âď¸ Weâre thrilled to announce the winners of this yearâs CV2 2-Day Poem Contest, as selected by our judge (and last yearâs winner) Alexander Hollenberg; our editors; our contest captain Yelani Peirisâs mom; and you! âď¸
These poets crafted some stunning poems over the course of 48 hours, using a dastardly ten-word list, and youâll get to read all of them in our fall 2024 issue!
Read on to hear what judge Alexander Hollenberg had to say about the first, second, and third place winners, and be sure to join us next spring for the 2024 2-Day Poem Contest! âď¸
First Place: “After We Marry and Head West” by Hollie Adams
Second Place: “The Legacy Dam” by Jenna Butler
Third Place: “This Counterfeit Year” by Medrie Purdham
Editorâs Choice: “Pickle Jar Love Poem” by Sarah Wishloff
Editorâs Momâs Choice: “Last Father’s Day” by Carmen Wall
Peopleâs Choice: “Logical Reasoning” by Jade Y. Liu
âAfter We Marry And Head Westâ
âThe pace of this poem is striking. It gallops. And then it lassos us. The concision of its linesâeach like a hard, powerful stride in a hard, powerful lifeâdemonstrates a remarkable, sophisticated attention to form and function. Brilliantly, the poet has crafted a Western that is both comfortable in its own pin-prick flowered clothes but also adds something new to the genre without feeling pressure to wholly subvert it. Every word, every phrase here is deliberate and sings with the possibilities of meaning: âwatch me /pioneer this excuse for a broom / across the floor,â or âaxes and rifles that un-lady / my arms.â This language does what poetry at its best is supposed to do: it makes the world a bit unfamiliar, makes us look again, makes us grin at the life- affirming possibilities of art. Every line of this poem makes me want to keep reading, and when I get to the endâthe gut-punch, just-leave-the-bottle-endâall I want to do is read it again.â
âthe legacy damâ
âThis poem is three things at once: an intricate, studied portrait of an ecosystem; a despairing testimony to human arrogance; and, an inspiring exemplar of human craft. Read this poem out loud. Youâll think youâre hearing magic in the way its sounds echo, reverberate, repeat, but I promise you itâs not magic. Itâs a poet who knows their medium well and who knows all the things language can do: âthe rich riverine broth / spadderdockâs bright lanterns / held aloft across the bog.â Lines like these make me want to pack up, tramp out, and sit on the banks of a river, just to listen. Lines like these possess the quality of quiet, thoughtful attention that we might look for in all our poetry.”
âThis Counterfeit Yearâ
âIn a year thatâs brought us the plagiarism-machines of AI, this poem laments the snowballing losses of authenticity in even the most private spaces. The speaker implores her child not to speak in memes, she only âpretendsâ to be a wife, and as she remembers an incident from her past, she reminds herself, âIt must have happened,â which suggests maybe it didnât. The shrewd complexity of this poem is that it doesnât simply find solace in the real; rather, it questions the slow creep of the counterfeit into all aspects of the speakerâs lifeâeven those that feel the most real, concrete. For me, whatever solace there is exists in the poetâs careful, creative patterning of language and line: âIf thereâs a soundtrack to this life, please let it be done / on instruments people breathe into.â I havenât heard a more eloquent plea for the humanity of art in a long time.â
– Alexander Hollenberg, Contest Judge