[Roger Slater]

ROUND 2 is now open for voting. Please vote. I was required to use the word "nascent" in my children's poem. My opponent was required to use "bailiwick."

Current link for voting

Some of you might remember this from last year. It's a children's poetry tournament structured like the NCAA basketball tournament. Sixty-four poets start out in 32 match-ups, and each round cuts half of them, until eventually there is one champion. The catch is that you have to use a word you're assigned in each round.

If you'd like to vote for me or my opponent, you may do so easily enough with two clicks, without having to register.

PS-- As most of you know, my real name isn't Roger Slater. The poem using "nascent" is mine. (Last round, which is over, my poem used "nadir").

[Michael Juster]

No moral qualms with my vote--you crushed her!

[Nausheen Eusuf]

Hey, this is so cool! Just voted for your poem, which is definitely the better of the two. Nice photo, by the way.

Nausheen

[Janice D. Soderling]

Voted. Hope you win. I'd be surprised if you didn't.

[Catherine Chandler]

Voted. Keep us posted on the progress of the "madness" !

[Michael Cantor]

You have my vote - and a commanding two-to-one lead. Good poem! Out of curiosity, how much time are you given to write them? Or did you already have a "nadir" poem hanging around, just in case.

[Charlie Southerland]

I voted for you. You typically write great children's verse. This one was no exception.

Good luck, from a Calvinist.
charlie.

[Roger Slater]

Thanks, Charlie.

I won the first round. In addition to the popular vote, the "authlete" vote (i.e., the vote of my fellow competitors) went my way 35-11, and the student vote went my way 15 classrooms to 5.

I get my new word at 1 pm today and have to turn in my poem by midnight tomorrow. This could definitely be a problem for me, since I have a lot of things scheduled between now and then that will keep me from having much time to work on my new poem. So there's my excuse, in advance, for losing. (And if I don't lose Round 2, it looks like I'm likely to face very stiff competition in Round 3, the fellow who finished second in the competition last year).

[Roger Slater]

New round is up, and I could use your vote. Just click in the "public vote" box beneath the poems, then click "Vote." Two clicks and you're done.

My word was "nascent," and my opponent's word was "bailiwick." I went for a "serious" poem, she went for laughs. I'm a bit annoyed that my opponent's poem is 14 lines long (not a sonnet) even though the line limit for the round is supposed to be 8 lines max. There doesn't seem to be any penalty for not following the rule, oddly enough.

[Michael Cantor]

I voted for you, Roger, but it took some floundering. You don't have a link to the new competition, either in the initial announcement or in the update, and I had to hunt around to find it. I can understand that you're being a good guy and not starting a new thread for every round, but suggest that (a) you update the initial post so that the new competition and the new link are right at the top, and (b) indicate them again in your update. And if you get past this round (and you're presently leading), this Slater fan has no problems with either a new thread for each round, or working with a Mod to change the title of the existing thread every time you enter a new round.

Here's the new link: http://www.thinkkidthink.com/10-nasc...-15-bailiwick/

Also - if your opponent broke the rules (and it seems to me she did - you can't really regard those two-line stanzas as one very long line), can't you file a complaint? Can a voter file a complaint in the interests of fair play? (If we don't raise our voices now, the next thing you'll see is limitations being removed from public elections, so that wealthy individuals and corporations can "buy" their representatives.)