our contest please.
Gold will win 1000 points and a trophy and leave us breathless.
Silver 300 points and a trophy and leave us gasping.
Bronze 200 points and a trophy and leave us permanently changed.
HM’s and HMs plus points will be added depending on the quality of the entry and will leave us moved.
The rest will simply leave us.
Rules.
The usual site rules apply.
Please label all poems appropriately. This round is for poetry about feelings so some adult contents or strong language may creep in, label appropriately.
All the best -- Now Get Rhyming
*** UPDATE ***
In just two days we had over 100 entries to this contest so we decided to restrict it to one poem per poet, and to create a second contest HERE to allow a second entry and to give a second gold trophy, points are the same in both contests and both will count towards the final prizes. Please pick whichever you like but do not enter the same poem in each.
We are bound to get over 50 entries so we will restrict all poets to a Maximum of TWO entries. This is to give us more time to read the others properly.
We will not give more than one major prize to any poet in any round.
Non-rhyming poetry will be DQ'd at once, good poets can read!
We both write in rhyme most of the time and enjoy reading other rhyming poetry.
We feel that rhymers don’t always get the exposure they should on AP so we want to encourage you all to write in rhyme.
Good rhyming poetry uses a steady rhyming pattern and should flow like melting icecream over hot jam roly poly, so this is what you will need to do to win, not just find a bit of prose with random line breaks and a few random words that sound about the same.
To promote good rhyming poetry, Sue has put up 10,000 points for a series of contests to find the best rhyming poets on AP.
Since then with donations from PassionsPromise, Dragon Tamer and a range of others who wish to remain anonymous the prize fund has topped 20,000 points.
Now we are approaching the end of the first series of rounds we can reveal what comes next.
First is to say that we will regard the winner of the Finale, which is purely for fresh writes, as the rhyming bard of AP. This contest, number 10, will start in just a few days.
Next every poem entered in every round has been carefully read, more than once and we are selecting a "best overall poem" obviously the winner of this prize will already have a gold, but silver and bronze and HMs may have won lesser trophies, this will not be judged against a theme so some very good poems that were in the wrong section may have an outside chance.
The best poems will be invited into a special contest where we can reward them.
Also every prizewinner, whatever the colour, has been accumulating points towards the title of "Best All-Round Rhyming poet on AP", it will be immediately apparent to all of you that actually means "Best All-Round Poet Alive". We do currently have a leader slightly ahead of the pack but following the leader are six poets that are too close to separate. There are enough points left in Sad/Nostalgic and Feelings and the double point scoring Finale for even a new entrant to win the overall title"
Finally all the main prize winners will be invited into a special contest after these have finished. This will be for a very large prize and a lot of kudos no doubt!
Back to the main series:-
We started with a 2000 point challenge to write the best Christmas poem on the site, and are moving through 8 more contests to a grand finale, with a 5000 point contest for new writes.
You may enter as few or as many contests as you wish.
If you can RHYME and SCAN these contests are for you
Contest 1 Christmas 2000 points
Contest 2 Children’s 1000 points
Contest 3 Nature 1000 points
Contest 4 Love! 1250 points
Contest 5 Fantasy 1500 points
Contest 6 Sensual 1500 points
Contest 7 Humour 1500 points
Contest 8 Sad/Nostalgia 1500 points
Contest 9 Feelings 1500
=====================================
GRAND FINALE 5000 points - This will be for fresh writes only and will include all the previous titles as options, or if there is something you think we have missed, please let Sue or I know and we'll add that as an option too. We will leave the finale open for two full weeks including three weekends, possibly longer to give everyone time to produce a great poem or two.
Each will be a separate contest, so please only post poems pertaining to the subject of that contest.
We will endeavour to interpret the themes quite widely.
Our aim is to see as much really GOOD rhyming poetry as we can.
We encourage you to read other entries and if you comment in rhyme, Jeff will be giving away bonus prizes as we go!
Rhyming poetry only!!!
======================
Rhyming means at least end rhyme and organised rhyming pattern, poetry means it flows!
A large element of how we judge each round will be on the quality of the rhyme, the flow and the poetry. HOWEVER and two or three entrants have commented on the winners. The best poem will win, not the best written poem, the most difficult poem or the cleverest poem. The poem that feels best to the judges, it will have to have nearly faultless rhyme and flow but after that content will count.
You are much more likely to win with a well written poem that skirts the topic, than a piece of prose with line breaks that is right on the theme, but you are most likely to win with rhyme and flow and emotion and content and word choice all combined into a truly great read.
We are judging all rounds on our own feelings about each poem. We are not implying that the winners are better than those who don't make the final what we are saying is the winners have written poems that appeal most to two inveterate rhymers. Look at the winners of the previous rounds if you want clues as to how to win I would suggest something along the lines of a poem with as near to perfect end rhyme as you can get (if you think your accent differs from two judges from Southern England suggest how any words you think could vary should be pronounced in your poem), wonderful flow, this means partly getting your syllable counts right but mainly read the poem out loud and listen to the result! And pour passion into the content, we are both somewhat sentimental!
For a guide on what we like please read this column
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTEST NUMBER 9
==================
The theme this time is
Feelings
====================
You can use the picture Sue has chosen to illustrate your poem or one of your own but no picture is necessary. Please try to make the poems readable!
Here we are after all feelings and emotions, either evoke them or write about them, be creative, use the theme in ways we haven't thought of or be literal. Either way rhyme and flow are what we want so go through your best poems or write us something perfect.
Free verse can work well in this area, but not in our contest please.
Gold will win 1000 points and a trophy and leave us breathless.
Silver 300 points and a trophy and leave us gasping.
Bronze 200 points and a trophy and leave us permanently changed.
HM’s and HMs plus points will be added depending on the quality of the entry and will leave us moved.
The rest will simply leave us.
Rules.
The usual site rules apply.
Please label all poems appropriately. This round is for poetry about feelings so some adult contents or strong language may creep in, label appropriately.
All the best -- Now Get Rhyming
*** UPDATE ***
In just two days we had over 100 entries to this contest so we decided to restrict it to one poem per poet, and to create a second contest HERE to allow a second entry and to give a second gold trophy, points are the same in both contests and both will count towards the final prizes. Please pick whichever you like but do not enter the same poem in each.
We are bound to get over 50 entries so we will restrict all poets to a Maximum of TWO entries. This is to give us more time to read the others properly.
We will not give more than one major prize to any poet in any round.
Non-rhyming poetry will be DQ'd at once, good poets can read!
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on January 29
- Rewards: Gold: 1000, Silver: 300, Bronze: 200, Honorable mention: 23 people
- Final notes: Something new this round, so may entries after a few days that we felt we had to split the contest in two and only allow one entry each into two contests. We are extremely gald we did, we would have found it almost impossible to choose between the gold winners for a single prize. Sonja's oddly titled masterpiece gets better and better on every reading, but then so does Amera's. Two of the best four poems we have seen across all the rounds, please, all of you, read and comment on both of them I promise you they are worth it.
Ecrivain01 would have taken a joint bronze but of course gets its own silver, Legend takes the other silver. Legend may well have have got another bronze but the rules said only one major cup so Cinnary's Surrealist took on Pervirtuous's utterly wonderful and wicked song. Jimmy John's Dirge a very very good bronze on the other side. We have a number of HM+s Cinnary and Legend each getting a bronze and an HM plus and Passim two HM+s. We are not grading the HM+s this time there were 8 in contest 9 and 6 in 9a. The HMs and HM+s were shared across the two contests.a total of over forty HMs. Behind the best winning pair (better even than nature? have to wait for the best overall poem to find out)
Well that is it for the prewrites. Now we get down to the serious business we know many of you have already entered or started working on masterpieces for round 10. Sue and I are starting to look at these poems so some will start being put into the preliminary finallists, not being there does not mean your poem isn't going to get there, just that we assess each very carefully. For this round we are going to apply new and even stricter criteria, you have all got so much better as the contest has gone on.
Sue and I are now looking at where these go next. We have already announced new contests for the best overall poem, we are preparing a shortlist but cannot complete it until the end of round ten of course. We do now know the best poet of the series, the leader has an unassailable lead, any of seven or eight poets can take silver or bronze. We have also discussed preparing a lulu book of the best poems, if any prize winners would like us not to consider their poems for that project please let us know, we would of course seek individual permission before going ahead but would be nice to know if anyone wants to be excluded in advance.
Thank-you all for taking part in round 9 and please get us the best ever rhyming poems as fresh writes in round 10, you have two weeks left!
Contest Winners
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• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove]
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Sing no songs of love or pleasure
nor to me red roses give.• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
I'm doodling with my pen again, still thinking how your smile
just drifted through my memory and lingered for a while.by passim 20 lines, 25 comments, on Jun 18 7:39 PM 2007. In Thoughts, Lost love, Lost in thought
Honorable winner• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
by paperparadox 30 lines, 10 comments, on Nov 19 4:07 AM 2007. In A poem for Lyndon
Honorable winner
• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
I will bring you flours,
so pure and white and plain.by Soloneili 39 lines, 2 comments, on Jan 21 5:16 AM. In Contest entry for 'Feelings'
Honorable winner• Viewed by judge. [remove] -
by jamiedoring 95 lines, 66 comments, on Oct 27 10:43 PM 2007. In betrayal, revenge, adult, infidelity, divorce, personal, anger
Honorable winner• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
Of the winter, I am anxious and eerie Aspen trees quake and quiver• Viewed by judge. [remove]
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We don't have control, of what pours through the soul,
Every poem will have final say.• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove]
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Restoration• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove]
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by Billythekid 31 lines, 14 comments, on Jun 11 2:34 PM 2007. In Personal, Thoughts
Honorable winner• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
Broken by his stained glass tears
She mourns for her son's martyred yearsby Freed by Mercy 29 lines, 41 comments, on Mar 29 3:52 PM 2007. In Contest, Abuse, Dark
Honorable winner• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
With all the words I could never reveal,by Touchng Truth 23 lines, 5 comments, on Mar 13 1:50 PM 2007• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
I touch my body in vain / Hoping to find the cuts / That keeps bleeding my name / With screams of burning guts / I am dead, then why do I b• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove]
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Behind these eyes
Inprisoned By fears
Behind the screams• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
What do we have but this deconstruction?
He says without feelings he functions too well• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
It's about a guy whose lover has turned him/her down in a cruel way.• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove]
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I love you so,
how can you know?• Viewed by judge. [remove] -
Why do some of us feel so alone?
Why do we feel we must atone?• Viewed by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
~*~
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If I should die
think only this of meby CelticQueen 25 lines, 18 comments, on Jan 28 11:45 AM• Viewed by judge. [remove]
Gold trophy winner
Silver trophy winner
Bronze trophy winner
Entries [56]
1 - 56 of 56
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Linus The mighty leopard W. Peter Sanci Jan. 15 / 2008• Viewed by judge.
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When your arms embrace my soul,
And draw me to your love.by PonyPride 10 lines, 14 comments, on Jan 8 6:42 PM• Viewed by judge. Prewrite -
I READ YOUR LETTER TODAY AND IT BLEW ME AWAY, TO HEAR THE WORDS YOU HAD TO SAY.• Viewed by judge.
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Before you left the house, you made mad your spouse, Your good ole car, didn’t get very far,by The tie guy 31 lines, 8 comments, on Jan 17 8:29 PM• Viewed by judge.
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the whales from beneath sing the song of the deep.• Viewed by judge. Prewrite
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Passion drove him past
the trashcan intoby AmazinJason 28 lines, 5 comments, on Jan 18 1:22 PM. In Feelings• Viewed by judge. -
We once were jovial youths stamping and stealing soft hearts,
Upon the fields of mysterial sinning and crime-spinning.by nunchaks 36 lines, 4 comments, on Dec 19 1:58 PM 2007• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
• Viewed by judge. Prewrite
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Love is the ultimate feeling of being intense / Pleasure of the mind and body, in every sense / That mind blowing feeling when the flesh isby nansie 10 lines, 4 comments, on Jul 10 1:43 PM 2007• Viewed by judge. Prewrite
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She stands alone and she cries the tear• Viewed by judge. Prewrite
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i bring blood and leave scars!by tylerpuppy 51 lines, 12 comments, on Nov 18 8:36 PM 2007. In Pain, Emo, Depression, Teen issues, Sadness• Viewed by judge. Prewrite
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show me to the light,
and the forest with a tree.by Only-Sinking-Deeper 28 lines, 4 comments, on Jan 13 4:16 AM. In Thoughts, Lost in thought, Life, Emo, Sadness, Escape• Viewed by judge. Prewrite -
i stand alone feeling so small,
no one to help me, no one at all.by doesne1care 34 lines, 15 comments, on Jan 19 6:53 AM• Viewed by judge. Prewrite -
• Viewed by judge. Prewrite
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Dear Poet, can love lost be found?
Should dreamers dare to dream?• Viewed by judge. Prewrite -
Whispers of wind that echo through the land
Tell of a greater story, to which, I will expand.• Viewed by judge. Prewrite -
The answer's too much weighted
With agenda and the squeezeby jinglingjoy 34 lines, 2 comments, on Jan 24 2:50 PM. In contest, life, personal, thoughts, observation• Commented on by judge.
Add a comment
Comments
1 - 20 of 20
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most of mine ryhme but have nothing to do with christmas so i will try to come up with something or enter your next contests because i am very busy with my schooling
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That's good because you've missed the Christmas contest by weeks. This round is for "feelings" we also have one open for another few days for sad or nostalgic poems. Please feel free to enter either of them we are on the look out for rhymers we don't know as well as they deserve.
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I do have a Christmas poem somewhere--will try and find it and enter. Thank you for enjoying rhythm and rhyme as it is quite challenging. Appreciate your time and efforts, even though I seem to be a bit late as I've been out-of-pocket for awhile. Best to you!--Kel
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NO!!!
This is contest 9!
Contest 1 was Christmas we are after feelings now, although obviously it is possible for a poem to be both. You are the second person to make that error.
We would love to see you either in this round or the previous round http://allpoetry.com/contest/2385487 -
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Okay
Entered two for "Feelings" but if they aren't what you're looking for, please feel free to DQ them. I'll be watchful of your future projects as such refers to poetry and rhyme. Thank you again. My best to you both!--Kel
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I only have one entry in the contest may I leave it in here?
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Yes of course, the choice is entirely free which contest a single entry is in. Of course you may look at entries in either contest and decide where you are most likely to win but we are not going to influence that. The HMs will be split over the two contests based on quality not a fixed number to each so apart from gold silver and bronze it does not matter where you are.
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Ok, I think I will leave it here, less hassle..lol. Thanks for holding such a wonderful series of contests
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Um..
Ok I didnt exactly Understand your messege? Main thing Im wonerdering is, I dont have to do anything right? Im ok where Im at right. I entered the Poem "This Heart" so, I dont have to do anything right? Im sorry Im totally confused .. -
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If you only have one poem in, you are fine. If you want to enter a second it would have to go in part 9a
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I can't remove the one I put in the overflow
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I shall tomorrow then
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Blimey Don't you have enough entries yet lol
All the best with this contest! You will certainly have a time judging
Gaylene
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We won't have if all you points millionaires use up our clicks!
Only about 130 across the two part nines so far, It is going to be a staggeringly difficult contest to judge, have you read the poems we have already moved to the tops of both leader boards, how to tell between such pluperfect poetry but what a lovely problem to have. I think we have already read at least 30 poems that we would be happy to give a gold to.
Please keep them coming though!
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There are certainly lot's of points in the pot and it's nice to know how the winning entry is decided " not by the best written poem, the cleverest,the most difficult,but judged to be the best poem" Though a tad confusing if you are awarding a trophy for written entries ( as opposed to audio) would have thought, before your clarification,that the written word was what you were smitten by,oh me,oh my,may just enter along with everyone else,though it's nice to place a trophy on the shelf it's not that I could win,but maybe not to join in rhyme could be considered a sin,you say good poets can read and surely that is true of all,for if any had the inability to read they would not,could not reply to you? You ask for scan,feelings within rhyme,the inflection within your direction is a crime I may well commit,but if unable then all is well,you have a contest that is swell,oh no,oh no,what is happening to me,simply cannot stop writing rhyme now you see!
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Good point! That should really stay "best-written". The idea being that you can write a wonderfully constructed poem that says absolutely nothing or a poem with faults that carries a really powerful message and the "best" has to be a judgement between those two.
Far more important than that though is wonderful to see you rhyming!
Please do put a poem in if you can, we are enjoying reading them all even those we have to exclude from the poets who cannot read and enter unrhymed ones, I do read before I DQ!
If a poem rhymes reasonably accurately and flows nicely read aloud it will make the final and be read at least 6 times as a result, and although with hundreds of poems we cannot do a detaied comment on all we will be happy to comment on any individual entry where the poet asks us to. So it has to be worth a try!
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It is once again a great honour to have received the silver award for my piece and another HM for my second entry.As has been mentioned the volume of excellent poetry in each round has been unbelievable. and so many different winners.I think it became clear after a couple of rounds who would take the grand title (and a more than worthy winner ) as they have produce excellent work in all they have posted. Rhyme flow form and wordy ability Congratulations to both of you once again for an excellently run series And to all the winners and poets who have taken part
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Congratulations to the winners,Di
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Thank you for the honorable mention, and for hosting these contests. I feel honored that it placed among the work of so many fine poets.
Congratulations to the winners, and all who placed in the Feelings contests. -
Congratulations...
... to all other winners as well as to all contest participants. You honored me with gold trophy and honestly it was a great surprise to me because I didn't expect to see my name before all this great poets. Thanks once again to Jeff and Sue.
~Sonja~
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