Hello, WIZ Readers and Contestants! Thank you for your excellent participation in this year’s Spring Poetry Runoff Contest and Celebration! It’s time to put on the mantle of poetry judges for the next seven days–part of the informal, just-for-fun nature of this contest. But rather than limit each judge (that’ll be you) to just one vote, we’re asking each voter to choose her or his 3 (count them: one–two–THREE) favorite Spring Poetry Runoff entries of the 31 contest-eligible entries that came thundering down from the heights this spring. The poll opens today and runs until 10:00 p.m. (Utah time) midnight Wednesday, June 6.
While readers and participants choose the winner(s) of the Spring Poetry Runoff Contest Popular Vote Award, WIZ admin will be choosing the winner of the Spring Poetry Runoff Admin Award. Winners of both awards will be announced in a post on or shortly after Thursday, June 7. The winner in each category will receive his or her choice of The Scholar of Moab, by frequent WIZ contributor Steven L. Peck, (Torrey House Press, 2011) or the distinguished new anthology of Mormon poetry, Fire in the Pasture, edited by Tyler Chadwick (Peculiar Pages, 2011). Tyler has also contributed work to WIZ.
Rules for voting (PLEASE READ AND FOLLOW CAREFULLY!!!):
1. Each voter should select his or her 3 favorite poems of the 31 eligible. Please, participants–enter three choices for your favorite poems. It’s more sporting than just voting for your single favorite poem, and it provides our poets feedback for their hard-wrought words.
2. Each voter can vote only one time–no ballot-box-stuffing shenanigans, please.
3. Voters are encouraged to read every poem before voting. Please note: Click here to see a complete list of contest eligible poems, then left click on a poem title. This will open the complete poem in another window. Alternatively, to read all the poems, you could go to a Google docs page here and click through the links.
4. Participating poets and WIZ readers may encourage friends and family members to read and vote.
5. All participating poets are encouraged to vote whether their poems were published in the contest category or in the non-contest category.
Instructions for voting:
Click on the small square box next to the name of the poem that you wish to choose. A green or black check mark will appear in that box. If you accidentally check mark the wrong box or change your mind, simply click on the box again and the check mark will disappear. After you have check-marked your 3 favorite poems (you will see 3 check marks on the page), click on the €œVote € box at the bottom of the page. Clicking on that box will end your voting session, so be sure you’ve finished voting before you click €œVote. € To see the tally of votes so far, click €œView Results. €
[poll id=”6″]
I may have accidentally voted twice… the interface with my android was being buggy (again).
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Nope, Sarah–you’re good. Thanks for voting!
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Sorry. Was that link supposed to take us to a post with linked titles? All I’m getting is the homepage and a bunch of teasers. The former would make faster reviewing. Not complaining, just noting.
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Noted.
In Step 3 of the instructions above, I’ve added a link to a Google docs page that contains all the poem titles and working links to the poems on WIZ. Not as WIZ-centric, but it might be a bit faster.
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nail-biting here. This is a close race!!
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I can feel the energy as contestants enter the turn before the home stretch.
Reminder: The poll closes in 12 hours 55 minutes. Don’t miss the deadline!
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Birds or snakes…who will be this spring’s poetic mascot?
It’s a race down to the wire between two species!
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Don’t they know they’re related? Sibling rivalry–go figure.
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Good Luck
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.
Well. I see my tastes are not typical.
But I’m not bothered. good batch of poems this year.
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Reminder to voters: Please vote for your THREE favorite poems. That’s more than ONE or TWO. It’s the sporting thing to do.
Th.,
Next year maybe we’ll run a Most UNpopular Poem Contest. Maybe one of your choices will prove to be popularly unpopular.
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Or you could make it really complicated and have everybody rank every single poem.
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And factor in the ratios of hits to post time and viewing time to word count. Heck, you could skip the voting all together and just use the ratios.
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When my computer chimes midnight, the poll turns back into an inert pumpkin.
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Wow, what a wild and suspenseful literary sack race this turned out to be. Congratulations, James, and well played!
In fact, nicely done, everybody. Thanks so much for your exuberant participation in WIZ’s Spring Poetry Runoff Most Popular Poem Contest.
And remember: It ain’t quite over yet. In a couple days, after a secret and elaborate process involving strange ceremonies, WIZ admin will emerge from its star chamber and announce the winner of the Admin Award.
Stay tuned.
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How about that Will Reger guy, though, eh? All three poems in the top four! There oughta be a prize for that.
[Editor: Wish for more conventional spelling of an informal contraction sorta thingy granted]
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Edit request: aughta -> oughta
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My congratulations to James and my special thanks to all those who read and voted for our poetry. In particular, I am grateful to my wife, Mary, and our children who willingly put the word out about my work and this contest/website. Hopefully, WIZ picked up a few faithful future readers through their efforts.
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Mark,
Do you wish readers to edit your “aughta” mentally or do you wish for a magical editorial transformation?
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Will,
Thank you for an extremely fun final voting race. The lead probably changed a dozen times in the final day–who would have thought a poetry contest could feel like an NBA game?
And yes, hopefully a few of the extra voters who came in to watch the action got a spring poetry fix they might not have known they needed.
-James
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Nail-biter indeed! As ever, Spring Runoff delivered an embarrassment of riches. Thanks to all who submitted and all who read and voted! Now for those strange ceremonies. Wait for the smoke.
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Patricia: Wands ready, if you please. I really wish WordPress let people edit comments.
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Let “people” edit comments?!?
The fabric of the blogging universe would unravel at such speed that we’d all suffer whiplash, heartbreak, verbal and visual hallucinations, time warps and Alice-in-Wonderland Syndrome all at once. All of us. At the same time.
Mark, you’re an anarchist. 😉
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I admit, the lack of government has its attractions. But WordPress could do like Moodle does and give commenters a few minutes to make changes.
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But I kinda liked “aughta”.
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I like you guys.
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Fine! Keep the “aughta”. Let it be known that at certain conjunctions of unnamed stars, Mark Penny screws up on his spelling.
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Blame it on technology like me 😀 Wanted to say to Theric…I often find myself in the same position. I try to claim it as evidence that I am a unique voice 🙂
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