[Terese Coe]

John,

Thanks for all your panache as Master of Ceremonies and Judge! A thoroughly enjoyable Bake-Off. My congratulations to all the winners and participants!

"Why You Can't Go Home Again" was previously published in Interlude in the UK.

[Michael Cantor]

Congratulations to all, thank you hugely, John, for the hosting, and a particular thanks for selecting mine as your personal choice. And double congratulations to Julie, for winning the popular vote.

I'll e-mail you the address, John, and look forward to Marilyn Monroe. I hope it's not too difficult to inflate. Thanks very much.

[Tim Murphy]

Thank you so much, John. A splendid affair, and my thanks to the 51 contestants.

[Mary Meriam]

Breakfast Radio: Janet Kenny - well, I knew this was yours by the sound and the bird, your unique style.
Zyzzyva: Catherine Chandler-Oliveira - perhaps I couldn't escape the effect of seeing zzzzzzzs.
Where are the Negligees of Anthony: Michael Cantor - you always get the girl, dammit.
Farewell, Farcia: Mary Meriam - y'all missed the bouts-rimés, except Sir John, who got it: Auden's ‘Stop all the clocks’.
February 18: Tim Murphy - I knew you wrote this.
Happy Birthday: Orwn Acra - could have sworn R.S. Gwynn wrote it. WTG, Orwn!
In Memoriam: Edmund Conti - such a fine poem.
Skiddoo Skiddon't: Robert Schechter - I knew 'twas you, your style, skiddoo.
Innards: Ann Drysdale - vat a surprise! Let me introduce you to Rose Kelleher. Her poems, I realize now, are perhaps more about plant innards than animal.
Sonnet on a First Line: O'Carroll/Osen - congrats!
The News Comes Every Morning: Quincy Lehr - congrats!
Why You can't Go Home: Teresa Coe - so polished, such a fine use of form and language.
The Spanish Ambassador's Daughter: Julie Stoner - remember you couldn't get through my "Wompo Week with Poet S"? The feeling is mutual, m'dear. I wonder if this illustrates the het-homo taste divide? Whatever! We shall carry on.
4= Mary Meriam and Ann Drysdale - how nice to share a line with you, Ann.

I realize my three picks were more about the use of form and language than about whether the poem was light or not, or funny or not.

Thanks, John.

[FOsen]

I've been privately stewing since the "Sonnet on a First Line" went up, because when I pulled this out of its virtual drawer and titled it (a nod to Sam Gwynn's classic, “Ballade Beginning with a Line by Robert Bly”), I somehow managed to transpose the last name of Dr. Mehmet Oz (Oprah’s doctor, author of the dipstick line) so grievously.

Now comes John's announcement and I'm relieved to find out it's evidently all Chris O'Carroll's fault.

At any rate, in an effort to set this Nabokovian mess straight:

The poem should be titled "Sonnet on a First Line by Dr. Mehmet Oz" and it was written by Frank [FOsen] Osen.

Apologies to Dr. Oz and Mr. O'Carroll.

Thanks, all.

Frank

[Julie Steiner]

What fun! I was SO WRONG in my guesses, LOL!

In particular, Michael, I could have sworn you were Sam! Apparently we've a pair of these parodists. Paradise! (And don't worry about inflation--the Obama Administration has promised to keep it under control.) Congratulations!

Ed Conti, so glad to see you in these parts again--please stick around!

Mary--regarding your het/homo taste divide comment above--when I explain the backstory on my poem's thread, you might reconsider whether the narrator doesn't have a bit of a crush on the girl herself...although you probably won't like the poem any better. Some people just don't like dated subject matter, excessive enjambment, untranslated foreign language snippets, and enormous portions of all of the above. And that's okay! Plenty of other fine poems to choose from in this Bake-Off.

Thanks to all who participated, and thanks to John for all the heavy lifting of the light stuff.

[Catherine Chandler]

John,

Thanks again for all of your hard work in the light verse bake-off. I've written 4 light poems in my life, and I'm happy you chose "Zyzzyva" for the final cut (previously published in Umbrella.

Congratulations to the top 3 on both lists!

[Orwn Acra]

Congrats to everyone and congrats to Julie, your poem was pretty fantastic.

For those wondering, I wrote the birthday poem for my sister, who enjoyed it a lot.

[Martin Elster]

Thank you, John. And congratulations to the winners. I could easily have voted for any three of the 13 poems. I thought they were all great and enjoyed them immensely.

Martin

[Tim Murphy]

I want to make some acknowlegment to Edward Conti and to Orwn Acra, whom I suspect are the eldest and youngest of our finalists. Mr. Conti, it is good to see you mixing things up with the hoi polloi. Please stick around. Orwn, I am just amazed at your poem. What an accomplishment for a laddie. Didn't you seek us out when you were in high school? Take very good care of yourself.