Abecedarian Challenge Winners

How much do we want to be aware of form, in a formal poem — and how much do we want the form to disappear? Philip Larkin was a poet with a gift for writing work that adheres quite tightly to pattern; and yet his skill causes the form almost to disappear, to melt into meaning. In our Abecedarian challenge, a formal structure is right out in front: the letters of the alphabet at the beginning of each line. Some of you landed neatly on each letter, accenting the form itself; other entries — while keeping to our rubric — worked to make the form flow into the poem. One’s no better than the other; it’s just fascinating for us to see the different ways in which you all approached this challenge.

Prairie Johnson’s ¿Cómo se siente? Is our winner — congratulations to Prairie on this moving, complex poem, which interrogates an absent father. “My memories are yours, but somehow you are not among them.” The alphabet has a sense of forward motion, and Prairie Johnson uses this momentum to drive her work forward, pulling the reader along.

Second prize goes to Dana Crandell for Zephyrs, a poem inspired by the night, by the names of the stars and constellations and the artists across the ages inspired by them. We learned a new word, too: xenial, “of, relating to, or constituting hospitality or relations between host and guest and especially among the ancient Greeks between persons of different cities.” Of course, we knew its opposite — sad to say that xenophobia is not an uncommon word — but we’d never come across its positive counterpart.

Well done to our runners-up, of course; we especially admired Geoffrey Philp’s Marcus Garvey’s Light of Freedom, which uses Garvey’s words to make what is almost a found poem. Tracy Kreuzberg’s Every Woman is an inspiring feminist anthem; and D. J. Reddall’s Dionysian Dancer revels in its Classical imagery, calling to “a language older than any human ear”. All of these poems show how a simple scheme — follow your ABCs — can summon creativity. From A to Z, these were great poems.

You can check out the full list of winners HERE and learn about our current challenges below: