[stephenspower]

Putting quality aside, recognizing that any judgment is subjective and avoiding any sour grapes that mine wasn't chosen either, I can't get past the fact that seven of the ten finalist were about the elderly or growing old (including the internet poem, whose narrator is probably older than 60).

Was the bake-off sponsored by the AARP? Were nearly 240 of the submissions on this subject or theme, so the sample was simply representative? I appreciate the judges noting their criteria for why they chose individual poems. I'd also be interested in hearing how they pulled the ten selections together as a group. Was balance of types, as you would find on a reality show, considered?