[Pedro Poitevin]

Congratulations to Susan, Cathy, and Brian!

[Janice D. Soderling]

Marilyn Taylor is also one of "us". Congratulations to all four in alphabetical order: Brian, Cathy, Marilyn, Susan.

[R. S. Gwynn]

Congrats to all! An impressive list. Susan, where can we see the poems?

[Susan McLean]

Sam, I have heard that the poems will appear in the March issue of Measure.

Susan

[Terese Coe]

Well done, Brian, Cathy, Marilyn, and Susan!

[Gail White]

Thank you, Susan! The list came in the mail for me today too.

And add my congratulations to all our finalists!

And Susan, I know what you mean about being surprised at the poem the judges chose... For years I sent the Nemerov only what I considered my best, most-polished sonnet of the year. Nada. Then one year I said "Oh well, might as well send this one too, nobody's taken it." And that was the one chosen. And the same the next year.

MORAL: Always send at least two entries! Because you never know...

[Gail White]

FURTHERMORE... I would like to backtrack a little and say I've been surprised by the number of fine poets here who say they have NEVER entered the Nemerov contest because the competition looks too stiff. In the first place, any contest with an entry fee of only $3.00 per entry ought to be worth entering repeatedly, and in the second place, it's not as though the same few people had it monopolized. The first 20 years produced 15 different winners, and only the great Mike Juster has won 3 times and been promoted to Emeritus status. There are some of you I've just been WAITING to see win this thing who aren't even TRYING...So please, don't sit it out!!

[R. Nemo Hill]

I don't think the results are as diverse as your post suggests, Gail, if you look also at the usual runners-up each year. It seems quite evident to me (even before this illuminating thread) that the Nemerov is a small contest between Bill Baer's favorite poets. Though we all have our favorite poets, our personal tastes, I find it somewhat odd to enshrine any single individual's tastes (no matter who they are) as some sort of objective ideal—and thus conclude that the competition is somehow "stiff".

I think, given the current organization of the judging, it would make sense to eliminate from the competition anyone who has won it once. It would, at the very least, help to expand the hidden judge's horizons.

But then poetry competitions are pretty much anathema to my idea of our art anyway. So there it is.

Nemo

[Roger Slater]

But at least 10 out of 20 years the winner has been a Pow Wow poet, so if you're serious about winning, move to Massachusetts.

[Julie Steiner]

Last year's winner, chosen by Sam Gwynn, was refreshingly atypical for a Nemerov finalist. Unfortunately, I must confess that I personally didn't much care for that particular sonnet.

Did I not like it because it was atypical? I honestly don't think so. I was happy to see such a dramatically different approach. I just didn't think it was as well-executed a poem as I thought it could have been.

The disorienting, extra-metrical numbers started to feel very gimmicky by the end of the octave...especially when they started presenting phrases that were apparently meaningless (can anyone explain "the meat that froze" to me?) and redundant (are "a pig's exquisitely sensitive nose" and "a nocturnal grunt who sniffs out treasure" different enough to justify separate listings?). And I found the tame and tepid scenario of the sestet unconvincing...although I realize that it may have been the point to leave the reader unconvinced of Caliban's harmlessness and impotence.

But it's probably a bad idea for me to say I'd like to see more variety among Nemerov winners, and then to stomp all over that variety when I get it.