Iron Poet XX

[Vaynor]

Welcome to Iron Poet, Round Twenty!

Rules

1) Only the first 16 respondents expressing a desire to compete will be the contestants. It IS a first come, first served basis.

2) The contest will consist of a number of rounds pitting 2 randomly determined poets against each other until only one contestant remains (winner).

3) Each match-up will be given a theme, picture, article, subject, or other criteria to write on, and the poem submitted must match this as much as possible. Stricter following of prompts may help you win. Prompts that are words may be interpreted in any way (and any form of the word can be used), but keep in mind the judge may not see the connection if it's too ambiguous.

4) The winner as determined by a panel of judges will advance to the next round.

5) In case of a judge or judges not posting judgments in a timely manner, Vaynor will adjudicate and determine the winner.

6) The poems will be limited to 1000 words with a 50 word minimum

7) The entries will be poems. All forms of poetry are acceptable, as long as they meet the required word lengths. If your chosen style is too short, you are free to make two of them, e.g. you may make a limerick with 48 words, then add another limerick, still following the same theme, to reach the required word length.

8) All posted deadlines will given in as much time zones as possible, as labeled.

9) No late entries will be accepted. If you don't post or fail to post by the deadline, you will be disqualified. A 15 minute grace period is allowed. You have one freebie per contest, use it wisely. This allows you to be up to half a day late (12 hours) with your poem (no more).

10) If your entry does not include the article(s) and the picture(s), you will most likely lose because of it, however this will not disqualify your poem, as poems are judged on best use of the prompts.

11) The judgments are final. What the judges decide is how it is.

12) The entries will only include content suitable for the Playground.

13) Anything not clear will be decided by me.

14) The contestants will have 1 week (roughly) from the bracket posting to get their entries posted.

15) Post your poems in spoilers. Judges: do not read poems before the round ends.

16) Feel free to edit the post with your poem in it until the round ends. After that, any additional edits will disqualify you (barring a use of your half-day extension).

17) Judges have 1 week to complete judgments. If not all judges respond by this time, the round will be decided as if the late judges were not a part of it (i.e. if there are 5 judges to begin with and only 3 are on time, the round will be decided with 2 votes as opposed to 3). If there are only an even number of judgments, I will cast the remaining vote. If the first round has 16 contestants, the time for judgments to be posted will be increased to two weeks.

18) At the end of each contest, everyone still reading the thread will be able to anonymously vote on their favorite poem of the entire contest (encompassing all rounds). The poem with the most votes will win the "Best of Show" award!

THE IRON POET HALL OF FAME
1. Ravyn
2. Rubakhin
3. Elvaris
4. Alarra
5. Truemane
6. Devigod
7. Alarra
8. Devigod
9. Alarra
10. Elvaris
11. Rutskarn
12. Alarra
13. averagejoe
14. Asthix
15. truemane
16. Techwarrior
17. Halberd
18. Alarra
19. Dr Bwaa

Contestants:

1. Duck999
2. The Extinguisher
3. Zweisteine
4. FinnLassie
5. Targ Collective
6. Techwarrior
7. Cuthalion
8. 3SecondCultist
9. TheWombatofDoom
10. The Fiery Tower
11. Septimus Fabrius
12. Benthesquid
13. Exegesis
14. parodoxymoron
15. Weezer
16. Dallas-Dakota
    

Judges:

1. Dr Bwaa
2. CWater
3. Garwain
   
   

POTENTIAL APPLICANTS FOR THE JUDGE POSITION TAKE NOTE: THESE CONTESTS LAST A LONG TIME AND THIS IS NOT A FLEETING RESPONSIBILITY. IF YOU SIGN UP I EXPECT YOU TO POST JUDGMENTS ON TIME. IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER ABLE TO POST JUDGMENTS, TELL ME. THANK YOU.

[Duck999]

I might as well try, as I can do some poetry, and this sounds so fun. I will be a contestant here.

[The Extinguisher]

I'm in. I love competing in these.

[Dr Bwaa]

I'll judge! I'm very judgmental. It's a good fit.

[Zweisteine]

I'm in.

I hope I get a subject I can throw words at.

I don't expect to do too well, though. I'm not used to writing with a word minimum.

[FinnLassie]

I'll go for a second shot in participating.

[Targ Collective]

And so it begins.

A contest of poetry.

I am now a contestant. :)

[Techwarrior]

I am here to compete.

You are here to be arrested!

[Vaynor]

I'm in.

I hope I get a subject I can throw words at.

I don't expect to do too well, though. I'm not used to writing with a word minimum.

It's not too much of a minimum! Only 50 words, and mainly just to stop people from submitting haiku.

[Duck999]

It's not too much of a minimum! Only 50 words, and mainly just to stop people from submitting haiku.

Are you allowed to submit multiple haikus with over 50 words total? (I think I saw someone do that before, but I'm not sure)

[Dr Bwaa]

Are you allowed to submit multiple haikus with over 50 words total? (I think I saw someone do that before, but I'm not sure)

Yep (I did last round).

[Techwarrior]

It's not too much of a minimum! Only 50 words, and mainly just to stop people from submitting haiku.

That's it. I have to submit a Haiku string.

[Vaynor]

Just for the sake of an official confirmation, you may submit multiple short poems as your entry. Here's the relevant portion of the rules:

If your chosen style is too short, you are free to make two of them, e.g. you may make a limerick with 48 words, then add another limerick, still following the same theme, to reach the required word length.

[inuyasha]

Ooh hell yes I gotta participate! Is there a specific theme required for the poem?

[The Extinguisher]

Ooh hell yes I gotta participate! Is there a specific theme required for the poem?

Every round there's a new prompt for each pair.
So yes, is the answer to that question.

[truemane]

Ooh hell yes I gotta participate! Is there a specific theme required for the poem?

All of the rules are in the first post. Give 'em a skim through. It'll make a big difference.

[Cuthalion]

I'm in.

[3SecondCultist]

A poetry contest? On GitP? How have I never heard of this?

Count me in as well.

[Vaynor]

A poetry contest? On GitP? How have I never heard of this?

Count me in as well.

That's a good question, we've been going strong for over 7 years now.

Edit: And by going strong, I mean crawling slowly on broken limbs through an obstacle course. In the rain. But we're still around. And that's something?

[3SecondCultist]

That's a good question, we've been going strong for over 7 years now.

Edit: And by going strong, I mean crawling slowly on broken limbs through an obstacle course. In the rain. But we're still around. And that's something?

Of course that's something! I've been reading through the old contests, and by the looks of things it has been quite a long road for you. Very commendable stuff. Some of the poetry is also pretty incredible - I've got my work cut out for me.

[truemane]

That's a good question, we've been going strong for over 7 years now.

Edit: And by going strong, I mean crawling slowly on broken limbs through an obstacle course. In the rain. But we're still around. And that's something?

Has it really been 7 years? That's amazing. That's almost a 6th of my life so far.

Wow.

[Vaynor]

And almost a third of mine...

[TheWombatOfDoom]

I wish the contestants had increasingly more time as the rounds progressed. It was sad when the last one I couldn't get through a later round due to the due date (as well as a few real life issues), and then judgements didn't come for weeks.

I might recommend if there's a long time passing through judgements, that you give a small buffer of time before the next round after the announcement of the winners of the round, but before the next round starts. Even a few days would have been enough warning for me to allot some time for writing.

Either way...I suppose I'll give it another go.

[Vaynor]

I wish the contestants had increasingly more time as the rounds progressed. It was sad when the last one I couldn't get through a later round due to the due date (as well as a few real life issues), and then judgements didn't come for weeks.

I might recommend if there's a long time passing through judgements, that you give a small buffer of time before the next round after the announcement of the winners of the round, but before the next round starts. Even a few days would have been enough warning for me to allot some time for writing.

Either way...I suppose I'll give it another go.

I could do that, but I'm worried about that unnecessarily increasing the time the contests take to complete (which is already quite a long time). That said, I don't think I usually post the next round immediately after judgments are completed in the first place, but I can see that it could catch one off guard since the time it takes to complete judgments can be so varied.

[TFT]

I would like to compete.

EDIT: TIL vaynor and I are the same age. Huh.

[CWater]

I'd like to try this again.. It's been a few years since took part and actually submitted poems.

Last time I participated I forgot and only remembered about it on the due date. T_T Maybe I should try post-it notes this time?

[Benthesquid]

I'd like another go.

[Exegesis]

I'll try competing.

[paradoxymoron]

Yay! It's Iron Poet time again! I'd like the opportunity to once again fail spectacularly. (i.e., I'm in.)

[Vaynor]

Just need two more competitors and two more judges to get this thing going!