WD Poetic Form Challenge: Zejel Winner
Learn the winner and Top 10 list for the Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the zejel.
Learn the winner and Top 10 list for the Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the zejel.
Here are the results of the Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the zejel along with a Top 10 list.
Here is the winning zejel:
Figment, by RJ Clarken
The old swing set is weather-worn;
bare, save for bee and garden thorn.
Once upon a time, children played.
They jumped and climbed, so unafraid.
Now they're long gone, like time's charade.
Gone, save for bee and garden thorn.
Youth may be wasted on the young.
Lingering ghosts where kids had swung,
where often upside down they'd hung.
Now, only bee and garden thorn.
The wood, it rots. There's trails of rust.
Where once were games, there's only just
some apparitions, once robust.
Still, save for bee and garden thorn.
*****
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*****
Congratulations, RJ! I enjoyed the rhythm, but I think this one spoke to me for its nostalgia paired with the refrain, "save for bee and garden thorn."
Here’s my Top 10 list:
- Figment, by RJ Clarken
- Spotted in the Distance: A Rural Scene, by William Preston
- To Zejel, by Harvey Brodsky
- Maybe Later, by Ron Wright
- Mattresses, by Robbie Ann Lewis
- Night Garden, by Jessica Haight
- School at the Wild Edge, by Taylor Graham
- Grief, by Kim Hart
- Wild Vine, by Brian Nemerow
- Mimi, by rebwood
Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10! And to everyone who wrote a zejel!
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.
