We're Back!
I (Jeff) have just run one of the best contests I have ever been involved with for "long line poetry" and many of the entries were wonderful rhymed stories. Sue and I decided we had been away from contests too long and we would pick up the thread with that idea.
Story telling in rhyme is a very ancient tradition, think Beowulf and The Sagas but that doesn't mean you have to write in ancient style.
Some examples :-
The Shooting of Dan McGrew
By Robert Service
Carrying on to tell a beautifully melodramatic tale
Sue has The Engagement
Which in turn is based on a sonnet by Amera.
Or my own The man with deepset eyes.
And yes I know it is pretty similar to Dan McGrew's story
A story poem can be any length but despite Hemmingway's
For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
We want something longer than a haiku. We want rhyme (and that means end-line rhyme and basically perfect rhyme although we won't penalise a few slants) you probably have more chance with an "ode" meaning stanzas with repeating rhyme scheme and meter but two of our examples don't fit that! You definitely stand more chance with good strong meter or flow.
You can enter any topic you like but must be labelled appropriately, don't abuse the shift key, capitalise I unless your subject matter requires you not to (and even then think hard!!!). We had better warn entrants that we are not religious and will critique religious entries purely on their story telling and poetry, they will not be penalised or rewarded especially, many Bible stories have been brilliantly put into verse.
Sue likes them sad, I like them happy, we both want a beginning a middle and an end!
If you want two entries one must be a new write, we will simply ignore the second pre-write entered.
I (Jeff) have just run one of the best contests I have ever been involved with for "long line poetry" and many of the entries were wonderful rhymed stories. Sue and I decided we had been away from contests too long and we would pick up the thread with that idea.
Story telling in rhyme is a very ancient tradition, think Beowulf and The Sagas but that doesn't mean you have to write in ancient style.
Some examples :-
The Shooting of Dan McGrew
By Robert Service
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light-o'-love, the lady that's known as Lou.
Carrying on to tell a beautifully melodramatic tale
Sue has The Engagement
His letters became fewer as the fighting got intense
her letters were sent every week to mask her own pretence,
a long cold lonely winter she had spent without a word,
until that fateful morning her heartfelt scream was heard.
Returned to her, her letters, unopened and unread,
she knew that it was over as she cried upon her bed,
her life now lay in tatters, her spirit it had died
no husband and no marriage, her tears spent, now she sighed.
Which in turn is based on a sonnet by Amera.
Or my own The man with deepset eyes.
The piano player stopped mid bar
And every head looked round
To see a stranger come from far
With treasure he had found
An empty man with eyes deep set
And danger in his heart
To find what pleasures he could get
Then silently depart
And yes I know it is pretty similar to Dan McGrew's story
A story poem can be any length but despite Hemmingway's
For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.
We want something longer than a haiku. We want rhyme (and that means end-line rhyme and basically perfect rhyme although we won't penalise a few slants) you probably have more chance with an "ode" meaning stanzas with repeating rhyme scheme and meter but two of our examples don't fit that! You definitely stand more chance with good strong meter or flow.
You can enter any topic you like but must be labelled appropriately, don't abuse the shift key, capitalise I unless your subject matter requires you not to (and even then think hard!!!). We had better warn entrants that we are not religious and will critique religious entries purely on their story telling and poetry, they will not be penalised or rewarded especially, many Bible stories have been brilliantly put into verse.
Sue likes them sad, I like them happy, we both want a beginning a middle and an end!
If you want two entries one must be a new write, we will simply ignore the second pre-write entered.
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on March 28
- Rewards: Gold: 2000, Silver: 1000, Bronze: 500, Honorable mention: 5 people
- Final notes: What a contest!!!!
100 entries, mostly long poems and a delight to read them all, at least three reads per poem, and many more for the top entries.
Our original marking gave us 8 HMs but the system no longer allows that so we had to remark the top 11 poems. We also decided no poet would get two prizes, this has been our usual rule for some time, so some poems which should have been at the top were excluded by being their writer's "reserve" entry.
Please read some of the winners, and as many of the others as you can, this is a wonderful contest and we are sure other judges could have come up with a different order.
Thank-you and congratulations to all.
Now we need to rest before we do another one!!!
that's over 25,000 lines of reading for each of us completed!!!
Contest Winners
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Crown Sonnet• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove]
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What obstacle will you overcome?by WordsDoMatter 74 lines, 6 comments, on Mar 6 5:23 AM. In baseball, success, inspiration
Bronze trophy winner
• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
by paperparadox 91 lines, 20 comments, on Mar 24 1:53 AM 2008. In Australian bush poetry
Honorable mention
• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
• Commented on by judge. [remove]
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Agronica the Cyprus king with jewels around his head,
Adorned with flowing, silken garbs, his shoes the soft earth tread.by dybiw16 69 lines, 3 comments, on Feb 24 3:07 PM. In My own style• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
I bought three joints of lamb,
popped out the kitchen door.• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
A Malay man from Kampung far,
Has daughters two, both fair• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove]
- Error: Unable to find finalist item 5118201, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
- Error: Unable to find finalist item 5141249, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
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• Commented on by judge. [remove]
- Error: Unable to find finalist item 4039580, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
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Thank You Lord for providing an Angel
On this my Monday really Thursday night• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
i'm scribed in scottish folklore
like finfolk and mermaids• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
To give this speech, he had prepared years.
Rewriting, editing, blood, sweat, and tears.• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
The lady was fair and lived in the light,
Her lover was dark and dwelled in the night.by Shadowsong 34 lines, 17 comments, on Mar 11 1:05 AM 2004. In Love• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
Yesterday I’m born and today I’m broken,
as my spirit’s crushed for I’m but a token.• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
• Commented on by judge. [remove]
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I play for no one in particular
but I still play on and on.• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
I don't remember much,
about the day that I was born.• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
Said Pun’ja to the small Treeswift,
Why do you sing so sweet?by dybiw16 69 lines, 7 comments, on Mar 10 5:38 AM. In My own style• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
A sunbeam from the morning light
squeaked through the window blind• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
by EdenAnarchy 116 lines, 4 comments, on Oct 15 7:44 PM 2007• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove]
- Error: Unable to find finalist item 4981317, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
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I'd been riding all day, toward dusk made my way
into new mown meadow ringed 'round with stacked hay.• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
An old man that stays in the saloon claims to remember,
how a stranger rode into town in late December,• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] - Error: Unable to find finalist item 5153301, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
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For Val & MasochistBunny• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove]
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He just stood there starin’
Givin’ me the hard eyeby gray2020 beard 40 lines, 11 comments, on Feb 16 11:55 AM• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
I watched him walk our dead end street
to the end of the cobble stoneby bluecollarlove 23 lines, 8 comments, on Feb 1 10:40 AM 2008• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove] -
Caught in sin, she was found out
Exposed for all the town to see• Commented on by judge. Prewrite [remove]
Gold trophy winner
Silver trophy winner
Entries [67]
1 - 67 of 67
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Go for the job from suburbs to city
The bars had closed, an after hours party• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
In a town called Squigsville, lived the Squiggles,
• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
by Pisces Pieces 121 lines, 23 comments, on Mar 18 4:04 PM 2006. In Love• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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He drinks bootleg whiskey 'til he loses control
pees in a bottle and is sheepishly droll.by davidwright 28 lines, 13 comments, on Nov 25 1:08 PM 2008. In An ode to the drinkin' man• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
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They say it gets better over time but why does it have to hurt so damn hard in the processby Teenage poetry 24 lines, 2 comments, on Jan 8 6:49 PM 2008• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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The rollers pressed and then ruffled the sand
And again they came and did the same.by MadMax 39 lines, 4 comments, on Sep 30 10:20 AM 2008. In Only you know how it feels• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
She was just another one of those girls
hanging on her boyfriend…• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
They claim they are your family,
they'll take care of your every need.by log-home-guy-Nic 42 lines, 7 comments, on Mar 7 9:48 PM. In Society, Pain, Teenage thinking, Message, Sad, Family• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
there once was a boy and a girl / they went to a party on this hill / surrounded by people all around / beer bottles shattered on the grouby Storm-Goddess 35 lines, 14 comments, on May 9 9:06 PM 2007. In sad• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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Passed out on cold asphalt
I dream of day's beforeby Luciferschild 41 lines, 8 comments, on Jan 9 5:46 PM• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
Running down the dark path
Night pulsating with my heartbeat• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
And he turned tall and proud
In a salute ,his last tribute to those fallen
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There once was a superb cake
who swam many seasby Lanasaur 48 lines, 1 comment, on Mar 11 2:31 PM• Commented on by judge. -
I have no memory from before that first spark
Before animation brought me out of the dark• Commented on by judge. -
With his sheepskin vest and helmet with horns,
A big silver shield and four foot sword,by Gunther 19 lines, 8 comments, on Jan 10 11:46 AM• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
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She was shy, kind and caring,
usually polite and often sharing.• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
It's that time of the month again, that dreaded time of the month.
It happens every month, however, sometimes I willfully neglect toby skeleton coast 122 lines, 1 comment, on Mar 15 11:58 AM• Commented on by judge. -
Often in the legends have I heard,
A heartrending tale of a lonely bird.• Commented on by judge. Prewrite -
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Within the casket lies a cadaver, Gilded and laced with golden trims,• Commented on by judge. Prewrite
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Comments
1 - 11 of 11
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What`s new
Within the past two weeks, I`ve written two sonnets. Would they be accepted as new and pre-write? -
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New means written specifically for this contest, no-one will win more than one prize so we feel that allowing one and one is fair to all. Part of the reason for running the contest is to encourage people to write
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bookmarked
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Going to withdraw my entry. First of all, I've never had any luck in your contests, you don't seem to understand them. Secondly, there are about a hundred too many entrants. Sue told me once I should find a smaller audience and smaller contests for my poem.
So, I'm taking your advice and get lost, at least her advice. -
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I am always sorry to lose entries to contests so I regret your decision but I do understand it. I really did not expect quite this rush of entries. There are many judges that I do not expect to win with so I understand that too but I do want to assure you we try to understand Every poem entered will be read at least three times and then as many times again as it requires to get the final result.
All the best and I look forward to reading others of your poems in the future.
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Oops...
Hey, i'm removing my entry Why? from the contest because i didn't write it for the contest, i did it about three hours earlier, oops
(Plus it missed off the last three versus anyway,). Thanks,
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Looks like you got this contest packed down, no use to enter lol, Great work again hun.
~ Chelsey ♥ -
am i going daft?
Posted poem to this contest but can't see it listed.
strange thing is when i go to it :-
http://allpoetry.com/poem/3899427
it is marked as being entered as well? -
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DOH and double DOH not going daft just stupid! forgot to turn the page
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You aren't the first to get lost there
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Oh wow!
It's a huge honour to be awarded an HM in such a luminary field of poets... Thank you. 
Heartiest congratulations to the winners ~ quite a feat! Well done!
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