Winners
Conformists of a feather
flock together.
Michael R. Burch, Nashville, Tennessee
The u of solitude allays the y of lonely.
The i in if precedes the o in only.
Michael Harmon, Scottsdale, Arizona
Runners Up
I sympathize truly my dear,
But as you see, I have a beer.
Robert Walton, King City, California
It’s always the common folk who must pay
When their leaders go looking for dragons to slay.
David Martin, Chantilly, Virginia
Honorable Mentions
Knowledge, bestow thy light upon the mind,
Lest pleasures waste and lucent trifles blind.
Joseph McKenzie, New Mexico
Face drenched with tears I wipe my eyes
with hope God hears my fervent cries
Jan Hersh
I want the facts that will inform my views.
I don’t need entertainment from my news.
James Ph. Kotsybar, Lompoc, California
Mid the forest, Dryad stood; hidden, oaken, silent wood,
Mid the glade, the Sun he splayed; folk content, they never strayed.
Neal Dachstadter, Knoxville, Tennessee
Participating Judges
Michael Curtis, Washington, DC
Joshua Philipp, Queens, New York
Damian Robin, Sheffield, United Kingdom
William Ruleman, Athens, Tennessee
James Sale, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Bruce Dale Wise, Naselle, Washington
Judge Michael Curtis poetically noted:
If I could improve it
I didn’t choose it.
I looked for wit, precision too,
Heart-felt feelings wouldn’t do.
__________________________________________________________________
RULES: To celebrate National Poetry Month, write a two-line poem (couplet) that rhymes. It’s nice to have some meter or the same number of syllables per line, but not required. Paste your poem into the comment section with your name, city, and state (no need to list your last name or email address if you don’t want to). No submission fee.
DEADLINE: April 30 midnight (***Deadline extended to May 1, midnight EST). Winner announced May 10.
PRIZE: Free Society of Classical Poets 2016 Journal due out later this spring.
JUDGE: Classical poets staff and advisory board will judge (which means they can’t compete, sorry)
Featured Image: “Candidates for Girton College” by Frederick Brown, 1884.
If you don’t know what to do
Just zip dip trip flip dippity doo
Spring is right around the corner,
So it’s time to plant the corn, sir!
An oxen set free is what we aspire
Then our goal of due course is to retire
–
Addiction is the magnified passion;
Love in extreme is the current fashion.
Tis a contest I see, so I’ll post a rhyme,
Perchance I shall win a book this time.
Hummingbird, hummingbird, please do return,
we bought a new feeder and you must learn.
Phoenicans shared tall mountains and desert scapes.
Now we return to our wonderland of hills and lakes.
Compare the sadness and anger of westerners,
to the suffering ‘alien other’ of our easterners.
The u of solitude allays the y of lonely.
The i in if precedes the o in only.
Michael Harmon
Scottsdale, Arizona
At the fiery cauldron or high up in the sky –
Dance with the devil or with the angels, fly!
face drenched with tears I wipe my eyes
with hope God hears my fervent cries
It’s rare that one can enter things for free,
unless it’s competitive poetry.
An old woman in black lies slumped in the gutter –
Smart bombs should be smarter.
People kindness relevant
So simple yet elegant
On the world’s political stage honeyed words
But only God’s gifts truth, sweet persistent birds.
Riches
My sleeping collie twitches in the sun
And counts the sheep he’s herded just for fun.
Elizabeth Spragins Fredericksburg, Virginia
Diana, Missoula, Montana
Absurd thoughts for a normal thinker,
rational to me, mad freethinker.
I emailed this now so I wouldn’t forget it,
and hoped you’d like it because, friends, you’ve just read it!
Awesome and very clever!!!!!
Jason, Dorset UK
Bring the cool rain
To earase my pain
Goddess, you are my prayer of death
And the blemished lamb sacrificed on the altar of powerlessness of worshipping you, here on earth!
Goddess, you are my blemished lamb and my prayer of death
sacrificed on the altar of powerlessness of worshipping you, here on earth!
O sapience, to you! The brightest flame!
Do taketh thee? Or giveth do you fame?
Corey Browning
Brooklyn, NY
Mid the forest, Dryad stood; hidden, oaken, silent wood,
Mid the glade, the Sun he splayed; folk content, they never strayed.
Neal Dachstadter
Knoxville, Tennessee
Modern Cynics
Distrusting, thus starving, with an ungrateful suspicion,
they murmur at their Moses in their Wilderness of Sin.
Pawling, New York
Heroes mown down like poppies in the field,
switch to the acoustic guitar, a worthy weapon and shield.
We sing comedy in our sour dreams
causing tragedy in their children’s tears
Radu Spinu
Bucharest , Romania