Or you could just randomly insert yours somewhere in the middle every time. That way, you can keep posting them the same way you do now, but yours won’t always be in the same spot.
Well, on the logistics thread, it is the rough order on which they are received is always mentioned. It’ll say something like “got poems from ButtMunch, DonkeyBreath and Evil Lemon 22.” Then later, there will be another message of “Love waking up to poems from PantsFan and Eye8Cheez-Its!” All in all, we can figure out the order if the poems are in the order they are received. Some sort of alphabetical order or something random would be fine.
Nah, yours is the best one. It’s also the only one I voted for.
Man, am I ever glad I didn’t let you pick my username! 
I’ve never been able to “get” poetry, so I hope you accept my opinions as honest outside ones, rather than simply ignorant.
I read the poems in a random order and I haven’t spoiled myself to their authorship. Once I read them all, I went back over them again to write an opinion and a vote/no-vote score. I’m not limiting the number of votes; it could be as many as all or as few as none.
-
Science nitpick: the geology is off–the plates are splitting at Iceland, not converging. I like the topic, but the patterning is weak. Overall I like the poem. Voted.
-
Short and cute subject. I don’t like the rhythm; it’s too jerky, maybe? Not voted.
-
Slightly cryptic topic; there’s not really enough to understand what it’s about. Patterning is not apparent. Not voted.
-
Interesting story. I like the patterning. This is probably my favorite. Voted.
-
It’s difficult for me to parse. The development and resolution of the story is good. But the structure doesn’t do anything for me. Not voted.
-
Good story. The poem feels like it should be a song, but it doesn’t quite make it. This is the hardest one for me to decide, but I will come down on not voted.
-
Excellent patterning. I really like the rhythm. However, I can’t figure out the topic enough to appreciate it. Overall, the poem feels incomplete; that is I want more, and the lack of understanding or resolution bothers me. Barely voted.
-
I like the story, but the overall feel is prose. Not voted.
-
I like the picture, but nothing else captures me. Not voted.
-
Subject is good, patterning is good. Definitely a good poem, although not really interesting to me. Not voted.
-
I don’t like the patterning that I find. The topic is okay, but not engaging to me. Not voted.
This is my poem. Just in case it might influence the voting, I’m spoilering my comments.
[SPOILER]Interesting response. I never intended for it to be something that had a particular resolution or understanding. I just liked the way it sounded (except for where I had to shoehorn in “illuminate” because I didn’t think carefully enough about the meter before I started :mad:).
It’s not supposed to have a meaning that you can figure out, rather it’s intended to nudge your imagination in a (hopefully) entertaining direction.[/SPOILER]
Not all poems are supposed to have a “pattern.” It’s called free verse. Some poets adhere to rhyme and meter; some poets use the white space to emphasize the words that ends the lines.
I noticed a lot of your comments were about there not being a pattern. A poem shouldn’t be judged just because it isn’t a sonnet. Or haiku. Or cinquain. Or ballad … and on and on… There’s more to a poem than its form, rhyme and meter.
You are entitled to your opinion; art is very subjective. I suggest that we all look beyond our preconceived notions of “poetry” and at least let the taste of other types and forms linger on our tongues. If you don’t like it’s taste after really sampling it, by all means, spit it out. But you never know what you might like if you open your mouth (and mind) to something new.
I think this was a response to me?
By “pattern” a mean something, anything that distinguishes a writing from prose. It can be spacing or word emphasis. In a poem with a clear rhyme or rhythm it’s easy to find the pattern and enjoy it. If it’s something else, it takes me more work, but the payoff can be higher if I like it. If I can’t find anything to distinguish writing from prose, then it’s prose to me. Which is not a bad thing; I like prose.
There were only two poems that I couldn’t find a pattern: 4 (Crom) and 7 (Theseus). The Theseus story is one I liked. If it were extended more and made a more complete story, I would like it, as prose. For the Crom work, I found the linkage to the Conan world (which I like) too hard to find and I couldn’t find a pattern to engage me otherwise. It could be both of these poems had a pattern that I failed to find, but I have to judge by what I can see.
The other poems, I found a pattern of some sort. I liked some more than others. It was not the only thing I judged each poem on. The topic and the story or image were as important.
Our poll has closed, bringing the April 2010 SDMB Poetry Sweatshop to a close. Once again, hearty congratulations to all the participating poets - **melodyharmonius, Cuckoorex, Crowbar of Irony +3, Rodgers01, Elendil’s Heir, AppallingGael, In Winnipeg, Serenata67, Maserschmidt **and The Hamster King - for their great contributions.
And very special congratulations go out to Elendil’s Heir, whose very moving Theseus, in Darkness was chosen as the favourite poem, making him the SDMB Poet Laureate.
My thanks to the Mods for their ongoing support, and I hope we can do this again in late May. Warmest wishes to all,
Le Ministre de l’au-delà
Many thanks! That was fun.
Congratulations Elendil’s Heir!!
Thanks for administering the contest; it was fun as usual. Congratulations to Elendil’s Heir for being named April Poet Laureate.
Congrats Heir 
Yay! Congrats, Heir!
A note regarding “pattern” and Crom’s Lament:
I know that I tend to experiment with some odd combinations of free verse and rhyming patterns, and I’m also aware that I need a lot more practice to develop the skills to really make those “sing” wihout needing to employ obvious patterns. In this case, the most non-obvious pattern can be seen in the number of lines per stanza descending to the final two, rhyming lines; also the lines in the first stanza are more like sentence fragments, loosely related thoughts; the second stanza has more coherent thought and sentence structure; the third stanza attempts to complete a transition from impulsive thought to cognition and observation and finally to deeper contemplation. With more time and practice, the desired effect would be a movement from chaotic thought to deliberate, ordered reasoning. I need to work on more effective ways of conveying concepts like this, obviously!
I like playing with pattern too - I wish I could find it - but I have one poem I wrote where the pattern was syllabic and actually increased and decreased like a melodic crescendo.
I was so proud of myself when I was done, but realized very few would ever notice.
Or, you need to take individual feedback with a grain of salt. Just because *one *person didn’t appreciate what you were going for didn’t mean that *no one *did. (Nor does that invalidate the opinion of the person that didn’t like it–I’m simply underscoring the subjectivity of analyzing certain aspects of any creative endeavor.)
Congrats, Elendil’s Heir, thanks to everyone for voting (especially the 18.18% of you who voted for meeee :)) and feedback, and big round of applause for Le Ministre for hosting another great sweatshop!
How do you think the multi-voting went, Le Min? I think it turned out pretty well.
Even had it not had this outcome, I liked it, and hope we’ll continue to do it this way.
I should have said something - I’m very pleased about how that turned out. Between the longer polling period, the sticky while the poll is open (Thanks, Mods!) and the multiple choice polling, I have the impression that readers are becoming much more comfortable about expressing their opinions. As well, this one didn’t have as much build-up as some of the others (my fault for having computer woes!) and yet, it was still up there in terms of views and voting.
Unless there are any strong objections, I’d like to keep the voting as it was this last time.