Gavin Bennett's Blog: WD Poetic Form Challenge: Ottava Rima Winner

Another WD Poetic Form Challenge is just around the corner. But in the meantime, here are the results of the Writer’s Digest Poetic Form Challenge for the ottava rima. And since there were so many excellent poems, I also selected a Top 10 list.

Read all of them here.

Here is the winning ottava rima:

Returning, by William Preston

A piece of me is always turning there,
to my old home, the place where I was born;
I’m drawn to something glowing in the air,
the same way sunshine beckons growing corn.
I feel it in each city, town, or square
where strangers make me feel a bit forlorn:
some similarity of street or face
that takes me back to where I knew my place.

I haven’t seen the house for many years
and all the neighbors now have passed away;
it seems to be a recipe for tears:
the sentiments that limn a bygone day.
But when you smile, you banish all arrears
and fears, and hold the strangeness far at bay,
and bid me learn, no matter where I roam,
that folks are folks, and they will point me home.

*****

Build an Audience for Your Poetry!

Learn how to find more readers for your poetry with the Build an Audience for Your Poetry tutorial! In this 60-minute tutorial, poets will learn how to connect with more readers online, in person, and via publication.

Poets will learn the basic definition of a platform (and why it’s important), tools for cultivating a readership, how to define goals and set priorities, how to find readers without distracting from your writing, and more!

Click to continue.

*****

Congratulations, William! The musicality of the poem, as well as the sentimental nostalgia, really sang to me.

Here’s my Top 10 list:

Returning, by William Preston
Time Off, by Rosemary Nissen-Wade
Country Music, by Jane Shlensky
The Hawk, by Maria Grace
The Wedding Guest, by Tracy Davidson
Do We Still Pretend the Stars Are Holes?, by JR Simmang
Keeping the Seasons, by Taylor Graham
Iris, by RJ Clarken
Innocent Ignorance, by Tati-Williams
Sometimes the Truth Hurts, by Connie Peters

Congratulations to everyone in the Top 10! And to everyone who wrote ottava rima!

*****

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.

*****