The winners revealed

Tagore Poetry Competition

Second Life, 03 of May 2014

Dear Participants:

Inaugurated by the Second Life group called “Gitanjali Indian Society”, Tagore Poetry Competition 2014, after along four months event, the contest has come to an end. We had received important amount of submissions in April and it was a blast going through them all.  We want to thank everyone that has participated and we hope you had pleasure with it. Your participation was very valuable to me. There was a lot of great material presented. I appreciated your effort very much and the time you devoted to take part in this contest.  I have enjoyed reading your poems this poetic summer. I have read all of them meticulously. You made me feel and live your poetic reality more than once time.

I have discovered confessional styles; many colloquial voices reproducing every day imagines. In this regard, I appreciate the language and rhetoric resources of the contestants and how they build poetical fictional world even using street smart language. There were also a surprising number of traditional forms.  Most entries, however, were in free verse, narrative poems, though sometimes charmingly sentimental.
Any way, I don’t  really want to extend this comment and here are the result:

First prize: “Spectrum” by Kathryn Audurburgh

Second prize: “Snake of Wrath” by  Devanahousha Resident

Third prize: “Almost” by  Jolene Sabetha

Honorable mention 1: “Pollination of love” by  Subtlety Dalglish

Honorable mention 2: “I see you”- By LeonidasXVI

Honorable mention 3: “When the world turns upside down” by  Teer Latzo

THE WINNERS

There was an important response to this first competition. I received 25 poems.  This time the participants could enter however many times they wanted using their alters. The topic was about love and we know love is possibly the most popular of all poetry themes. Even that you will see many variations.

When I read this little poem called “Spectrum”, my systemic analysis paused and listened attentive, because this poem conjured up moments of astonishment and wonder.  Love is the most amazing thing in our lives. It is what makes us human, what makes life worth living.   It recalled me the Bob George´s song: “Love is Love”, because “Spectrum” has musical rhythm. It searches vainly the verse in its compositions, even when the semantic power it sustains in itself, using some regular sounds and natural cycles such as constant reminders of life’s pulsing beat that moves within and around us. I have appreciated its metaphors, all related with daily live, family, love, anatomy, time, all of them mixed with one color it affects moods, feelings, and emotions. In the end it came down to subjective taste. Sorry, I did my  best.


About the second prize award, “Snake of Wrath”, I loved the darker side of love, such as passion, forbidden love, and feelings of betrayal. Love is pain too. After reading to this poem a few times I had a headache. The best technical of death. The image of owl and love is a great contrast. It was taken from a song. Is okay to me. It enriched the poem. Great mixed of nature symbols. The animals express some attribute. They are psychological and spiritual symbols invoked in the middle of romantic storm.  

About the third poem, “Almost” I loved the language in this narrative poem. Love is a labyrinth of suffering inside this wild city where love is dying in shady buildings. In our fast-paced chaotic city, which boasts all sorts of different people, we find ourselves skimming through more affairs in order to find that one person who can truly open our locks. This is a very strong poem and very different too. Can this poetic voice live without love?  Love gives life meaning. How superficial  is this worldly life without love.  

Honor Mentions:
“Pollination of love”
Great metaphor of beauty, delicacy and sensuality.  Love such as movement of live, fertilization and joy. This metaphor is the cold knife in your side baby. So sexy how butterflies help pollinate flowers  

“I see you”
I see you is a very nice alliteration. I see you and I see the love. The poetic voice is deeply in love, he often describes the impression of being intoxicated with ecstasy for his beloved.  Great descriptions of seeming romantic love is an illusion to the all-inclusive pure, divine love.  

“When the world turns upside down”
She is  someone who has locks that fit  his keys. She represents the epitome of love and partnership. Very nice language and good grammar in my humble opinion.  

It was an enormously time-consuming process to judge this first competition, because of the difficulty of feeling your poems properly in English, so I had to evaluate them carefully a number of times. It was a very rewarding process too. I felt honored to meet you all through your words. Once again thank you very much dear participants.  I know we love our creations and consider them as much as your own child and how to criticize to your beautiful kids. Once again: thank you very much!
Best regards
Bimala Tagore 

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