Third Place: Hawkstar!

The concept for this poem is so cool! The repetition of the “again” portion of the poem is extremely satisfying, and you nailed the frustration of being so focused on a thing that you forget to consider working around it. My favorite bits were where you called the window a “crystal prison” and a “diamond cage”, because it shows how important you can make something so mundane seem. The only note I have is that I think it would be more intriguing if you made it clearer in the poem that it is about a fly – I don’t know if I would have figured that out if you hadn't mentioned it at the bottom. Very well done!

Second Place: KatanaLuna!

This is a beautiful poem – all the imagery in it is simply gorgeous. I particularly love the line, “We would dance with the ravens on a whisk of the wild wind,” for its alliteration and imagery and also because I really love ravens. There’s something wistful about the whole thing, which makes it slightly bittersweet while still having the happiness be very clear. I do wish it was slightly more focused – the windows metaphor at the end helps tie it together, but it isn’t completely clear, and I think it could do with some sort of thread running through it to make it feel more cohesive – but it’s very satisfying to read. I feel like I was transported into the past while reading it. Great job!

First Place: Moon Wolf!!

Wow. I have no idea what the situation here is, but I find it very moving. The potential metaphorical properties of stained glass are something that I have explored before, and so I am thrilled to find some of that here – all the implications that come along with seeing through something that is also purposefully distorting what you are seeing, along with all the religious connotations – but anyways. The use of m-dashes throughout as well as the shorter lines really cuts the poem up, which I think works very well, or at least I really enjoyed it. I love the bit that goes “But something within me keeps / Wanting to see what happens / To the world in the end - when / It is led to its own destruction -”, because that is something I think about often, wanting to follow the human story to its end. And then I love how it ends on the eventuality of shattered glass – this imprisonment, desired or not, has to end someday, somehow.

Congratulations, Moon Wolf!