March Madness Poetry Begins

It's Poetry Friday, so it is fitting that many poets and poem lovers are gearing up for March Madness Poetry.  I've made the cut for the competition (despite my stupor lately)...
Register yourself (as an individual) and/or your class (even homeschoolers!) to vote for your favorite poems.
There will be an insane number of poems and variety of styles and usage of words at Ed DeCaria's in March!

Today I am sharing the post from Laura Shovan's Wind Down from February's Ekphrastic poetry challenge.  The inspiration is a painting by Patty Gulledge.  I truly wanted to do something serious...but as I looked at the buoys and thought about the rows of buoys lined up to be painted afresh each spring to ready them for duty, the very last line, the punchline of a joke, kept coming to me...
You have to go with what you are given.

Buoy's Team

Like worn out team shirts
After the last game
The buoys were brought in
To repaint and stain
Then strung on a line
By their ropes left to dry
Freshened buoy colors
Tickled the eye
“Are all you ropes good?”
Fisherman asked the lot,
One rope replied,
“I’m a frayed knot!”

by Donna JT Smith


The painting reminded me that I had taken pictures a few years back of buoys being repainted, getting ready for putting in traps again.  Each lobsterman has his own unique paint pattern so they know the right buoys to pull.  I remember my grandfather telling me that it would be dangerous to touch another lobsterman's traps. Fishermen respected property and boundaries.

Now head on over to Renée LaTulippe's No River Water where she has links to more poetry and is hosting Michelle H. Barnes and her ditty anthologies!

More info on March Madness Poetry:

The March Madness Poetry tournament officially opens tomorrow at 8 pm.  This is when the poets will get their assigned word and 36 hours to write a poem using it.  If you haven't registered to participate in the voting community either as an individual or a class of students (home schoolers, too) you can do that at any time!  This should be lots of fun for adults and kids alike, though the poems are geared to kids K-12.  

Here's the schedule for the bouts (click on the link below it to take you to the original page):

https://madnesspoetry.com/calendar

For individuals to vote:

1. Log in with Facebook. (Alternatively, sign up using email and log in.)
2. For each match-up, read both poems and consider the merits of each.
3. After deciding on your favorite, click the appropriate button to cast your vote. Votes are counted in real time and cannot be changed once entered.

Things to Consider in Making a Choice

• How well the poem incorporates the authlete's assigned word, given its level of difficulty.
• Precision: structure, meter, rhyme, syntax, etc.
• Personality: creative imagery, language, metaphor, etc.
• Power: makes you laugh, cry, want, sigh, think, dream, wince, scream, etc.
• Plus One: it is a poem you feel drawn to share with another person for whatever reason.

Hope you get to play!