Weekly Winners - 2016-07-04

Mark here! Let me just take this moment to thank the previous judges for all their hard work! It's a new judging cycle, so good luck to our new judges and know that your service is very much appreciated!

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend, and hope that y'all down south have a happy Fourth of July! Without further ado, the weekly winners are DarkLight with the humorous poem "England", myself with the poem "On Warmth" (thank you judges: D). There are three pieces tied for third place, and the site will break it! That said, congrats to all those who won and picked up a HM! Thank you judges (both current and previous) for you hard work as well!

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Winners:

"On Warmth" by Senyru: (10pts + 7pts + 7pts)
"England" by DarkLight: (10pts + 4pts)
"The Answer" by Brookie (10 pts)

HMs:

"Summer Night Solstice (in the park)" by Larry(10 pts)
"With its death" by Bozhidar Pangelov (10 pts)
"Certainty" by Ether (7 pts)
"Devocalization" by Poet on the Piano (7pts)
"Spirits disbelieve in Love" by GB (7 pts)
"Shudder" by Bozhidar Pangelov (4 pts)
"Hollow Victory (Senyru)" by Ingrid (4 pts)
"To the angels (goodbye)" by Ben Pickard (4 pts)
"Dissection" by Maple Tree (4 pts)

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Winner Comments:
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On Warmth by Senyru (10 pts)

This poem by mark is truly breathtaking.

The nature tones within this elegant piece is just the right touch of romance. Using months within a poem is very significant of the mood setting and I always have loved this angle when used in poetry.

The play on words is very delightful and the end... just grabbed my heart!

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On warmth by Senryu (7 pts)

I just melted all over. Firstly, I have a fascination with poetry that mentions months, this one does it more than once. Second, "lapping of wind on August nights" reminded me of a trip to South America once. Overall the poem was beautifully worded. Lovely poem from a truly talented writer.

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On Warmth by Senyru (7 points)

I LOVE titles that lead with a preposition..yours was simple and catchy.

The poem starting off with a model verb expressing hopes and wishes, instantly puts the reader in the writer's tone.

The combination of words is magical, and once read again with the accompanied image, it all made a certain structure, the whole scene seemed warm for real. The word choice are cozy and sweet..

"summer solstice speaking
six short verses:"

^

that was very creative!

The lines that followed blew my mind. It's one of those poems that leave you either speechless or with so much stuff that you need to shout out with a loud tone.
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England Title by Darklight (10 pts)

This piece is a cute mark of history that maintains more than the (pardon my pun) darker side of history that many other authors would have captured within some long, drawn out, explicitly detailed memoir style piece. Though this write was quick and humorous, it is also quite satirical to the modern mind considering the origins of the "roses are red, violets are blue" phrasings. Not to mention the incredible culture shock this brings to the rest of the world.

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England by DarkLight (4 pts)

What a charming and enthralling piece. The reason I voted for this, this week was because it rings true to real life issues. Though life might be dark, sometimes you have to make something positive or funny out of it. That is what this poem does for me. The punctuation was spot on as well, so it was easy and quick to read, but it sends a message. Nice work.

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The Answer by Brookie (10 pts)

While I was reading this poem all I was thinking was wow, every single line was powerful and bold. The details in this poem are remarkable and you could truly feel the pain of the character inside. I could feel the fear and could picture the hallway in the school/job well. The emotions are real! Even in today's society we are full of hate, so that fear is very real. And the part I loved the most was the ending as you touched so well on women's issues. Trans women perhaps, as the trans community gets a bad rap for being perverted. It makes me sad that this is still an issue in 2016, but non the less, thank you for sharing such a beautiful and sad poem.

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HM Comments:
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Summer Night Solstice (in the park) by Larry Chamberlin the Godfather (10 pts)

This is mind-blowing, it's a 3D-HD poem in motion. The word choice and descriptive tone hits mountains with its rich and vivid influence, thus forming powerful emotions and different images in the mind.

Intense and deep, I'm into poems that do not stuff words and jam linking words and adjectives to force a poem, this one is simply beautiful and stands out clearly amid other poems, again, this week.

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With its death by Bozhidar Pangelov (10 pts)

Though this poem is short, it pulled me in. As morbid as it seems there is always beauty in death. Most always death comes with peace, usually we all yearn for living. There may be metaphoric symbolism throughout but, I took the piece to be mostly literal. Touching and beautiful.

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Certainty by Ether 7 points

What a wonderful and thought provoking poem. This is another poem that rings truth behind the meaning itself. Nothing in life is for certain at all and people claim you be all knowing when they only know very little. I voted for this because it is different but in a good way.

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Devocalization by Poet on the Piano 7 points

I had to look up what the procedure of devocalization was because this was absolutely heartbreaking. Not that I have any pets or anything, but this still put me into a trance of just how horrible the world can be to beings it doesn't fully understand. There was so much passionate personality in this piece as though something so terrible had actually affected the author, and the audience. The diction and syntax were spot on for the poignant devastation this projected upon me in all my read-throughs (1 through about 10). Even though the end was captivating, and the true punch every piece needs, the thing I feel deserves the most praise in this piece is the introduction and how smoothly it pulls the reader in without many questions being asked, but the story already missing something - if that makes sense. "I cannot hear its roaring thunder when I fall asleep" instantly cleared up to me, why so many people find their pets to be so comforting. Absolutely phenomenal piece.

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Spirits disbelieve in Love. by GB (7 pts)

Samia wrote such a touching poem this week, made me shiver.

Slavery= Hatred and control.

She gave the spirits a voice with this piece... bought with "cents" speaks such volumes, the value of these precious souls speak a powerful message...

I can't express how much I adore this poem... just beautiful!

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Shudder by Bozhidar Pangelov 4 points

The imagery here is stunning, the style here is unique and yet entirely simple (which is a good thing here). I love how there was such a diverse use of personality between the parentheticals and the quotations. The use of relatable yet personal imagery allows for each person to take this piece in their own way while also finding most of the author's intended meaning as well. Though this piece is a rapid read, it has captivated me for over an hour; I'm nearly certain that others will be able to find this write as something truly remarkable in it's own respects.

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Hollow Victory (Senryu) by Ingrid (4 pts)

Ingrid!!!!!

You brought it home this week for me dear lady!

Give the one you love the "Silent Treatment" speaks on high levels that words can not.... Sometimes being silent express the hurt and anger far better than words ever could....

A senryu worthy of being highlighted...

I really adore the last line all on its own, it expresses the message with more depth and ties in nicely with the message. Very powerful piece!!

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To the angels (goodbye) by Ben Pickard (4pts)

I loved this poem. It was as if to say goodbye heavenly angels, I shall be going to Hell. Almost as if secretly the dream was the reaction of knowing a heart wasn't genuine for whatever reason it may. Much enjoyed

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Dissection by Maple Tree (4 pts)

My cerebellum has markings
of who was here,

^ I've never read this idea expressed this way, ever before. The imagery is praise worthy.

The darkness in this poem is not lead by it being vague, but rather of being deep. It's touching and somehow sad..

Amazing use of metaphors and visuals; something about your use of this metaphorical language hunts down the reader when through with the poem.

Dissect these things
you fear, for I
stopped hiding
years ago....

Congratulations Mark, DarkLight and Brookie. Although I've kept my tie-breaking streak alive there is absolutely no question the better poem won. Brookie's message should be sent to all the newsletter recipients.

Congrats also to the HMs. Thanks, new judges, great inaugural weekend. Thanks Mark for the work in posting - especially so timely!

Woah~ no idea i was even contending o.o Thanks yall o.o

Thanks judge for the vote and very nice comment and thank you Samia for nominating me and also: congrats to everybody! :)

Congratulations on the win mark, shanky and brookie and to all HMs.

Thanks judges and mark for posting.

Congratulations to the winners and HM's.

I have two questions to ask both judges who voted for the poem "England" this week...

!) Would there not be a copyright issue with the "roses are red violets are blue" lines? First known author that I can find is Sir Edmund Spenser (1590) although there have been many others over the years so, suffice to say..the lines are not original.

2) The title? Scotland, Wales and Ireland voted too and ...they are not England. Do you realise that?

Regarding 1) Definitely something Larry can chime in on, but I think those lines would have entered the free domain by now, and that no copyright exists. Err I remember 70 years being the length that copyright protection exists from either initial publication or maybe it was from the creators death, and some countries have a longer copyright protection but can't think of any that has a 200+ year protection.

Hellon,
There is neither copyright infringement nor plagiarism here for two reasons. First, as Mark points out, the age of the work places it into the public domain.

Second, the extreme common usage of the couplet without attribution for decades, if not centuries, has extinguished the plagiarism claim. In the same way, I doubt there could possibly an infringement by using the couplet "See Spot run. Run, Spot, run."

As an analogy from trademarks, Kleenex, Coke and Xerox all had the problem that due to their market dominance the generic products (facial tissue, sodas and copiers) took on these names colloquially. Each company had to actively defend their trademarks to keep from losing them due to common usage.
However abysmally unoriginal the lines are they are technically legal.

As to question two, you are almost correct. England alone did not vote. You are wrong to say Ireland did - as I've heard many people do. The U.K. political division Northern Ireland, not the independent nation Ireland took part in the referendum; like Scotland, Northern Ireland voted to remain. Only England and Wales voted to leave.

I'm surprised you missed the kill-joy to the poem. The U.K. Did not vote to leave the Euro - they had never adopted it in the first place. The entire UK continues to embrace pounds & pence with the young QEII's portrait.

You are welcome, Ingrid. Your poetry deserves much recognition.

Congratulations winners and HMs.

Thank you judge for the lovely comment on my poem.

Congrats, everybody!! Thanks so much, Mark... and of course our new judges :) Huge appreciation for all the past judges.

Roses are red, violets are blue......there are many literary professors that will hit you with a plagiarism violation (minute at best), if you do not put it in quotation marks, however it is more of a mere oversight than anything. I definitely wouldn't cite it for plagiarism, but neither would I find it charming in a serious poem either, unless it was comedy, sorry......

This poem is my own original work and I testify that it complies with your submission terms and guidelines.

^^^

This is the little box we all have to tick before submitting a poem on this site.

Larry...no one in the UK calls Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland...it's always just been 'Ireland". and...brits still do not need a passport to enter the south...

When you're not actually IN the UK it might be good to distinguish the two to avoid confusion.

Also, you can't tell you've even entered NI from the south until you see petrol priced in pounds rather than Euros. There were not even signs on the road ("you are entering ..." Or "welcome to ...")

I don't think anyone on here really cares whether it was Northern Ireland or the Republic who voted...

I was just trying to say that more countries than England voted as I felt that the title of the poem suggested it was only England who voted.
Most of the news feeds have said Scotland and Ireland voted to stay so....If they failed to mention it was actually Northern Ireland then...it kind of suggests that, anyone who knows the history of Ireland would automatically know they were referring to NI. Maybe I've just had one too many people saying...."Oh you come from Scotland, a part of England...right? Most definitely WRONG!

My last visit to Ireland (sadly) was way before the south changed to the Euro....

I realize this request is unusual, but can someone kindly nominate "Emerged enlightenment" by NaughtyMouse?

<http://www.best-love-poems.com/poems.php?id=1251533>

I'm out of nominations and it is deserving.

I'm out of nomination votes as well.

also use this link to be able to nominate it:

http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/misc/poems.php?id=1251533