Thanks to all the poets from all over Canada who entered our Summer 21 Poetry Contest. Today, the 21^st we take great pleasure in announcing and congratulating the top three winners:

Drum roll please……

• 1st Place: Marg Kropf – Coming of Age
• 2nd Place: Les Robling – XXI
• 3rd Place: Reva Nelson – Twenty-one and Done

Before you read the winning poems and why we chose them, here is what the contest asked for:

Compose a 21-line poem in any form, where the subject matter evokes some aspect of the number 21. Your poem does not have to actually contain the words “twenty-one”, although you are welcome to do so. The title is not considered one of the 21 lines.

Winner: Marg Kropf – “Coming of Age”

COMING OF AGE
 
 They reproach, these stops and starts
 Of children’s feet
 My measured tread
 Along a dusty street,
 Along the hopscotch lines
 So crazily bent
 Around the jagged cracks
 In the cement.
 Children dash against the sun
 And I can see
 That they are at some game
 And unaware of me.
 Their looks cry out,
 “Too late. It is too late!
 You are the traveller
 Who can pass this gate
 But once, then vanish
 In an angry sun.”
 I feel old, old,
 Immeasurably old.
 Tomorrow I will be twenty-one.
 

Judges’ Comments on “Coming of Age”

On the cusp of full adulthood, our narrator is acutely aware that a return to childhood is not an option. The imagined admonishments of the children symbolize the vanished years, and their imagined taunts sting. The children can brave dusty streets and jagged cracks in the cement; indeed, they can dash against the sun. Fearless. And, of course, there’s an underlying reminder to any reader beyond the age of 21, that this too is no longer attainable. We’re reminded how, at our own age of twenty-one, we felt about aging; how each year passes and leaves us feeling old, old, immeasurably old.

On first reading, the ending comes as a surprise, despite the title, because the poet so accurately captures the heavy feeling of being old that we can imagine a much older narrator. In the first lines, are images and connotations of heaviness and age, of a life measured: feet and treads, numbers and prescribed routes in hopscotch, lines and roads that point to journeys made and the nod to the children’s rhyme “Step on a crack/ Break your mother’s back,” as well as the sensory details that feed the emotion: dusty, crazily bent, jagged cracks.

At the first turn, the mood lightens as we witness the children and their imagination game. Here the movement is fast and sunny and loud. And then the final turn back to the narrator, I feel old… setting us up for the kicker last line.

The poem is further supported by an intriguing rhyme scheme and rhythm that hearkens to the unbalanced feeling of the narrator, especially with the extra penultimate line that throws the scheme off just before the final statement.

2^nd Place: Les Robling – XXI

XXI 

Just one topic comes to mind,
 Bill Twenty One, cruel unkind.
 A misaligned, nasty law,
 No matter how it's written down
 Causing many a facial frown,
 An act around a social flaw.
 
 Banning ethnic dress and symbol
 Crosses, hijabs, turbans and all,
 Casts a pall on a nation
 Denied the right to free choice;
 Discrimination all should voice
 Not rejoice this indignation.
 
 What a year, what a frightful age,
 Covid pandemic, nature's rage,
 A rampage across the land -
 Fever, dry cough, tiredness,
 Painful death from this virus
 Undesirous deadly hand.
 
 Yet, covid will be slayed, soon now;
 But this Bill lives on, somehow,
 Twenty one, merde, disallow

Judges’ Comments on “XXI”

Roman numerals in the title create curiosity about the poem to come. Rhyming couplets and metrical structure are tough to pull off in a poem without it reading like a greeting card. This poet wisely avoids a simple AABB scheme and opts to vary the rhythm and tone with an AABCCB for three full stanzas and then ties it nicely with a triplet stanza at the end.

A clever use of internal rhyme again keeps the greeting card element at bay: down, frown, around; choice, voice, rejoice; tiredness, virus, undesirous. And enjambment of some lines further helped to keep the rhyme from calling attention to itself because the content spans the lines and carries the reader with it: Banning ethnic dress and symbol / Crosses, hijabs, turbans and all, / Casts a pall on a nation

This poet is to be applauded for risking a topical and controversial subject, as good poets have done through the ages. In many ways this poet pulled it off. Reserving personal opinion, however, and merely presenting facts and images and possibilities so that the reader comes to that opinion on their own, would make this even stronger.

3rd Place – Reva Nelson – Twenty-one and Done

TWENTY-ONE AND DONE 

When my son was eleven 
I was imparting some motherly wisdom 
On choices and values 
He questioned why 
I was telling him this 
Since his values were in place 

“I’m done, Mom, you’ve told me 
You don’t need to tell me again.”
 
“What do you mean you’re done 
Are you a Christmas turkey?" I asked 

By eighteen I thought now he’s done 
Off to university and safe 
But many new challenges emerged 
And I wasn’t done either 

At twenty-one I thought now he’s done 
And I am finished parenting 
Not so, not done 

Now, years later, my grandson is turning one 
I see that no one is done 
Not even me

And parenting is infinite           

Judges’ Comments on “Twenty-One and Done”

There is a solid progression here with touchstones of ages 11, 18, 21 and beyond and back to 1. The last full stanza brings us full circle to the wisdom our narrator gains. As much as she wanted to impart wisdom to her young son, she (and we readers) are reminded that gaining wisdom is not something that can be measured in years. Indeed, our grandmother narrator is still gaining wisdom.

Use of actual dialogue in this poem gives the reader insights into character without having to describe or filter the view. A touch of humour lightens what could have been a dry delivery, given the prosaic style. While this narrative structure offers a useful parable, and a recognizable theme to engage readers, a stronger sensory engagement through use of poetic devices or form or use of the senses would bring the reader closer to the poem on an emotional level.

Last Word

So there you have it. Congratulations to the winners and indeed, congratulations to everyone who entered. As all writers know, submitting is the hardest part.