Mood/Imagery — (    /10)  How does this poem make me feel? Was there a sense of emotion - comedic, panicked, etc.

Rhyme/ Rythm (    /25)— Was the rhyming scheme, if one, relevant to the poem and did the poem carry a natural rythm?  Did the words meander easily like an inflatable raft along a sunny riverbank, did they dance, or did they cause you to stumble and try to re-read it in order to catch it?  As important, were these characteristics relevant to the subject matter?

Poetic Devices — (    /10)  (the number and effectiveness of those poetic elements that raise poetry beyond prose — there are at least 15 of them, including rhyme, simile, personification, and so on. But alliteration doesn't count this time.  ;) Without their use, the writing becomes prose...)

Word Selection —(     /25) This challenge begs for a thesaurus.  It also is fraught with the perils of words just <i>not working in context.  Were the words good choices, and did you have any feel that some words were more thrown in to match the assigned letter.  What words worked?  What words didn't?

The LETTER -  (     /10    ) Letters and sounds have their own lives.  You may notice that in warmer climates, like the middle East, languages tend to use many soft sounds like "sh" and "j", while in colder climates, as in the Inuit language, harder sounds such as "k" and "q" and "n" are precedent.  "Soothe", "jasmine", "cut", "quick" may be examples of how those hard and soft, hot and cold sounds have found their way into our own language.  Any comic will tell you that extensive use of the letter "K" is always a good thing (there once was a man from Nantuckket", cuckoo, Cosmo Cramer...

So with apologies for being wordy, did the sound of the alliterated letter itself properly perform the poet's presentation?  Perhaps?

Punctuation/Spelling/Grammar — (      /10)  does the poet respect our language conventions and provide punctuation to aid the reader in understanding of the poem? Do spelling errors interrupt the flow of the poem’s language? Are there distortions of word order that seem artificial and obscure meaning? (Note:  I copied and pasted exactly what was sent)

WOW Factor -- (   /10)  Replacing "1st impressions", did anything in the poem cause you to marvel?

Total   /100

Author guidance for This poem

Ahoy!

Imagine this. A baseball game, amongst talented friends, for fun, surely one in which everyone tries but at which competition becomes secondary. Of course, as always happens in challenges of skill, rules are questioned and sometimes tempers flare, but only momentarily, and always in the spirit of the game. More often than not, though, excellent plays are heralded, as players seem to bring out the best amongst their peers.

And now it's raining, and has been for some time. Retreating to the clubhouse draws some optimism and warmer fare, yet as the rain continues, the teams retreat to the comfort of a nearby player's household to revisit stories of momentous happenings and favourite plays.

I will post the ballads by midnight tomorrow, and insert another scorecard. But without numbers. I'd hope, and it is voluntary, as perhaps it always should be, without a negative or positive consequence of doing so, that everyone would leave comments on the group ahead.

(i.e. 1-3 do 4-6 and so on, while 12-15 wrap back to 1,2 and 3)

I do apologize for the lengthy delays -- I anticipated some delay along the way, but being handed two life changing events, a daunting, frustrating work schedule and the near loss of my father, all in three months, well, you can imagine (or not)

However, choosing the option not to take this on, well, that may have just mean that 70+ poems may not have been written. So, worthwhile, in my opinion.

As for the winner, I'm entirely unconvinced that this event should ever have been a "competition" worth winning -- but rather a set of challenges that everyone who participates is able to take part in and comment and be commented on.

But that's just me. (I'll also post comments on all 15, and all are most welcome to comment on as many as you'd like)

updated Jun 21 '10 by smac972