WD Poetic Form Challenge: Quintilla Winner
Learn the winner and Top 10 list for the Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the quintilla.
Here are the results of the Writer's Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the quintilla along with a Top 10 list. You can check out all the quintillas in the comments on this post.
Since we're about to start the November Poem-A-Day Chapbook Challenge, we'll start the next poetic form challenge in the beginning of 2021.
Here is the winning quintilla:
"Fall's Gate," by Taylor Graham
The Full Moon night's alive with bats,
a Harvest Moon for lovers' vows,
when longings like old specters rouse
with howling of the alley cats,
and leaves hang brittle on the boughs.
That scarecrow in the pumpkin field --
who ate the apples off the tree?
I found a bear-print, not concealed
but pressed in soil clear as can be
on giving land, its gracious yield.
Chill morning's work requires gloves
before the rise of mourning doves --
their shiver-launch from lawn to line
where sunning birds make note-design,
a music that field-labor loves.
*****
Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
*****
Congratulations, Taylor! I love the entire poem, including the strong aabba final stanza, but that first stanza is a sonic powerhouse.
Here’s my Top 10 list:
- Fall's Gate, by Taylor Graham
- Guessing Game, by RJ Clarken
- For the Birds, by Jane Shlensky
- She Lies Beneath, by Tracy Davidson
- No Ordinary Fungus, by Candace Kubinec
- Sins of the Father, by Walter J. Wojtanik
- Uncommon Sense, by Alice Stainer
- Lost and Found, by Sara Maurer
- Clouds of Fear, by Thalia Hamnerin
- Drifter, by Lisa L Stead
Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10! And to everyone who wrote a quintilla!
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.
