[Jennifer Gordon]

Alright, that settles it, now Hallowed E'en readies for its annual fete, we mull broken relationships and calmly assess the vestiges of what was in the face of how it ended, as if that will more than satisfy the fact "we" are not but singularly now "you" and whew! "I."
Fascinating.
This pretty number contemplates a variety of definitions for said alphabet letter, the couplet deftly clinching that thought with wherefore.
Happily we traverse the stream sans a hitch, flow marching steadily down to the enlightening close leaving a rather smug sense of having pulled off something in that listing, and I contratulate the sonneteer in creatively handling modern love's dilemma.

[Alan Rain]

The good thing about this sonnet is that I enjoyed it on a second and on subsequent readings. As sound, it is unforced and pleasing, and the accusation of 'list' isn't an issue for me in view of the thoughtful and entertaining unrolling of meanings. The end adds humanity to the musings of the identities of X.
For me, there isn't a stronger sonnet here, but on a slightly negative note, I read that the poem was submitted with a typo, and someone says it was workshopped here. I have no idea about this, but wonder (if this is indeed the case) how much of the poem is a result of collaboration.
Even so, taken as submitted, it is an impressive piece, and gets my vote.

[David Callin]

Originally Posted by Mary Meriam

I'll guess this is David Callin's fine, precise voice and thought. I love a poem with a lot of end-stopped lines. It makes the enjambments all the more moving.

Not me, Mary! (As we all now know.) But I am immensely flattered that you should think so. (Julie will, I am sure, be - understandably - somewhat less flattered by the comparison.)

Stupidly, I've come late to all of these - I thought we had much longer to comment and vote (note to self: RTFR, stupid) - but I too think this is terrific, and I didn't think the cleverness, which is undeniable, detracts from the power or emotional effect of the close.

I haven't read the others yet - although I do see that Desilu, which I love, has reappeared here - but if there is a better sonnet than this my flabber will be well and truly gasted.

Well done, Julie!

David

[Julie Steiner]

David, I considered it a compliment to be mistaken for you (and for Elise earlier). I'm sorry that the random-hodgepodge-slowly-giving-way-to-narrative didn't work for you, but if it didn't, it didn't. Thanks for your honesty.

Alan, I wholeheartedly agree with your point about the typo. I had been away from the Sphere for a few days by the time I saw that Simon had identified it and the TSDG fixed it, or I would have emailed Alex and asked for the typo to be restored, so that people could encounter it as it was submitted, and deduct points accordingly. But it seemed too late for that to do any good by the time I was aware of it.

Not that the following is an excuse, but I feel the need to explain why workshopping hadn't eliminated the typo. Whenever I cut and paste word-processed poems into Gmail, the hard returns at line-ends translate into paragraph breaks, so I always re-type them into the email message; in this case, I accidentally omitted a word, long after workshopping the poem.

As for how much of the poem was assembled by committee during the workshop process, here's my first draft of "X", if you want to compare:

X

Illiteracy’s mark, or wisdom’s rune.
Marauders’ crossbones, or a martyr’s cross.
A tempting cache of treasure, or the loss
of life-light from the eyes of a cartoon.

A player on the team that’s lost the ball.
A quantity unknown, or off the scale:
a rating given films beyond the pale,
or sizes very large or very small.

At Xmas, chi for Christ. The sum of V
and V, in Roman numerals. A ray
that tenderness can’t hinder on its way.
A crucial fragment of infinity.

A kiss goodbye. A rectified mistake.
And you. And I. Each other’s, since our break.

The only change I remember making in direct response to workshop comments was replacing "a martyr's cross" with "St. Andrew's cross." I did this after it became apparent that many readers were utterly flummoxed by "a martyr's cross", because they were picturing a Latin cross. I guess many people who know that the symbol on the flag of Scotland features St. Andrew's Cross don't know why that diagonal type of cross is associated with St. Andrew. (Legend says he was crucified on one.)

I'm still sorry to have lost the chime between "Marauders'" and "martyr's", though. Maybe

Marauders' crossbones; martyred Andrew's cross.

would be a good compromise. (I've never been comfortable with the metrical promotion of "or" in that line, anyway.)

I re-arranged Q2 on my own, after workshopping, because I decided that ending that stanza with the X-rated movies line could set up oblique (clearly too oblique for a lot of folks' liking) connotations of coupling or sexual desire in Q3. And I got rid of Xmas because as my drafts of Q3 became increasingly possibly-sexual, the religious reference seemed more and more out of place there.

Thanks for all the Bake-off comments on this, which I found very valuable.

[Alan Rain]

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

I re-arranged Q2 on my own, after workshopping, because I decided that ending that stanza with the X-rated movies line could set up oblique (clearly too oblique for a lot of folks' liking) connotations of coupling or sexual desire in Q3. And I got rid of Xmas because as my drafts of Q3 became increasingly possibly-sexual, the religious reference seemed more and more out of place there.

Julie,

I think I prefer your original, and see your point about the relation of maurader and martyr.
It thoroughly deserved to win in my view, whichever version was judged, and regardless of the typo.

What an interesting point about sexuality and acceptance. The sonnet I submitted was uncompromisingly X-rated, so I suppose it would not find favour with most judges on the US side of the pond. (Maybe I'm being presumptuous here). But I have had experience of parochial rejection before.

Again, X is a worthy winner.

[Matt Q]

Hi Julie,

Congrats on your win!

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

Not that the following is an excuse, but I feel the need to explain why workshopping hadn't eliminated the typo. Whenever I cut and paste word-processed poems into Gmail, the hard returns at line-ends translate into paragraph breaks, so I always re-type them into the email message;

Yes, this is pain. I do this: copy and paste the poem from Word into notepad, which won't add paragraph breaks. Then freshly select the whole poem in notepad, copy it and paste into gmail. One downside of this process is that you'll lose formatting, such as italics. If you don't have a PC, I'm guessing that macs have a basic text editor you can use.

-Matt

[Roger Slater]

You can also paste into Gmail, then select the whole thing and click on the "remove formatting" button, then re-format as you like.