35th Anniversary Contest Winners

The winners are:

First Place: Doyali Farah Islam - 35th parallel

Second Place: Anne Swannell - Thirty Five

Third Place: Debbie Strange - doggerel

Honourable Mention: Belinda Betker - Friary

 

In 2010, Contemporary Verse 2 turned the big 35, and to give our birthday a special kick we created a contest for the occasion.

The challenge is that each poem must incorporate “35” somehow. It could be that a poem is 35 lines or 35 stanzas or it could be that literally the number “35” is used or written out, or included in the title.

 

First Place

Doyali Farah Islam

- 35th parallel -

(this poem is in PDF format)

 

 

 

Second Place

Anne Swannell

Thirty Five

 

knows it’s

odd,

 

 

longs to become three dozen

doughnuts for the office do

eggs for the wedding breakfast

poems by Garrison Keillor

barriers to knowledge-sharing

managers must consider

—of anything really

 

 

pictures itself

swanning  about

in fabric shops and do-it centres

queening it over

the less-imperial metre

(quality over quantity, it thinks)

 

 

can’t stop thinking about

the joy of six

times six, four times

nine, three twelves,

two eighteens,

the fact that joy

can be doubled

by doing it the other way round

 

 

yearns to be evenly divided,

split

 

 

understands

that before long

it’ll get its wish.

 

 

Third Place

Debbie Strange

doggerel

 

another summer’s scorching dog day afternoon

i’m watching the dogs of war and hounds of hell

in their bloody dog-fights

chase the tail of some flea-ridden mongrel country

until it dies a dog’s death and buries its own bones

thrown to the dogs

going to the dogs

with not a dog’s chance of ever being lucky

 

another hot dog or corn dog dog-cheap

i’m living in the doghouse

and it’s a dog’s life being hounded for love and money

but if you love me you’ll love my 35 dogs

sled and search and rescue dogs

seeing eye and watchdogs

sniffer dogs and bird dogs

prairie dogs too

 

another winter’s blinding sundogs

i’m barking mad in my hounds-tooth hat

black dog dogging every thought

firedogs ready for the bite of another three-dog-night

i’m dog-tired but now i’ve stepped in it

and i’m left holding the doggy bag

while i let sleeping dogs lie

doggo

 

another hangdog dogsbody with dog breath

i’m reading dog-eared pages

eating a dog’s breakfast and drinking hair of the dog that bit

you can’t teach an old dog new tricks

and so yet again i’m drooling as i stagger up the doglegged staircase

to put on the dog and the dog collar

whining and yapping dogmatic dogma

hush puppy

 

another spring and it’s raining cats and dogs

dog violets and dog roses blooming

dogfish biting

i’m a sea dog and a salty dog

my dogs ache as i stand and watch the dog-star shine

and i know that this dog has had her day

i’m sicker than a dog and the time has come to roll over and play dead

doggone it anyway