WD Poetic Form Challenge: Gogyohka Winner

Thank you to everyone who submitted a gogyohka! I’ve been sitting on the winner and already have the erasure winner ready too (look for that next week). My initial short…

Thank you to everyone who submitted a gogyohka! I've been sitting on the winner and already have the erasure winner ready too (look for that next week).

My initial short list included nearly 50 poems, so it was crazy competitive (like usual). But I did cut it down to one winner and 10 finalists. This time around Marian O'Brien Paul won for her poem “Parsing Autumn,” which was actually a gogyohka chain.

Here’s the winning Gogyohka:

Parsing Autumn, by Marian O'Brien Paul

In our courtyard
two locust trees
one drenching us
with gold
before the other

Slate-gray lake
lounging
beneath the sky
mirror image:
a selfie

On the ground
a dead squirrel
its tail still bushy
body curled
as if sleeping

Pumpkins piled
into mounds
at markets
promising pies
Jack-O'Lanterns

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Here is the Top 10 list:

  1. “Parsing Autumn," by Marian O'Brien Paul
  2. "Two Big Herons on a Little Pond," by William Preston
  3. "Lump," by Marie Elena Good
  4. "(When I misplace)," by drnurit
  5. "Envy," by J. Lynn Sheridan
  6. "Dying Embers," by Tracy Davidson
  7. "Landlord," by Jessica Cummins
  8. "(the moon)," by James Brush
  9. "Trouble in Paradise," by Daniel Roessler
  10. "lost," by Nancy Posey

Congratulations to Marian and everyone in the Top 10! And thank you to everyone who took the time to participate and comment on each others’ poems.

As mentioned above, an announcement on the erasure challenge is coming soon. In the meantime, watch for the next poetic form and poetic form challenge.

Also, be sure to read through all the comments from the gogyohka challenge. Click to continue.

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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of the poetry collection, Solving the World’s Problems (Press 53). He edits Poet’s Market, Writer’s Market, and Guide to Self-Publishing, in addition to writing a free weekly WritersMarket.com newsletter and poetry column for Writer’s Digest magazine.

He loves reading and writing the various poetic forms and can't wait for the next April Poem-A-Day Challenge (not far away now).

Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.

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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.