WD Poetic Form Challenge: Diminishing Verse Winner

Here are the results of the Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge for diminishing verse. There were a lot of great poems, but only 10 can be finalists and just one can win.

Read all the diminishing verse here.

Here is the winner:

A Clearing in the Woods, by William Preston

Here, chickadees attired in dress as smart
as tuxedos from an upscale mart
display their peripatetic art

amidst the terse chromatic spray
of autumn leaves that seem to pray
for succor from each glancing ray

of sunlight in its fading trend
as winter comes apace to rend
the leaves, and bring the season’s end.

How blessed is this wild place, where
nature has made a statement here,
and all this is a gift to all, ere

the light fades, and brings the prowls
of raccoons and shrews bats and owls.

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Congratulations again, William! I enjoyed the subject matter of the poem, but also the fact that the poem works both as diminishing verse and as a sonnet.

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

1. A Clearing in the Woods, by William Preston
2. Autumn, by Jane Shlensky
3. Break-up, by Tracy Davidson
4. Suffocation, by Nancy Posey
5. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, by Brent Collar
6. Mister Malaman, by William Preston
7. Baldness, by Jane Shlensky
8. Too Much Fun, by Daniel Ari
9. Spin for an In, by GPR Crane
10. My Elf on the Shelf, by Ruth Crowell Shevock

Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10! And to everyone who wrote diminishing verse!

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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.

He loves learning new (to him) poetic forms and trying out new poetic challenges. He is also the author of Solving the World’s Problems.

Follow him on Twitter @RobertLeeBrewer.

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Find more poetic posts here:

• I Don’t Consider Myself a Poet.
• What to Do From Here.
• I Need an Agent for My Poetry.

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