Judge Patricia Smith’s comments: “I immediately fell in love with this submission’s lyrical momentum—building a narrative, building a defense, building a remarkably fresh view of an old story. I was intrigued by the poem’s sweet science, hurtling toward a who-knows-what crescendo—and in the end, we have a tentative, warmly human deity struggling with his confidence, pulling in a weary breath and beginning again. I read every poem I encounter out loud, listening for the magic it works on the open air, and this one was a particular joy—deftly avoiding preachiness and predictability with bright, rollicking language.”

Poem of the Year Judge Kelly Cherry’s comments: “Witty and intelligent, ‘A Second Look at Creation’ uses marvelously precise words to make us see/hear/smell/taste/touch the world, even aspects of it we may seldom notice: ‘every hand that holds money and is diligent’ (emphasis mine), ‘the admirable number pi’ (emphasis mine—and is not the number pi entirely admirable, succeeding in all that it does?), God wearing a skullcap that hides ‘a bald spot / high in the crown.’ Such apt and vivid language. I love it that in the cosmos of this poem there are ‘five known elements: earth, water / fire, air, and yellowing passion fruit.’ Sly humor continues in the second stanza, where ‘God’ has his tongue in his cheek when he tells us that spring ‘will be different / this time.’ Hope springs again; spring hopes again. Whether or not that hope is fulfilled, we revel in the possibility of the new, and in spring all creation at least seems new again. This poem is clever linguistically but also smart emotionally, and who can resist its appealing portrait of a happy, hardworking God?”