Most Inspiring
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
1) Why did you select this poem for this category?
This poem was automatically an inspiration to me. It to spoke to me as if to you that we all must life our own lives and no let what others say effect our desicions, or what we do.
2) What do you feel or imagine when you read this poem?
I can really just imagine all of the voices screaming and yelling at me, while I'm sitting in an empty house all alone, not really knowing or caring where the voices are coming from. I stand up from my chair and I leave the house and when the door closes and I walk away, the voices are going and I can finally hear my own thoughts again.
3) What are you're favorite lines?
"as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds"
"determined to save the only life you could save"
Most Humorous
Excuse Cheer by: Timothy Tocher (Photo by Jim Roddy)
Our center's nose was runny. Our forwards had the flu.
The guards were feeling funny. That's why we lost to you.
Your team is overrated. We really didn't try.
Our coach was constipated. I'm telling you no lie.
Now go and take a shower and hop back on your bus.
You know we'll beat you next time, so you'd best watch out for us!
The guards were feeling funny. That's why we lost to you.
Your team is overrated. We really didn't try.
Our coach was constipated. I'm telling you no lie.
Now go and take a shower and hop back on your bus.
You know we'll beat you next time, so you'd best watch out for us!
1) Why did you select this poem for this category?
I selected this category for this poem because the poem downright just made me laugh, because how many of us come up with these excuses all the time?
2) What do you feel and imagine when you read this poem?
I can just feel the bitterness of a lost and I can just imagine a few little kids with there arms crossed and glaring at the winning team, thinking of all the excuses to why the opposing team shouldn't have won and why they should have won.
3) What are your favorite lines?
"Our coach was constipated."
"That's why we lost to you."
"Your team is overrated. We really didn't try."
Most Beautiful
Fire and Ice by: Robert Frost (Photo by Paul Kochoa)
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
1) Why did you select this poem for this category?
I encountered this poem several years ago and it's simplicity struck me. The lines were beautiful and short, short and sweet as some would say. It may be well know through the entire world of literature, but it truely is one of the most beautiful pieces I have ever run across.
2) What do you feel or imagine when you read this poem?
The spectrum of emotion is overwhelming in this poem - love, desire, loneliness, hate. However, what I really see in my mind's eye is a person so wrapped up in the feelings of love and desire that they loss sight of who and what they really are. Then a person, feeling such loss and agony and hatred, over the loss of these feelings, slowly dying inside as they cease to care about anything.
3) What are your favorite lines?
"From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favour fire"
"I think I know enough of hate, To say that for destruction ice, Is also great."
Most Musical
The Last Word by: Jim Simmerman (Photo by Victoria Frances)
You can have the bright
Face of the full moon
If I can have the dark
One it keeps out of sight.
You can have the circles
We chased ourselves in
If I can have the empty
Tunnels inside.
You can have the past
And the future to boot
If I can have the nick
Of time in between.
You can have the warmth
From the bridges we burned
If I can have the ashes
Drifting downstream.
You can have the music
That marshaled the waltz
If I can have the echo
That dies in the rafters.
You can have the last
Word, whatever it is,
If I can have
The silence thereafter.
Face of the full moon
If I can have the dark
One it keeps out of sight.
You can have the circles
We chased ourselves in
If I can have the empty
Tunnels inside.
You can have the past
And the future to boot
If I can have the nick
Of time in between.
You can have the warmth
From the bridges we burned
If I can have the ashes
Drifting downstream.
You can have the music
That marshaled the waltz
If I can have the echo
That dies in the rafters.
You can have the last
Word, whatever it is,
If I can have
The silence thereafter.
1) Why did you select this poem for this category?
I choose this category because it rolled off my tongue so easily and I could easily imagine it blending in with a sound.
2) What do you feel or imagine when you read this poem?
I can imagine each part of the poem - the moon, a game of tag, the snowfall of ashes. Most of all, though, I can imagine dancers dancing, with a man sitting in the rafters. The man is only remembering what the dancers did, for they are't there, but he can still hear the music. I can most of all imagine the arguement between the couple and the silent empty house after its done.
3) What are your favorite lines?
"If I can have the dark, One it keeps out of sight"
"You can have the last Word, whatever it is"
Most Emotive
Absolution in the New Year by: Judith Ortiz Cofer (photo by Anneke Schram)
The decade is over, time to begin forgivingold sins. Thirteen years since your death
on a Florida interstate - and again
a dream of an old wrong. Last night I slept
through the turning of the year,
I was fifteen
and back on the day I hated you the most, whenin a patriarchal fury at my sullen
keeping of myself to myself,
and convinced, I was turning into a Jezebel,
you searched my room for evidence
of a secret other life. You found my diary
under the mattress and, taking it to the kitchen,
examined it under the harsh light.
You read
about my childish fantasies of flight - yes -from your tyrannical vigilance
and, in the last few pages, of my first love,
almost all imagination.
I suffered
biblical torments as you turned the pages. Unworthily,exposed before your eyes, I wondered where
I would go, if you should cast me out
of your gardens of thorns, but I swore, that day,
my faith to the inviolable self.
Later,
when Mother came in to offer mea cup of consolation tea, her vague justifications
of "man's ways," and to return the profaned book,
I tore and crumpled each page, and left the,
on the floor for her to sweep.
To this day
I cannot leave my notebooks open anywhere:
and I hide my secrets in poems.
A new year begins.
I am almost your age. And I can almost understand
Your anger then – caught as you were – in a poor man’s trap,
You needed to own, at least our souls.
For this sin of pride, I absolve you, Father.
And more:
If I could travel to your grave today,
I’d take my books of poetry as an offering
To your starved spirit
That fed on my dreams in those days.
I’d place poems on you stone marker,
Over the part of your name we share,
Over the brief span of your years (1933 – 1976),
like a Chinese daughter who brings a bowl of rice
and a letter to set on fire – a message
to be delivered by the wind: Father,
here is more for you to read.
Take all you desire of my words. Read
Until you’ve had your fill.
Then rest in peace.
There is more where this came from.
1) Why did you select this poem for this category?
This poem really appeals emotionally to young women. We all hold secrets and we can all remember the feeling of being left open to someones probing opinions. Moreover, you can really feel the change in emotion towards her dad and that appeals to me.
2) What do you feel or imagine when you read this poem?
I feel the hurt and the the resolution of forgiving. Most young women can name at least one time in their lives where someone read something that they weren't suppose to which left the actual writer of the note/journal/anything feeling exposed in a way they didn't wish to. That feeling really shows through in this poem.
3) What are you favorite lines?
" in the last few pages, of my first love, almost all imagination"
"I hide my secrets in poems"
"Take all you desire of my words. Read until you’ve had your fill"
Most Shocking
Death Death Death by: Jim Heynen (Photo by Jim Crotty)
One hot summer day the boys were wandering around the yard.
What’s that smell? Asked one of them.
Hog manure is what it is, said another.
No, look, said the first boy. It’s that dead chicken.
Sure enough, there was a dead chicken lying near the chicken coop. I had been dead maybe a week and the sun had eaten most of its insides out.
Then another boy said, no, look. Maybe the smell is coming from that dead pig over there.
The boys walked over to the dead pig that was lying near the hog house. There was flies all over its body and going in ad out of its nose and ears. It was only two days dead so the smell was not very strong yet.
The another one of the boys said, I’ll be the smell is from that dead starling the rats killed and wouldn’t ear. They walked over to the auto shed and found the dead starling, but it was almost dried out to a skeleton.
Death, Death, Death said one of the boys.
There were dead animals all over the farmyard-if they’d look for them. Besides the rodents that were dead under the ground and they’d never see. Dead flies here and there. Dead grasshoppers I the tall grass. Dead bees. Dead ladybugs. Probably birds that were dying in their nests.
And this was not unusual. Things die. It’s just that the boys happened to be noticing it all at once. Which happens in the summer. What was good about winger was that the snow hid dead animals and other dead creatures.
Look. One of the boys pointed to the sky. They were not alone, noticing al the death. A chicken hawk was circling overhead. Circling over the whole farmyard.
This place stinks like dead everything, said one of the boys.
There’s only one thing to do about all this death, said the smallest boy. Clothespins. So they put clothespins on their noses and ran off to play.
1) Why did you select this poem for this category?
The way they get over the fact that some many things are dead around them and just run off to play shocked me extremely.
2) What do you feel or imagine when you read this poem?
I feel dread and gloominess. It's very morbid and makes me want to watch a happy movie.
3) What are your favorite lines?
"this was not unusual. Things die"
"they put clothespins on their noses and ran off to play"
Most Thought-Provoking
The Swan by: Mary Oliver (photo by Cruz Productions)
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?
1) Why did you select this poem for this category?
It left me with a feeling that the swan respresent something all together different that what is it in real life.
2) What do you feel or imagine when you red this poem?
I feel a sense of awe as if I were really staring at this beautiful creature across a lake softly misted by the morning.
3) What are your favorite lines?
"did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?"
"A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees"
"A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees"
"have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?"
Most Interesting Stylistically
Personality by Carl Sandburg (Photo unknown)
You have loved forty women, but you have only one thumb.
You have led a hundred secret lives, but you mark only one thumb.
You go round the world and fight in a thousand wars and win all the world's honors, but when you come back home the print of the one thumb your mother gave you is the same print of thumb you had in the old home when your mother kissed you and said good-by.
Out of the whirling womb of time come millions of men and their feet crowd the earth and they cut one another's throats for room to stand and among them all are not two thumbs alike.
Somewhere is a Great God of Thumbs who can tell the inside story of this.
You have led a hundred secret lives, but you mark only one thumb.
You go round the world and fight in a thousand wars and win all the world's honors, but when you come back home the print of the one thumb your mother gave you is the same print of thumb you had in the old home when your mother kissed you and said good-by.
Out of the whirling womb of time come millions of men and their feet crowd the earth and they cut one another's throats for room to stand and among them all are not two thumbs alike.
Somewhere is a Great God of Thumbs who can tell the inside story of this.
1) Why did you select this poem for this category?
The poets uses the poem to show in a strange way how everyone is different from one another and it really amused and entertained me.
2) What do you feel or imagine when you read this poem?
I can see billions upon billions of thumb prints magically forming throughout my mind and though every one looks the same, if you look close enough no two are.
3) What are your favorite lines?
"a Great God of Thumbs who can tell the inside story of this"
