Weekly Contest Winners - July 11, 2016!

Hi, everyone! Hope you all have a safe and hope-filled week! Wanted to say congratulations to Mel, Mahal and Larry for their front page wins... as well as all the honorable mentions. Such diversity this week with them! Awesome work judges :)

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WINNERS:

"Leaving" by: Melpomene 10 + 10 + 10 = 30 points

"One Year, Three Autumns" by: Mahal Ko Kuya Ko 10 + 7 = 17 points

"Still..." by: Larry Chamberlin the Godfather 7 + 4 = 11 points

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COMMENTS:

"Leaving" by: Melpomene

"Absolutely stunning, a beautiful intertwining of confession and a glimmer of hope. The verses:
"I apologise for trying to scrub
the roots of my birth
from my skin, "
hit me the hardest, the sheer imagery and emotion that it invokes is just ... at a real loss for words. Exceptional write." (10)

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I am awestruck by this poem, I have been a longtime fan of your poetry (I am so fangirling over this) I tend to think a little differently than some of your commenters. I hope you do not mind the dissection of your poetry.

"Our home is decadent in
peeling plaster
and aerosol."

^^^ I think of decadent as rich, and in this case I think you meant it as an over abundance of. I couldn't understand the aerosol reference unless it is from hair spray. I assume the house is an older house from the "peeling plaster" and where you refer to the wood bowing. Sounds very inviting.

"In summer we fan ourselves, tumble ice
cubes between our teeth and
count the days until Christmas. "

^^^ Anyone who can relate to summer can relate to doing this.

"In winter we toast our hot water bottles and
pray to God in stain glass windows."

^^^ These are the words in which this poem takes a turn for me, one in which I feel you are referring to religion. I am thinking at this point in the poem the references were all to a Church but I am still not sure about the aerosol reference, unless again it is referencing the hair spray in which women will douse hair in to perfection on a Sunday morn.

I admit I don't write about you enough,

^^^ Again, I felt like the reference was to God himself. The struggle of morality and just merely surviving.

"haven't thanked you enough for the full belly,
or puff the magic dragon and colic-filled-nights."

^ You have me struggling as to the direction intended. Then you hit with these lines that bring it back to parental feelings, though it could be viewed as still thanking God for these things because you wouldn't be who you are today if it weren't for him.

"I apologise for trying to scrub
the roots of my birth
from my skin,
they were radiating warmth
I never realised I was leaving.
You weren't the one I was leaving."

The poem comes full circle in the last line of the writing, as it should. It becomes a realization that you weren't running from any one, but from some thing. The thing being a past you may have been ashamed of, not proud admitting it or just as simple as going back to your moral obligations of your birth, being raised in your beliefs. Which brought everything back to this being based around religion again. Regardless this poem could be interpreted as either or something else to someone else. It was a deeply moving poem to me, glad to see you writing again. (10)

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"What a creative way to express the feelings of home, and how it hurts to leave, the visual displays of a dwelling or just the comforts or memories.

I actually cried while reading this.. just a unique and powerful poem!!" (10)

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"One Year, Three Autumns" by: Mahal Ko Kuya Ko

"What a roller-coaster poem, it takes you on a tour up and down, right and left, and then moves you around in a circular motion.. An excellent piece.

Starting from your second line to your last, there are sentences that you combined so well that each impacts the reader; so creative that it sounds so natural..

Your closing verse touched me deeply, your structure flowed well and your word choice were live and brought together well.

My favorite this week." (10)

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"I love the transition that of false hope being a bad thing, to being a crutch used by the speaker for actual hope, it's something I'm guilty of and can relate to it. I've noticed the usual themes of dandelions and references to nature from the author's earlier work present in this, which indicates to me that this piece builds on top of their earlier work and the idea of false hopes can be inferred from the other poems. As for this poem; it's heartbreakingly efficient at what it's aiming to do." (7)

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"Still..." by: Larry Chamberlin the Godfather

"Impressive, that's an impressive vase-poem. The title is cozy. The whole anonymous-tone that manipulated the poem entirely made me go un-patient.

Poems that make you wonder, just like reading a book and thoughts go pondering how would this scenery end.

I loved that it was completed at the final verse, the whole structure is classical and elegant.

The concept and theme itself is one to relate-to, and the wording along with the combination of images and emotions were a spot-on; "my mortal life against
his eye-gold wages." "seeing her uncoiling beast " "chased dryads within olive groves"..

Very beautiful, and very professional." (7)

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"Mystical, elegant, stylish and unique!

This comment is small but those 4 words sum up this poem to a tee!

Larry has detailed a truly elegant nature piece, at its finest!!" (4)

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HM'S:

"This is how you heal" by: Yakari Gabriel = 10 points

"Emerged enlightenment." by: Naughtymouse = 7 points

"Into the ether" by: sir Lancelot = 7 points

"Three Months Clean and Sober" by: Maple Tree = 7 points

"Abuse & Terrorists" by: Larry = 4 points

"All Black Lives Matter" by: IdTakeABulletForYou = 4 points

"A Fridge revealed" by: Milly Hayward = 4 points

"The Claustrophobic Turtle" by: Mihir Deshmukh = 4 points

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COMMENTS:

"This is how you heal" by: Yakari Gabriel

"The first thing I want to point out about this piece is that the imagery may be scarce, but the voice and spice to this is dominant enough to completely make up for that. The author's voice is beautifully etched out here and the point of this piece is just what I needed to read this week - I'm sure when others are struck by the force of life and all it's force that they will agree. There is something so gentle about this piece that just whispers "everything's going to be alright" after each and every inked out line and there is this sense of compassion that leaps off the page and sweetly tangles the reader in a warm embrace. Absolutely in awe of this write and how phenomenally it flows from one soul to the next (author to reader and vice-versa)." (10)

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"Emerged enlightenment." by: Naughtymouse

"This man brings the house down with his love poetry!

The in depth feelings and emotions are so elegant and yet raw, it takes the readers breath away! Just beautiful!!!" (7)

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"Into the ether" by: sir Lancelot

"Oh my such a beautiful poem though extremely saddening. I love the reference to Autumn being "Lady Autumn".

"I tried to call you home.
I tried so hard.
But you wandered too far
into the ether and I know
that you cannot return.
I know that you don't want to."

How many times have we wished for someone who has passed or on the verge of to get well or wish them back? If only we knew what they were seeing we probably wouldn't want them to. Much more peaceful on the other side. Lovely poem, glad to be introduced to your writing." (7)

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"Three Months Clean and Sober" by: Maple Tree

"Despite the lack of detail here, this piece is incredible in a way that few other than Maple can achieve. The imagery is relateable in a wide manner of situations and so many people feel this way towards people they love. This is a write that is sweetly dedicated to a well deserving daughter, but still manages to describe every member of the human race at some point or another. Absolutely one for the win, and if not more than worthy of the hm because everyone needs to hear this at some point in their lives, and somebody is always on the sidelines just searching for the right way to show that they're near by when things get better or worse." (7)

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"Abuse & Terrorists" by: Larry

"Love this. Reminds me of the several women that encountered Ted Bundy and had a gut feeling that something was wrong, in spite of his charisma, the eyes truly are windows to the soul (and lack of)." (4)

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"All Black Lives Matter" by: IdTakeABulletForYou

"This piece captures history, which I suppose will be the case for a while considering all the modern events that are sure to be in the history books 5 to 10 years from now. There is a sense of urgency here that the piece last week about the EU did not have; and honestly, I appreciate the way this does touch on that. I also appreciate the way that the repetition here stresses the author's opinion as well as the tragedy of so many communities throughout the United States in the past few years. Formatted pieces often limit a person's accuracy and voice, but I feel like this author did a fantastic job making the style and form fit his intentions instead of conforming to the limitations of the box." (4)

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"A Fridge revealed" by: Milly Hayward = 4 points

"You just described an ideal Fridge. Most of it matches the contents of my fridge minus you didn't talk about "science experiments" that are growing in mine....just kidding.... maybe :p . This was a different write and with all the serious issues going on it was a breath of fresh air. That is why I chose this poem this week. Simply delightful. By the way, I hide my chocolate in the pantry in a breadcrumbs box, but you have given me an alternative to warm chocolate." (4)

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"The Claustrophobic Turtle" by: Mihir Deshmukh = 4 points

"What a saddening poem. The title caught my attention instantly.

I fell for your opening lines, and loved your leading verse, was touched by your background story, and extremely saddened with your closing lines.

This poem is so sad that it makes you take the whole scenario as something personal to you as a reader.

It's direct word choice makes things feel so naked and raw. I just love this poem. The only thing that need to be edited is the following typo: "whats above" = what's.

Great work." (4)

Congratulations all winners and HMs.

Thanks judges

Thanks to all three judges for your comments. I appreciate the win, of course, but the feedback is great. Congrats to Mel (absolutely awesome work) and to Mahal and to the HMs.
Thanks to the new judges, second week and still charging!

Thanks, MA, for posting.

Congratulations winners and thank you judges for the HM :)) especially for this write, means a lot :)

PNQ ROCKS \m/

Congratulations to the winners and HM's. Thank you, Judges!

Congratulations Winners and HM's!!

Thank you judges for your work :)

Congrats all!!

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful comments, I appreciate it. Congratulations to all involved this week.

Congrats everybody!

Congratulations to everyone. Thank you to the judges for taking their time to read all those poems not an easy task. Thank you for my honourable mention, although not a win very inspirational. Milly xx

Congratulations to all the winners and HMS...

Thank you judge for your comment....touches my heart, thank you!