Contest Description
Jack Horne, a dear friend, suggested we co-judge a contest on friendship. The first-place winner will receive a large, beautiful garnet cross pendant with chain. If a man wins, he may choose from the garnet pendant for a lady he knows or a sterling silver cross pendant for himself. Because the quality of the entries is so good, we have added gemstone prizes for second and third place.
There will be two verses in all entries. I don't like to bog you down with rules as creativity is very important, but here is what we'll consider when deciding winners.
The first verse should describe poetically (not a list) of the qualities you feel are important in friends. For example, loyalty, dependability and compassion are what I seek in friends. What do you seek? This first verse should be no longer than eight lines.
In the second verse, poetically describe someone on the Soup who has reached out to you in friendship, but don't name this person. Let us guess who it might be. Limit the second verse to no more than four lines.
Your entry will have no more than 12 lines. Any type of rhyme or free verse is acceptable. Make it beautiful and sincere. Grammar and spelling do count. Jack will recognize British spellings and the British usage of words and phrases. Apostrophes are the only required punctuation if you use a word that is a contraction, like she'll or don't. You may use other punctuation, but be sure to use it properly.
If there is a tie (and it happens using the point system Jack and I will employ when judging), I'll either ask my sister to choose the winner or give two first places with prizes. My sister has her PhD in Literature and taught it in college, so she will be a stickler for grammar and spelling as well.
Please ask someone to proofread your poem as I will be judging blindly and do not want anyone to miss out because their poem has a mistake. If English is your second language, please note it at the bottom of the poem so this can be considered in judging. I applaud all of you who are multilingual.
Have fun with this! When co-judging, it's hard to assign points to poems that all have the same title, so please be creative with your titles.
Good luck!