Sea Shell Game 1

[John McManus]

Well, that's 3 votes for each poem now! Anyone else gonna join in and resolve the deadlock?

Thanks for adding your voice Col.

warmest,
John

[chibi575]

Tie-breaker?

Peggy... well... because she was our mentor for the Northwest Georgia Haiku Circle, Pinecone... good old American Know Who (as they say).

(voted at John's behest)

[John McManus]

I wouldn't say it was a behest. An invitation perhaps would be a better way to describe it

Thanks for chiming in.

warmest,
John

[chibi575]

bow

[John McManus]

Well, there's been no activity on here since Chibi's last post a week ago, so I will leave this open to anyone who wants to contribute until the weekend then I will lock the thread and start with the next game.

The votes stand at the minute as 4 votes to Peggy and 3 votes to Robert.

warmest,
John

[Adelaide]

Osiris
reconstructed
buttercups

Peggy Willis Lyles

wild roses
tarrying beside one
touched by time

Robert Spiess

Robert’s haiku gets my vote.  I don’t find “tarrying” archaic, possibly because I am used to visiting a village in Westchester County, NY called Tarrytown.  It’s a charming village and a place in which one wants to tarry.

I also identify personally with Robert’s poem. My take is this:  The poet, seeing wild roses, tarries beside one wild rose which has been touched by time, that is, not as fresh as the others.  It also can mean that the poet is the one touched by time, that is not as fresh as he used to be. The roses are new and fresh and he is getting older, or perhaps Robert meant that both he and the roses are getting older and no longer young. When you reach my age you think of things like this.

I don’t know if I would agree with Alan and refer to 1997 as another era.  14 years seems a bit too short to be an era, but then, that’s probably because  I think of 14 years as just happening yesterday.

Adelaide

[Köy Deli]

I like the mythology and symbolism in Peggy's, but prefer Bob's in the end for its lack of such allusion, which makes it more to me... self-contained. Also the 'archaic' tarrying is a word I love and seems to me a perfect fit here, and a word which also, albeit indirectly, has mythological allusions all of its own (The Curse of Christ 'tarry till I come again' and the legend of The Wandering Jew) which I use in some poems of my own.

So, my vote to Bob

[John McManus]

Thanks Adelaide and Steve for joining in. I enjoyed both your posts and hope you will take part in the next game which I will post tomorrow.

I will now close this thread and declare Robert Speiss the winner with five votes.

Thanks to all who participated!

warmest,
John