Winners of Move Me Monthly, Vol 1
What a wild ride this first month has been. We launched/branched across all major platforms, witnessed the brilliant skirmishes of our first two #MMPoetryBattles, and hosted our first ever cash prize contest, Move Me Monthly.
From there, we watched as all of you came together as a band of #Movers to spread the love of poetry and community in our first #MMPKickabout. You took the Writing Community by storm as you tagged people and took to video, reading the poetry of your peers. We are in awe of your spirit and dedication to creating movement in this shared space. All we can say is thank you for all of your support throughout, and for your continued commitment to the best poetry community around!
All who entered the contest will receive an email with details about what we loved and would have liked to have seen regarding your contest submission. It was a pleasure reading each of your words. If you want to get involved and potentially win the next contest, click here.
Enough chatter, let's get to who will be taking home that delicious $100 prize, as selected by our special guest judge, Sabina Laura! We couldn't have asked for a more amazing and supportive first guest judge. She went above and beyond and provided incredible feedback regarding contest entries.
The honourable mentions are as follows:
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HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
Eden by K.P. DeLaney (@kpdela):
like a drug,
she impels me
to taste her.
so high and
out of range,
this love;
this different
kind of strange,
is everything
I need to stop the shake.
this elusive drug,
in the well, so deep
inside of her.
I lie
still; awake;
feigned
by the venom
in her fangs;
sweat bleeding
through cracks from the quake.
this fucking drug...
swapping sleep
for thoughts of her.
eyes red in disarray.
bergamot and tangerine
attempt to diffuse the syndromes
in my brain.
still feasting, feeding,
on forbidden apples;
I shake hands with the snake.
This piece is a great example of originality. The judges not only thought the poem was impactful and consistent, but its rhyme gave a fantastic and almost frantic pace that really enhanced the reader's experience.
Eudaimonia by Steph Thompson (https://linktr.ee/stephthmpsn):
What is all this chasing after?
Futile musings…
…endless chatter?
Scattered, our society — 
spaced apart
no room to breathe.
Or see, the time as it escapes us
minds a blank, too numb to discuss
what it is we’re truly thinking.
Caught inside the walls,Â
we’re shrinking—
sinking far
from our intentions
lost within a false dimension.
Deceived into believing lies.
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A brand of happiness disguised
as something to be taken, hoarded,
captured, sold, and then extorted—
rather than a priceless treasure,
by the world’s standard, we measure.
Empty pots of hollow gold,
a peaceful mind is what we’ve sold.
What impressed us the most with this perfectly paced and well thought-out piece was how the author brilliantly integrated meaning and emotional responses throughout. Our guest judge particularly loved the unique word choices and formatting that was not only decorative, but had purpose and enhanced the writing.
Autumns Wing by Ann Bagnall (@annieb222):
Autumn’s inexorable sword, through branches cleaves
Helpless, trembling trees, weeping burning leaves
Cries of mourning doves, haunting the eaves
Disappearing in darkening skies, leafless boughs despair
Clinging fast to our shadows, we two, drifting, a pair
Leaf touching leaf, silence, slow dancing on air
Whispers of endings, clangour, and chaos, everywhere
Now ‘when’ is the question, it is no longer ‘where’
Fall’s lost amber and my soul, will both rest here
When our seasons, finally, have torn me asunder
It is autumn’s wing, they will find me under
Impactful, consistent, and very nearly the winning poem. The imagery throughout this piece was expertly crafted with interesting and original word choices to transport the reader into the writer's vision. Format also played its part with our guest judge, and the loss of the third line in the stanza left her with an eerily abrupt ending, which for her added depth.
From what we can see this contains triplets, which are tercets that have three rhyming lines. In this example, hers are mono-rhymed following an AAA, BBB, BBB format. The last two lines are couplets.
And now without further ado, the winner is...
THE WINNER OF MOVE ME MONTHLY, VOL 1:
Our first ever winner of Move Me Monthly and the $100 cash prize is Ann Bagnall, with her dreamy and emotive write Slipping Away. In today's age, where free verse is king, we didn't expect a structured form like a villanelle to sweep all of us away, but it did. We'll go into the details below, but first check it out for yourself~
Slipping Away by Ann Bagnall (@annieb222):
Endings, a distant bell tolls, things decay
Petals drift slowly, in their soft demise
Like all our tomorrows, slipping away
Trees, unaware the seasons will betray
Unleaf themselves, into the waiting skies
Endings, a distant bell tolls, things decay
Now withering, at the edge of the day
Lost to the wind and rain, their helpless cries
Like all our tomorrows, slipping away
Time’s dance, burning the dreams of yesterday
Fading into night’s ephemeral sighs
Endings, a distant bell tolls, things decay
Tides not of our making, our sands give way
Out of the depths, the final waves now rise
Like all our tomorrows, slipping away
Sorrow’s eternal embrace shrouds dove grey
Bittersweet silence in painful reprise
Endings, a distant bell tolls, things decay
Like all our tomorrows, slipping away
"Slipping Away was a fantastic poem that I found very impactful due to its rhythm and flow, word choices, and emotion conveyed," commented Sabina, our guest judge.
The villanelle is a highly structured poem made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain, with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines. A famous villanelle you might recognize is "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas.
The poet used rhyme and rhythm so well here that it didn't feel like a form poem, let alone one of the most strictest known. We were moved by her brilliantly weaved phrases and felt the rhyme helped the piece flow with a fast pace that reflected time passing quickly.
‘Trees, unaware the seasons will betray, unleaf themselves...'
The repetition of the lines:
‘endings, a distant bell tolls, things decay’
and
‘like all our tomorrows, slipping away’
was impactful, and gave the feeling of time ticking by and things coming to an end.
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And there you have it! Please congratulate our winner and the honourable mentions by following their respective social media accounts, and be sure to follow ours, if you haven't already.
Entries for Move Me Monthly, Vol 2 is open right now. Click here for full details.