2009 Red Hot Pawn Verse Awards

Friends, Romans, countrymen, etc, listen here!

The votes are all in and it is time to announce the winners of the 2009 RHP VERSE COMPETITION, that they may be covered with the most viscous of glory. I must stress the very high standard of verse in this competition, in my opinion the finest verse in any RHP VERSE COMPETITION thus far. I also commend the Versificating Public on their abstinence from plagiarism

There is a very wide range of form and content in this competition's entries, and therefore voting entailed comparison of a much more taxonomically diverse pile of things than any mixed assortment of apples and oranges. Therefore those who voted also deserve praise for bringing this competition to, erm, fruition.

Without further ado, the hopefully frugivorous winners and their (admittedly metaphorical, but they're poets) fruity prizes:

In third place, with 8 [weighted] votes, for which he shall receive an exquisitely ripened watermelon the size of yo' mama, for the entry The Wood of Humanity, The Reverend kirksey957.

In second place, with 9, for which she shall receive the Pomegranate of Morbidity, plucked straight from the deceptive hands of Hades himself, for the entry Walter's Perfect [Unmentionable], SJ247 and her wonderfully twisted psyche.

In first place, with 11, we have an impressive tie. Hence:

In the spirit of rainy autumnal snow-anticipation, here is an entire bog of tart and generally wintrily tempestuous cranberries -- bringers of the sauce -- for the entry Tuesday Afternoon, from pawnhandler, who is as adept with pen as with pawn.

I'm not sure the titular flower of our next winner's entry is edible, so I have turned to Wikipedia, and discovered that said flower is related to the baobab tree, with it's Exuperian literary weight and fruit which is apparently super-high in Vitamin C. For the entry Hibiscus, Sunburnt gets a baobab tree and whatever fruit it happens to grow.

Last is not least, in announcements of victory or in submitting verses. Our final winner is a man of puddling proclivities -- also puns. I mean, "guiltless soles"? This is fruity in the most praise-piled sense of the word. Such sharp language call to mind the dragon fruit, a decidedly pink and delicious cactus appendage. So that he may enjoy the prickly goodness, for his entry Untitled, catfoodtim will have such a cactus planted in his honour, in his bedroom.

Congratulations to those who won, and many thanks to all who entered and voted.

At this point, it would be excellent if discussion or criticism of the poems would commence. I have left anonymous the authors of those entries which didn't get fruit thrown at them, but if anyone wants to say what they wrote, I am sure people will be intrigued and generally in the mood for fruitful literary dialogue.



(Fine print: Note that votes were counted if and only if they adhered to the voting rules. In particular, DoctorScribbles and Ludovician did not vote, since they didn't specify a ranking and title (Ludovician) or a vote at all (Dr. S), and declined to clarify their votes when asked. I'm sorry to have to mention this on this celebratory occasion, but I fear that otherwise there will be heinous arguments.)

Congratulations to all the winners! Hibiscus makes a good tisane, by the way.

I hope those who didn't win will speak up and tell us which poem they wrote, too. Naturally I am especially curious about the non-winning poems I voted for (Belgrade 1999 and Forest).

I'm guilty of "The Blanket out of Time and Space".

Originally posted by ChronicLeaky
I'm guilty of "The Blanket out of Time and Space".

I suspected that was you. You have a distinctive voice. 🙂

And congratulations to the winners!

I am denser than the densest fruitcake 😞.

I must apologize profusely to Catfoodtim. I failed to obey my own voting rules: I misread Noodles' votes, swapping 1st and 3rd place (i.e. I read "1" as "first place" etc as appears in other posts). The effect this has is to break part of the tie, giving Catfoodtim 13 votes, not 11.

However, I can't in good conscience rescind anyone's fruits. Instead, I would like to take the opportunity to award CFT and "Untitled" an additional bushel of mangoes, 14 kilos of Faith Spermaceti and my firstborn child's soul, should such a thing ever exist, as well as the title of MEISTER OF THE DANCE.

Originally posted by ChronicLeaky
(Fine print: Note that votes were counted if and only if they adhered to the voting rules. In particular, DoctorScribbles and Ludovician did not vote, since they didn't specify a ranking and title (Ludovician) or a vote at all (Dr. S), and declined to clarify their votes when asked. I'm sorry to have to mention this on this celebratory occasion, but I fear that otherwise there will be heinous arguments.)

😛

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Word. I shall change my location accordingly. I'm not sure if you should change yours to "MOD", though.

Good job to all. This was a hard vote for me. I changed it a few times. I was glad to know I was right about my guesses on some authors.

Really great!

Since I'm into motivation and inspiration, I wonder if any authors would like to discuss the motivations/inspirations behind their work. To what, if any, experiences or abstractions or whatever are you giving voice in your work? Do you know why these stood out enough in your mind to be chosen as the topic of poetry?

Originally posted by ChronicLeaky
Since I'm into motivation and inspiration, I wonder if any authors would like to discuss the motivations/inspirations behind their work. To what, if any, experiences or abstractions or whatever are you giving voice in your work? Do you know why these stood out enough in your mind to be chosen as the topic of poetry?

I'm afraid I wrote my other entry right after reading Twilight.

I was disappointed my racist rant "Through a Glass Darkly" did not do better, so as I could dedicate it to Red Night on the eve of Obama's inauguration.

Nevertheless, thanks for the watermelon. Bitches.

Originally posted by ChronicLeaky
Since I'm into motivation and inspiration, I wonder if any authors would like to discuss the motivations/inspirations behind their work. To what, if any, experiences or abstractions or whatever are you giving voice in your work? Do you know why these stood out enough in your mind to be chosen as the topic of poetry?

Mine flowed like hot oil, after I woke from a nightmare about one of my kids. The nightmare content was totally unrelated, but as ugly as the feeling in my writing. The subject of my "poem" was tucked away in my mind, from a conversation I had years ago with an ex lover. Pillow talk, of sorts. Very demented pillow talk.

I don't write often. When I do, I can't resist the urge to make it rhyme. In this case, I think the rhyming makes it even creepier.

I enjoy that in most cases it repulses the reader. I figure the more extreme the emotion drawn, the better, and that the emotion doesn't have to be happy and positive to make the writing worthwhile.

I enjoyed the competition, but was sorry to see two of my first place votes discounted. Frankly, that sucked.

Congratulations to all.