Waterworks Contest

I've been thinking some about an idea for our next poetry contest (assuming everyone has recovered from our grueling haiku decathlon): WATER POEMS.

This idea emerged from some time I spent in the fall along Plaster Creek, here in Grand Rapids. It's considered the most unhealthy stream in West Michigan. It runs from outside the city limits to where it merges with the Grand River just south of downtown, and along the way it picks up agricultural seepage, suburban runoff, heaps of urban trash and some light industrial pollutants, as well. It's still quite an enjoyable location, though, and I've done some writing and reflection on this waterflow and its surrounding over this winter. I'm intersted in the ideas of purity and pollution, visible litter vs. invisible substances, flow, history, play, and nourishment which are associated with water and the water cycle. Does water come in containers or is it what contains life and our planet? What do we see or not see while walking along a stream, standing in the rain, stomping in puddles? What are we to make of water in the city, which is centrally structured and contoured in order to ensure that water flows through and out of it?

But enough of the theoretical chit-chat. Here's what I'm thinking:

1. Take 2.5 weeks and write one long piece (or a series of up to 5 smaller pieces) that is somehow related to the subject or theme or image of water. Think about the relationship between form and water, or don't. Are there watery, watered-down, water-logged, or gushing words? Send these compositions to me by email on or before Friday, February 19, at 5:00pm.
2. I'll post these on this blog anonymously (and circulate them by email) for commentary by the following Monday, and one week later, on Friday, February 26, you'll send me your final list of top 3 entries. There's no way I can match Rob's algorythmic mind powers, but here is how I'll calculate scores:

First place = 5 points
Second place = 3 points
Third place = 1 point

3. I'll tally these up and, assuming my modus operandi is suffiently operable, post the results at the beginning of March. Loser gets a wedgie.

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Ferry Me Across the Water
Christina Rossetti

"Ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do."
"If you've a penny in your purse
I'll ferry you."

"I have a penny in my purse,
And my eyes are blue;
So ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do."

"Step into my ferry-boat,
Be they black or blue,
And for the penny in your purse
I'll ferry you."

Once by the Pacific
Robert Frost

The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
The clouds were low and hairy in the skies,
Like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.
You could not tell, and yet it looked as if
The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff,
The cliff in being backed by continent;
It looked as if a night of dark intent
Was coming, and not only a night, an age.
Someone had better be prepared for rage.
There would be more than ocean-water broken
Before God's last 'Put out the Light' was spoken.