This is from an e-mail I sent Rhina this morning. I don't know why I didn't post it, but I'll repeat it here:
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Dear Rhina,
With what surprise I saw that you named my sonnet in your top tier! I had assumed you would simply ratify the results of the poll, where I made a poor [non-]showing.
Truth to tell, although I like the end of 'Phenomenon', I dislike lines 1-4, which are leaden. I consider 'Aftershocks' a 'Great' poem. The closing couplet of Gerry's energetic sonnet are firmly lodged in my mind as lines I NEED (it's what I want a poem to be--something to help me go through life.) I love Catherine's, and that 'drowsy Christendom' and final 'salaam' are magnificent.
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P.S. I enjoyed the secret-author set-up, and I didn't miss authors' comments about their own poems; but in some of these the author was known (inevitably, in our tiny world), so on balance I agree with Michael (and Tim, to whom we all owe innumerable thanks for the time and patience he put into this, as well as other things Spheroid).
Deborah
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