I have never participated in a contest like this where it was permitted for a contributor to vote for their own work. It was an interesting experience.
My first top three, judged on a vague measure of emotional response, did not include my own. This was disappointing, and it made me examine my confidence. Why, when my own poem was an expression of my own feelings and effort, was I too shy to back it up?
So I took a new approach. If all the entries in the contest were poems I had written myself, which ones would I display to the world before my own?
In the end, there was only one. I look forward to finding out the identity of the poet, so I can give him/her a verbal high five.
One of the best things, I think, is seeing which entry belongs to which writer after the end of the contest. On the self-voting front, I'd never vote for myself, but each to their own.
In the meantime, I got the Hoskins' shortlist down from 8 to 5 and I'm pretty sure I have my first place chosen. So that means the other four are vying for two places.
Sounds 50/50 -- but is it?
The problem I'm having -- and I wonder if anyone else is cogitating on the same dilemma -- is a couple of the ones I really, really, liked have one or two lines in them that I really, really dislike!
Them pieces are super damn fantastic, but then one or two lines trip me up. Now, could be that I'm not getting it, or the lines are an ironic trigger, or they could just be not to my taste, but goddamn it's making the silver and bronze places hard to decide because the poems they are against are solid all the way through, though do not reach the heights I see in the others -- I wish I'd paid more attention in poetry class.
All in all, an enjoyable and infuriating problem to have. I've promised myself I'll have a top three tomorrow, in the end, I think, you just gotta choose your faves.
Quick, ain't I.