RESULTS: St. William's Valentine's Day Poetry Contest

More than I cared about who won, I was dying to see who wrote the pieces. Intriguing (although I had Zachy pegged).

Congrats to Cassie and to everyone who cared enough to enter! William, thanks so much for hosting again!

I voted for the winner! Cassie, that poem rocks!

But, hey, they all do, even mine.

Congrats, everyone!! Especially you, Cassie

Next thing's next: gettin' more voters!

I voted for the winner, too! Great job, Cassie.

I figured out which was yours, Zach. Very voyeuristic, I thought--effectively so.

Cassie, I voted for another one of yours, and almost voted for your winning one. Bravo!

Congratulations Cassie! That is an awesome poem!

It's pretty cool to go back and reread all the poems now that we know who wrote them. They are all great. Kudos to everyone for entering and putting yourself out there.

And thank you William, for putting this together.

Congrats, Cassie. And congrats, everyone!

Just amazing, all of you.

I've got a pit in my stomach: it's confession time. I had six poems that I could not separate: all very different, each truly deserving of a vote.

At 1:30 in the morning, after a night's reading and re-reading, I hallucinated a twisted, cowardly Solomon and voted for my own poem. Rather than selecting one of a brilliant group, I cast a reluctant ballot for vanity.

In the present context, the term 'Honorable Mention' rings particularly true to me.

Never mind the low vote count; the quality of the entries is astounding. Here's to more such contests. Thank you, William.

Congrats, Cassie!

And thankyou to all entrants for sharing such thought-provoking poetry, and to William for offering the incentive for us to exercise our creative juices.

Contrary to common beliefs, I did not vote for myself.

Well done, everyone.

The entries in this contest really were a beautiful and stunning collection of poems. I've only been a part of two, here, but it's been humbling each time.

I nearly voted for my own too, poetinahat. I fully intended to, but as I told our host in the pm body that he never read, Sunrise made me cry, so I had to vote for it.

Congratulations to Cassie and all who entered. Thanks for another wonderful contest, william.

I really can't believe I got second place!

(And tied for third -- I really am feeling a bit stunned right now...)

I voted for "Adultery," because it was the poem that haunted me when I went to sleep.

Great efforts from all!

Congrats Cassie and all! Thanks for the contest William and thanks for entering to all of you who did! Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks for the contest, William, it was a pleasure to have participated.

Greetings people,

I just wanted to express the fact that I am both honored and delighted to have been a part of this contest.

I agree with everything that has already been said and am awed by the amount of talent and skill that was displayed here.

I also found myself delightfully surprised at some of the particpants.

Thank you everyone - for participating and voting and helping to make this such a great community for writers!!

I would also like to especially thank those who voted for me. I know some have mentioned voting for themselves - but I had to vote for the one I felt was the best (which was most definitely not mine!) or touched me the most and did not view this as something to "win" - but only something to participate in and enjoyed myself immensely.

In that light, I feel we are all the winners.

I am proud to be among you, my fellow writers!

Congratulations Cassie! Thank you William for hosting these fun contests. Also, thank you for caring about this site and personally investing in our aspirations of writing poetry. I appreciate you as a moderator. I didn't get to know JAlpha so much as she was leaving, as I was coming in the door for the first time. These contests, and the site in general, keeps me going. It's so frustrating to pursue writing sometimes, and these contests give so much incentive to "keep at it".

If there were some big smiley lips to select on here, I'd plant ya one!

kdnxdr

ps. Do you have a really big library??

Wow, I was gonna write this in the other thread but it's locked. I'd like to discuss the poems so I guess we'll do it here.

I had to laugh because right after I submitted my entry - I re-read it and hated it! Did that happen to anyone else?

I immediately saw better word choices, more concise editing steps, better formatting etc.

Hahaha! The worst case of "morning after" syndrome I've had in a long time!

Anyways, as soon as I read all the entries - it only confirmed my opinion of my poem - hahaha!

I'll discuss my thoughts on some other poems later but figured I'd start with mine first.

I find that my poems seem to be falling into a certain pattern. I found this one: wordy, overwritten and a little darker than I'd intended.

I'd hoped to show how men have many doubts and fears when confronted with the loss of emotional control that love often brings, as well as the fear of possible rejection and loss - but that we know that such a thing is inevitable if we are to grow and fulfill our destiny.

Anyways I hope some of you enjoyed it and I'm honored and humbled to have presented it for you.

Thank you, people.

Sharing the love

I admit I found it awfully hard voting for only one entry. The calibre and style of entries touched me on so many different levels. Can we pleeeeeease vote for more than one next time?

Congratulations, Cassie! And thank you William!

I voted for "Sunrise," and my second choice was ... "Dear Author," so however you slice it, Yeshanu was getting my vote. My other two "short list" picks were "Goodbye" and "Why Men Dance," and I went around and around on those four for a while. But "Sunrise" made me wish I had written it and just kept pulling me back, so that's what I went with.

Thank you everyone for submitting.

Brokenfingers,

As far as mechanics go, I am not the one to say. I would like to comment on the content of your poem. I have to say that when I read your poem, I could see so strongly your vulnerability as a man but, more than that, someone who doesn't want to give up when love has inflicted so many scars, even deep scars. So many people get numb to love, and sex for many, especially the young, becomes a one-dimentional substitute. Many people get where they stop letting themselves be vulnerable or they become so hard that they lose hope for love or they become so cold they have no need of love.

In this poem, you admit your willingness to risk hurting again for the sake of finding love. It's also a statement of celebrating life instead of embracing nowhere/nothingness.

And, it was like eating the sweet out of the honeysuckle to see you "out there making a fool of yourself, having fun".

Poem construction, that's someone else's crit.