Shortest Poem Contest Winners Announced The Society June 18, 2018 Humor, Poetry, Poetry Contests 17 Comments Congratulations to the following winners! Thank you to judges Joseph S. Salemi, James Sale, and Damian Robin. First Place $100 Prize: Ben Foreman, Cascabel, Arizona Cheesemaking Find a way To weigh The whey. Second Place: James B. Nicola, New York, New York Trip of a Lifetime The place within. Shall we begin? Second Place: J. Simon Harris, Raleigh, NC Homeric Hymns* A Homer misnomer. *Footnote: the Homeric hymns were probably not written by Homer. Third Place: Leo Yankevich, Gliwice, Poland Liberals Christians who neither search, believe or go to church. Honorable Mentions: Bruce E. Wren, Chicago, Illinois Meditation on Aging Such amazement at where his days went! Juleigh Howard-Hobson, Cascadia, USA Martyr’s Imperative I Die. Amy Foreman, Cascabel, Arizona To My Children, on Winning Don’t shun The one Outdone, My son. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Trending now: 17 Responses Joe Tessitore June 18, 2018 Way to go, Ben! (I couldn’t resist!) Congratulations to all! Reply J. Simon Harris June 18, 2018 Nice! I’m honored to share second place! Congratulations to all the winners, and especially to Ben Foreman for taking the gold. Reply Leonard Dabydeen June 18, 2018 SPC was a lot of fun. Congrats to ALL winners, and Judge thinners! Reply Amy Foreman June 18, 2018 Now I have to give Ben my advice on winning, since he beat out his brother and sister as well as me, his mom: “Don’t shun the one outdone, my son!” 😉 Thanks, SCP . . . this was a fun experience for him! Reply Fr. Richard Libby June 18, 2018 There’s some clever stuff here! Congratulations to all the winners! Reply James A. Tweedie June 19, 2018 I am soooo glad I didn’t have to judge between all the clever submissions. Congratulations to the winners. And as for everyone else, “Well done and thanks for the fun!” Reply Leo Yankevich June 19, 2018 If I were a judge Bruce E. Wren’s “Meditation on Aging” would have won first place. “Cheesemaking” and “Homeric Hymns” are both lame, stupid and unfunny. Reply J. Simon Harris June 19, 2018 A tough contest to judge, to be sure. I really like “Meditation on Aging” as well. “Martyr’s Imperative” is a good one, too. Sorry you didn’t like mine, but thanks for your frankness. Reply Adolf Gringer June 19, 2018 J. Simon Harris, I felt your poem, though terse, was too short and said nothing. I really believe that “Meditation on Aging” was the best, better than even Count Leopold Yankevich’s attempts. But we had only one competent judge, Dr Joseph Salemi. David Watt June 19, 2018 Congratulations to the winners! With such a large number of entries received, and the level of interest generated, this contest was a great success for the SCP. Reply Patrick Wren June 20, 2018 Reading the comments on “Meditations on aging” I can only say: Son of a gun, Did the right ones won? But no kidding, my congrats to all, Contests like this, are really a ball! Reply Nichael Cramer June 20, 2018 Just a pick a small nit: The “Homeric Hymns” were not called by that name because they were ever assumed to have been written by Homer[*] Rather the name uses the purely adjectival sense of the term “Homeric”; that is they were written in the “Homeric” style. E.g. they employ dactylic hexameter; they were written in the same dialect as “The Illiad” and “The Odyssey”; etc. (In a similar way, the use of the formal descriptions “Shakespearean Sonnets” or “Petrarchian Sonnets” is not meant to imply that they were actual written by those authors.) [* Setting aside the issue of whether such a person ever existed.] Reply J. Simon Harris June 20, 2018 A valid point. I didn’t really intend my little poem to be taken so seriously. According to the Wikipedia article on the Homeric Hymns, some writers in antiquity (the article specifically cites Thucydides) did “uncritically attribute” the poems to Homer. I am by no means an expert on the matter, and of course a Wikipedia article by no means settles it. Certainly no one today believes they were written by Homer (as you say, assuming there was a Homer), and the way people use the term today is undoubtedly in the sense to which you refer. So thank you for pointing that out. Reply Nichael Cramer June 20, 2018 Right. Likewise I apologize if I sounded overly-snarky; that wasn’t my intent. I just thought it was an interesting point worth mentioning. (Sadly, sometimes it’s hard to suppress the effects of the pedantry gene. 😉 ) Bruce Wren June 21, 2018 Thank you, Leo, for your appreciation. It has permitted me to go to your web-site. If you would, I would gladly substitute the $100 for the volume of your own poetry that you consider most exemplary… Once again, thanks. Reply damian Robin June 23, 2018 Congrats, Ben. You may find this of interest. http://thedabbler.co.uk/2010/12/james-mcintyre-the-cheese-poet/ James McIntyre: the Cheese Poet Very Best Damian Reply Rohini October 7, 2024 They’re all so clever! But, I thought I/Die. Was the shortest Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
J. Simon Harris June 18, 2018 Nice! I’m honored to share second place! Congratulations to all the winners, and especially to Ben Foreman for taking the gold. Reply
Leonard Dabydeen June 18, 2018 SPC was a lot of fun. Congrats to ALL winners, and Judge thinners! Reply
Amy Foreman June 18, 2018 Now I have to give Ben my advice on winning, since he beat out his brother and sister as well as me, his mom: “Don’t shun the one outdone, my son!” 😉 Thanks, SCP . . . this was a fun experience for him! Reply
Fr. Richard Libby June 18, 2018 There’s some clever stuff here! Congratulations to all the winners! Reply
James A. Tweedie June 19, 2018 I am soooo glad I didn’t have to judge between all the clever submissions. Congratulations to the winners. And as for everyone else, “Well done and thanks for the fun!” Reply
Leo Yankevich June 19, 2018 If I were a judge Bruce E. Wren’s “Meditation on Aging” would have won first place. “Cheesemaking” and “Homeric Hymns” are both lame, stupid and unfunny. Reply
J. Simon Harris June 19, 2018 A tough contest to judge, to be sure. I really like “Meditation on Aging” as well. “Martyr’s Imperative” is a good one, too. Sorry you didn’t like mine, but thanks for your frankness. Reply
Adolf Gringer June 19, 2018 J. Simon Harris, I felt your poem, though terse, was too short and said nothing. I really believe that “Meditation on Aging” was the best, better than even Count Leopold Yankevich’s attempts. But we had only one competent judge, Dr Joseph Salemi.
David Watt June 19, 2018 Congratulations to the winners! With such a large number of entries received, and the level of interest generated, this contest was a great success for the SCP. Reply
Patrick Wren June 20, 2018 Reading the comments on “Meditations on aging” I can only say: Son of a gun, Did the right ones won? But no kidding, my congrats to all, Contests like this, are really a ball! Reply
Nichael Cramer June 20, 2018 Just a pick a small nit: The “Homeric Hymns” were not called by that name because they were ever assumed to have been written by Homer[*] Rather the name uses the purely adjectival sense of the term “Homeric”; that is they were written in the “Homeric” style. E.g. they employ dactylic hexameter; they were written in the same dialect as “The Illiad” and “The Odyssey”; etc. (In a similar way, the use of the formal descriptions “Shakespearean Sonnets” or “Petrarchian Sonnets” is not meant to imply that they were actual written by those authors.) [* Setting aside the issue of whether such a person ever existed.] Reply
J. Simon Harris June 20, 2018 A valid point. I didn’t really intend my little poem to be taken so seriously. According to the Wikipedia article on the Homeric Hymns, some writers in antiquity (the article specifically cites Thucydides) did “uncritically attribute” the poems to Homer. I am by no means an expert on the matter, and of course a Wikipedia article by no means settles it. Certainly no one today believes they were written by Homer (as you say, assuming there was a Homer), and the way people use the term today is undoubtedly in the sense to which you refer. So thank you for pointing that out. Reply
Nichael Cramer June 20, 2018 Right. Likewise I apologize if I sounded overly-snarky; that wasn’t my intent. I just thought it was an interesting point worth mentioning. (Sadly, sometimes it’s hard to suppress the effects of the pedantry gene. 😉 )
Bruce Wren June 21, 2018 Thank you, Leo, for your appreciation. It has permitted me to go to your web-site. If you would, I would gladly substitute the $100 for the volume of your own poetry that you consider most exemplary… Once again, thanks. Reply
damian Robin June 23, 2018 Congrats, Ben. You may find this of interest. http://thedabbler.co.uk/2010/12/james-mcintyre-the-cheese-poet/ James McIntyre: the Cheese Poet Very Best Damian Reply
