First Place Winner, April 2004 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

First Place Winner, April 2004

VILLANELLE FOR AN ENGLISH PROFESSOR
Mitchell Geller
(About Poetry Forum)

He bores us in a hundred different ways,
This endless cornucopia of quotes,
This master of unparalleled clichés.

With every glib MLA Journal phrase,
(Recalled from furtive fannings through his notes)
He bores us in a hundred different ways.

You catch him off his guard, and he betrays
A local accent - is it Terre Haute’s? -
This master of unparalleled clichés.

And though the erudition he displays
Seems genuine, when he over-emotes
He bores us in a hundred different ways.

For classrooms simply aren’t the same as plays,
Despite the histrionics he promotes,
This master of unparalleled clichés.

He rants and raves, insensate to the daze
That fills the room, the yawn-constricted throats.
He bores us in a hundred different ways,
This master of unparalleled clichés.

Judge John Poch’s comment: “Well, I’m sure everyone will call me a fuddy-duddy for claiming this poem as the best of the group, but so be it. It is clearly the most accomplished. As far as I’m concerned, the villanelle (a proper one, one that doesn’t cheat) is about the hardest formal poem to write. There is only one really good one, and I’m not talking about Elizabeth Bishop (that statement might raise some hackles). Why repeat a line or two so much? Here, we see, the lines are worth repeating. They are mostly end-stopped, the way Roethke or Empson do it, and the rhymes are lovely. Who couldn’t love the rhyme ‘Terre Haute’s’! Reminds me of that famous Hecht sestina that uses ‘Rochester’ over and over. Let’s hear it for the minor cities of America!”