Gavin Bennett's Blog: WD Poetic Form Challenge: Dodoitsu Winner

This was a fun challenge to judge. First off, there were so many dodoitsu entries. Second, they’re all short, which means it’s kind of like poetic popcorn. That said, the competition was fierce. I had to go through several rounds of getting the list down to a top 10; there were 40 dodoitsu that made it past the first cut alone.

Read them all in the comments here.

I did get it down to a top 10 list (below) and this winner:

It Is Written, by Nurit Israeli

The love note from bygone days
still convincingly asserts
why we will never part ways.
Oh, short forevers…

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Congratulations, Nurit! I love how this dodoitsu sneaks in a little rhyming while also being effective without it.

Here’s a complete look at my Top 10 list:

It Is Written, by Nurit Israeli
Backbreaking Mountain, by Bruce Niedt
“I prefer the work of love,” by James Von Hendy
“I flip the flipping burgers,” by William Preston
“we fed music to our love,” by Sasha A. Palmer
“The most unexpected of things,” by Karen
“She said it’s not in the cards,” by David M. Hoenig
“Torn lovers still align,” by Helena Janssen
“As a poetical gal,” by Rie Sheridan Rose
“he loves me or maybe not,” by candy

Since the form is so short, I’m going to try and get the top 3 into my column. Fingers crossed! Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10! And to everyone who wrote a dodoitsu!

Look for the next poetic form and challenge just around the corner.

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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community, which means he maintains this blog, edits a couple Market Books (Poet’s Market and Writer’s Market), writes a poetry column for Writer’s Digest magazine, leads online education, speaks around the country on publishing and poetry, and a lot of other fun writing-related stuff.