WD Poetic Form Challenge: Catena Rondo Winner
The Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge is an opportunity for poets to try a form together (this time a catena rondo) and for one of those poems to end up…
The Writer's Digest Poetic Form Challenge is an opportunity for poets to try a form together (this time a catena rondo) and for one of those poems to end up in Writer's Digest magazine.
Here are the results of the Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the catena rondo along with a Top 10 list.
Here is the winning catena rondo:
What Was It?, by John Beaton
I know there's something I forgot.
I really had to bring that thing.
What was that thing I had to bring?
I know there's something I forgot.
I really had to bring that thing.
Without it I'll be high and dry...
or so I think. I don't know why
I really had to bring that thing.
Without it I'll be high and dry.
When I put on my thinking hat,
I do remember thinking that
without it I'll be high and dry.
When I put on my thinking hat,
I know there's something I forgot.
Alas, my head gets far too hot
when I put on my thinking hat.
I know there's something I forgot.
I really had to bring that thing.
What was that thing I had to bring?
I know there's something I forgot.
*****
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*****
Congratulations, John! “What Was It?” takes the repetition of the catena rondo and spins its wheels around that moment most people have experienced in which they can't remember, "What's that thing I forgot?"
Here’s my Top 10 list:
- What Was It?, by John Beaton
- Bat Mitzvah, by Daniel Ari
- At the Hotel of the Violet Hippopotamus, by RJ Clarken
- The Storm Speaks, by William Preston
- Winter's Slumber, by T.R. Long
- Circle Play, by Jane Shlensky
- Soil of Life, by Lelawattee Manoo-Rahming
- Boomerang, by Steven R. Robertson
- Livingston, by Walter J Wojtanik
- After the Cold Winter Rains, by Linda Lee Lyberg
Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10! And to everyone who wrote a catena rondo!
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
