[Marion Shore]

Congratulations to the winners of the popular vote! They appear in Alex's previous post, but I'll recap them here. In keeping with the bake-off theme, I've given awards in the form of doughnuts (or bagels if you prefer). I wish I could give actual baked goods, but these cyber versions will have to do:

Popular vote:

A Passenger - Robert Crawford ⓪⓪⓪
The Iamb - Elise Hempel ⓪⓪
Postcard - Quincy Lehr ⓪

For the Honorable Muffins, see Alex's previous post.
[I should mention some of the HM's were disqualified from the finals for being among "The Googleables” (doesn't that sound like a Pixar movie?)]


Your TSDG’s awards - (in the form of cupcakes)

The Hoarder - Gail White
I might have given this poem first prize for that one line alone "Children don't know beans!" Not to mention that killer last line! But it turns out the rest of the poem is great as well. Perhaps, as someone with two cats, on the verge of empty nest, I can relate to the poem especially well. Ironic, terrifying and tender.
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Postcard - Quincy Lehr
I love the dark reversal of "Postcard"- the way the stark bleak anti-romanticism turns out to be quite romantic after all!
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Streetlight – Woody Long
I'm a fan of psychological horror - the kind that works by suggestion. Not so much by what is, but what isn't said… It's hard to describe exactly what about this poem makes it so spookily, eerily, compelling. Which is, of course, why it's so good.
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I wanted to respond to a few points that came up in the very lively discussions. In the "The Great Escape” my feeling was that the poet did not mean to put Houdini's attempt to trick death on a par with Jesus's resurrection… On the contrary, he meant it in an ironic way – Houdini dealt in tricks, while Jesus's triumph over death was real. The comparison was ironic - in the same way John Lennon's much misinterpreted remark "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ" was ironic.

Also I had no trouble with "the train crew" in "Columbus Circle". As far as the use of train "crew" -- I'm an ex-pat New Yorker, and I well remember the sign that warned: "Subway tracks are dangerous. If the train stops between stations, do not go out. Stay inside. Follow the instructions of the train crew or the police." (And then, lyrically, in Spanish, "La via del tren subterraneo es peligrosa…”). Anyway, the train crew delightfully parallels Columbus's crew, who, you recall, wanted to turn back because they were (understandably) afraid of falling off the edge of the world.

I want to thank all the poets who submitted their work to this competition. Not only did I enjoy reading each and every one, I was heartened by the fact that so many people are writing sonnets! Keep' em coming! Remember, you can’t have too many sonnets!