First of all a big thank you for all the participants and all the readers who supported the competition.
As you probably know by now the poem “The Storm in My Black Belly” won the competition, with 922 votes. Bindu won a $100 gift card to Amazon.
The runners-up were “The Invisible Entertainer”, “The Moon is My Cradle” and “Perfect…?”. The three authors won a free license to a time-tracking and invoicing software. If if you are one of winners expect to receive an email from me soon.
Finally, here is the winning poem once again.
The Storm in My Black Belly by Bindu Saxena
When my lady held me – I quivered with dread; I knew of the ordeal that stretched ahead…
She took me at the corner, she took me in the street; I followed her swamped in a sense of defeat.
She took me to the market, the pavement, the stall; I tested my patience – no bicker, no brawl.
Invariably, too she would run into, “a friend.” And launched into chatter that signaled no end;
Her fingers fluttered, she waggled her head, secured in her palm – “I wished I were dead!”
And though, to her, this was joy & delight; it filled me with stark & unreasoning fright.
The minutes & hours plodded painfully by; her endless chatters & my battery, continued to dry!
Left, Right and Centre my face got pinched –until my lady’s ‘DATE’ was clinched!
She flew me skies, where I rested for a while; Network out, what a relief to my pout!
Here came Diwali. The fireworks, the celebrations , the lightings & thunder ..
For a friend anew, and Lo! Was I surrendered..
Back to Air Tel, from where had I come. Lay I appeased.
Quietly told myself & ceased …
Great job, everybody! I hope you all will continue to write.
Emily, I knew you could do it!!
Daniel, I would love to see the judging more professional and less of a popularity contest or who has the most Facebook friends. Do you think you and Maeve and ?? whomever could judge the next time?
Daniel, I would love to see the judging more professional and less of a popularity contest or who has the most Facebook friends. Do you think you and Maeve and ?? whomever could judge the next time?
The poem that got the first prize, was difficult to understand or relate to. Perhaps it stemmed out of something very personal (to the author). There were many other ‘gems’ that shone brighter, but didn’t get enough ‘ckicks’.
Does this person have a lot of friends, I wonder, or is there something in the title or content that attracts a bloc vote regardless of how good or bad it is? Generally there was some very interesting poetry that never got look in.
@Wallace, we’ll consider that for next editions.
In response to Chandrashekara’s comment ~ maybe something fun for our next poetry competition:
Since poetry usually does stem from personal experiences and often speaks to each reader differently, I think it would be an interesting activity for us to voice – perhaps in a sentence or two – our interpretation of the winning piece. Maybe we could tell what we think the writer was talking about, the theme or lesson to be learned…I personally read The Storm in My Black Belly several times trying to do just that. It certainly would create some unique feedback for the writer.
…just a bit of food for thought…
Thanks for considering it Daniel. I think it would make the contest more meaningful.
May I respond to AmaT:
I agree with you 100% on that “poetry usually does stem from personal experiences and often speaks to each reader differently”… But here we are talking about winning the first prize, which in other words translates into appealing to more or most number of readers. If a poem stems from something that is not ‘very personal’ then it would have a greater chance of appealing to a larger audience. Do you agree?
In some way it might be my own inadequacy to understand the deeper thoughts. Any way… no offense at all !!
Great job, Emily! Hope you enter again!
The poem which wins the first prize does not have a perfect poetic form. The length of each line is too long. It could be divided into couplets. Next time when you judge a poem do not depend on votes only because the voters could be close friends or members of the family of the writer. Let some experts to be involved in the judgement. There are many poems in the competition which are better than this one. I admire this kind of activity. Please go on and let us have more competitions.
Hana, it is true. These days however it seems, in the world of poetry at least, formlessness is the form.
But, your point is well taken in that this poem comes close enough to formal poetry that it is distracting when it strays away. Also, the violation of form does not seem to be “poetic licence” or for the purpose of an emotional impact.
I agree! More competitions! Poetry is one of the most challenging things to master and it is my experience that the good prose writers are also good poets. Using sound, pacing, and rhythm are important to any writing and poetry is a good place to explore those things!
What is this poem about?
Personally, I prefer poetry that speaks of human emotions. Who cares what a cell phone thinks or feels (if that’s the speaker of this poem)?
I like study english.
Congratulations to the winner.
I am sorry to say I was disappointed when I read the winning poem. My first time on this site and when I saw ” the winner ” of a poetry competition: I was expecting something different,especially on a site for English improvement.
I haven’t read the rest of poems submitted,but from the comments here, it seems this was more of a popularity contest. I was expecting a contest judged by experts in English.
This winner is a fun piece, without following the normal poetry guidelines.
Maybe I should just read the rest of the entries.
This is joke, right? This person doesn’t even understand the difference between a comma, dash, and semicolon.
I think the winning poem is nice. I haven’t seen the other poems so I wouldn’t say if its worth the price or not. However, its worth being called a poem.
In as much as I would agree that the competition shouldn’t only be based on votes but also on contents, I make bold to say that the poem has a good content. And the rhythm is recommendable.
I also would like to say that the poems entered for the competition should be analysed by readers. However, the analyses given shouldn’t be used as a criterion for awarding the price because every poem is unique and the understanding of the readers might not be the same as what the poet as written.
Some are asking for a panel of judges but I disagree because the best person to judge a poem is the poet. Only he or she knows what weight the poem carries. Poems aren’t novels as such they should not be judged like novels. Hence, there should be no panel of judges because the panel could be partial in her judgement.
If there must be a panel to judge the poems, the panel should outline the areas of life or topic(s) they would like the poems to cover. That would be better for the competition.
Generally, I think a poem shouldn’t be said to be better than others unless they all point to a particular area or thing.