Thank you so much, all of you poetry contest entrants, for all the wonderful submissions! Before I give you the winning poems, I would like to thank everyone who gathered up the courage to submit:
Caitlin Walker, Darcy Blake, Candace Apple, Candida (no last name given), Patsy Pennington, Nicole Spataro, Rachel Martorano, Steffanie Owczarzak, Mandy Tidwell, Debi Woolery, Donna DeBoer, Sheryl Overby, Kari Nieves, Diana Rotelli, Trisha Mandel, Denise Holterman, Lauri Burgess and Susan VanHoeven!
I’d also like to thank my excellent Seattle roomie, Laura Miller, for helping me read through the submissions and select the top three – and it was tough! Many of these poems were quite wonderful, and I hope to print several of them over the next few days and weeks. Poems ranged from the randy to the sublime, odes to Diana and a poem for Murtagh; several funny ones; a few reflected on the nature of being a fan. Keep in mind that I was looking for poems that I liked, not that necessarily fit the “best written” category.
It was tough to narrow it down to three – and it was only three because that was all the prizes I could afford. Opening each email was like opening a gift.
So no, with no further ahoy, as my mother used to say, are the winners. Our third place winner tickled me even before I read her poem, saying in her email that “I really, really, REALLY hope you weren’t kidding about crappy quality being okay. This could legitimately damage the psyche of a true poetry lover.” Caitlin Walker, no crappy quality here:
Sam’s hair isn’t quite red.
And Cait’s eyes? They are blue.
But please quit your bitching.
They’re Gabaldon approved.There’s no junk in Cait’s trunk.
Love Sam? You don’t have to!
But just give them a chance
Before crying, Boo hoo!Sam is only 6’3″.
And Cait’s too tall, it’s true.
But cantankerous whining
Means you’ll miss a great view.See, Outlander’s coming
To TV! Yes, it’s true!
23 years of waiting.
Haters STFU.
Nicole Spataro, our second place winner, told me she hemmed and hawed before sending in her entry, from the point of Jamie as the ghost at the beginning of Outlander. Nicole is an admin of my “home” FB group, Outlandish Chicago, but Roomie Judge Laura Miller independently confirmed that this was one of the best:
Where are ye my Claire
so faire
with all your bonnie curly hairYe brush and brush
into the night
as my spirit wanders taking flight.Until the day we reunite,
I bid ye farewell,
and will love and protect ye with all my might.
And our first place winner is Darcy Blake. Darcy’s poem was unusual in that it wasn’t from Jamie or Claire’s perspective, but involved another romantic couple, Jenny and Ian. Darcy went all out and had a friend put her poem on a “parchment” background (which unfortunately, I couldn’t see at first – not that it would have influenced the judging). So here, as she sent it, is Ian’s ode to Jenny.
Again, thank you to all entrants! Watch future posts for additional poems – I’ll try to get to all of them!
