Thank you, 2011 Spring Poetry Runoff participants!

I’d just like to say again how, in both quantity and quality, this year’s Spring Poetry Runoff exceeded my hopes. I’m deeply grateful for everyone’s participation and consider hosting such an outpouring of spring passion a high honor.   Seeing writers come together to play and ply their craft has been inspiring, and my hopes for Mormon nature writing received quite the lift.   Fine work, people, and €”for me, at least €”some of the best fun around.   Slow-release wonder and other good effects of the Runoff linger still.

So many, many glad thanks to:

Sandra Skouson

greenfrog

Karen Kelsay

Mary Belardi Erickson

Sarah Dunster

Carla Martin-Wood (poems and photos both)

Sean Watson

Judith Curtis

Steve Peck

Barry Carter

Jonathon Penny

Saul Karamesines (photos)

Tyler Chadwick

Ángel Chaparro Sainz

Harlow Clark

Tod Robbins

David Passey

Nathan Meidell

A great group, and we’ll have to think of something really cool to do with such a glittering array of verse.

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Winners of WIZ’s 2011 Spring Poetry Runoff Contest Announced

It’s been a privilege and delight for Wilderness Interface Zone to host a spectacular flourish of spring poetry during this year’s Spring Poetry Runoff.   In the kick-off post, I called for a show of green language, of creative élan and prospect-opening words.   I asked for poetry that contained the recombinant stuff of fertile, world-making expression that gets into others’ consciousness and gives rise to new thoughts or that perhaps resurrects a memory.   This year’s Spring Poetry Runoff Contest entries did all that and more.   Among the poets’ overall accomplishments is the intertwining of song and dance that erupted on WIZ in response to the call for spring verse €”a sight that not only was worth seeing but also that was my deep pleasure to join.   It was a good crowd to work with and reminds me of a recent experience watching violet-green swallows mixing it up over beaver ponds. Not only do the birds snatch up insects, each bird for itself, but obviously, they’re flying together and enjoying it, tumbling above and below each other, every bird forming its flight off its comrades’, wheeling, barrel rolling, one bird drawing up short of collision to let another flyer pass under then swooping out of its hover into a long, twinkling glide that weaves right back into a living fabric of free-flight.

Change in date: Announcement of winners of Spring Poetry Runoff delayed

The Spring Poetry Runoff Awards winners will be announced next Monday, May 23.     I hope everyone can hold out that long, but unexpected delays and the quality of the poems submitted have made selecting a winner for the Admin Award a very tough choice.

In the meantime, our normally scheduled postings will continue.

Vote for your favorite 2011 Spring Poetry Runoff poems

Thanks to a gorgeous stream of entries, WIZ’s 2011 Spring Poetry Runoff Celebration ran even deeper into the season than did last year’s.   And indeed, this year’s Runoff has been an inspiring show of green and fertile language, above and beyond what I had hoped. In fact, I’ve been wowed, not just by the craftsmanship of the poems that came in but also by the wide range of styles.   Many thanks to those who joined the dance in whatever way they did!

Now, Dear WIZ Readers and Poets Participating in the Contest, it’s time to have a little more fun and play at being poetry judges for the next six days–part of the informal nature of this contest.   But rather than limit each judge (that’s you) to just one vote, we’re asking each voter to choose her or his 3 favorite poems of the 25 contest-eligible entries.   The poll opens today and runs until 10:00 p.m. (Utah time) Saturday, May 14.

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 Monday, May 16 and will receive their choices of Mark Bennion’s Psalm and Selah: A Poetic Journey Through The Book Of Mormon (Bentley Enterprises 2009), A Metaphorical God: Poems (Persea 2008) by Kimberly Johnson, or The Clearing (Texas Tech University Press 2007) by Philip White.

Rules for voting:

1.   Each voter should select his or her 3 favorite poems of the 25 eligible.
2.   Each voter can vote only one time–no multiple-vote-ballot-box-stuffing shenanigans, please.
3.   Voters are encouraged to read every poem before voting.  Click here to read all of the eligible poems.  Please note: Because there are 25 poems total, you’ll need to click on €œPrevious Entries € twice in order to read them all. The full text of longer poems won’t display on the list pages, so right clicking and opening each poem in a new tab or window is a good approach.
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. €

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