Summer Poetry Contest Discussion Thread

[Angeline]

Here's a thread if anyone wants to talk about the poems in the contest. You can use this link to access any of the poems.

I loved semi-finalist poem 12, an untitled piece from a new poet for me, Rain_Lover. It's so erotic, raw and intimate but in terms of the criteria of the contest "summer" is only mentioned once and "summer night" was not strong enough (it could be seen as a cliche) to carry the poem, as I think "straw hat" did in butters' poem. But it's a wow poem for me.

And Tristesse's Siesta and Storm (Poem 4) is beautiful and almost painfully erotic. If you look at what she's doing line by line, skilled application of assonance and alliteration, occasional rhyme give the poem a subtle lilt. Just read the first lines and you see it.

There are others I should mention, but maybe later. Life calls...

Please come in to talk about the poems if you're so moved.

 

[butters]

great, there's so much to say about so many of the entries *nods*

for example, the end lines of kitten1964's piece The Summer Ocean

I understand how myths could arise of
ocean gods seducing mortals.
I swim in the fluids that are so much like the womb,
and am reborn with each orgasm.

really like the concept here, with all its allusions, and that last line that works especially well by playing off the conceit of le petite mort - if this is reincarnation, well, i'm all for it

 

[butters]

Tess' piece

Siesta and Storm

really builds the tension of that waiting for the sky to break open, the crawling humidity, the 'stacked and serious' creating the mood as well as the weight of the clouds....

most of all, though, i love the final three lines:

Separating, satisfied, I dream of
breezes as he lies awake listening
to sudden rain.

who of us can't associate with laying there, in the dark, the heat, and that release of tension as the waters break?

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

I found all the finalists were so good but butters' poem ticked all the boxes in the simplest way, it was a toss-up between butty and remec's entry although I did love the others too. I don't like being a judge, they're all winners.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Why isn't that link working for me? I'm missing half of the poems and have yet to find Tess' !

 

[Angeline]

Why isn't that link working for me? I'm missing half of the poems and have yet to find Tess' !

I'm sorry Annie. I don't know why that link isn't working for you. When I click it it goes to the thread with the finalists and in the first post of that thread are links to all the semi-finalist threads. Maybe someone else can check it. It is working for me.

Maybe I did something cack-handed.

But anyway here is a link to Tristesse's poem that I hope works. Let me know if it doesn't.

 

[Angeline]

Here are a few more poems that, to my amazement, did not make the cut to the finals. I think this proves there was a hell of an submissions pool for this contest. Choosing was tough.

First is 'I am the sole heir...' by WiliamButlerYeats. This is sophisticated writing, with a monologue buried in the poem that clarifies the line between appearance and reality. I loved this poem when I first saw it maybe because the author's name automatically puts me in a receptive mood, but more likely because it is lyrical without any rigidity and sadness permeates it like smoke. And I could swear the author has been reading Wallace Stevens based on those last two lines. This would not surprise me as bflaggst (yeah him, aka WB Yeats) and I tend to love the same poets, I've noticed.

And then there's HarryHill's The Deflowering of Lilly Phelps. Poems that rhyme in any particular order tend not to be favorites around here but this poem to me has incredible narrative power as well as a subtly foreshadowed and seamless shift into erotica. No matter what you think about rhyme or whether you see poetry as anti or reconcilable, this is muscular writing.

Finally there's a haiku called Summer from justine_1962. It's short and a sort of ersatz haiku (as darkmaas often says, it is not a form that seems to translate well in English), and yet to me it feels damn close to perfect. It creates a single image that manages to convey both erotic and summer, deeply yet economically.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I'm sorry Annie. I don't know why that link isn't working for you. When I click it it goes to the thread with the finalists and in the first post of that thread are links to all the semi-finalist threads. Maybe someone else can check it. It is working for me.

Maybe I did something cack-handed.

But anyway here is a link to Tristesse's poem that I hope works. Let me know if it doesn't.

Well I can categorically say I've not even read it before! How can that be? Love these lines ........... two tears of sweat shiver from my nipples,
brief crystals mirrored. gone in a thrust.