Scarriet Poery March Madness first round winners have battled it out—and here are the final 16 contestants, the Sweet Sixteen!
These are extraordinary lines, evoking entire poems, entire books of poems.
Nicknames for this tournament have flooded in: The Mouse That Roared, Less Madness is More Madness, A Little Says It All, A Nutshell’s Unlimited Space.
The most common tropes in poetic history are all here in these magnificent microcosms: love, emotion, psychology, birds, music, fire, clouds, urgent definitions of time and space.
Marla Muse: I’m thrilled to death for all these poets! What amazing lines!
We chose wisely.
Marla Muse: We did.
In the North
Maura Stanton: Who made me feel by feeling nothing
Ben Mazer: All is urgent, just because it gives, and in the mirror, life to life life gives.
Jorie Graham: A rooster crows all day from mist outside the walls.
Molly Brodak: boundlessness secretly exists, I hear
In the West
Mary Angela Douglas: The larks cry out and not with music.
Cristina Sanchez Lopez: Have you heard strings? They seem like hearts that don’t want to forget themselves.
Emily Kendal Frey–How can you love people without them feeling accused?
Ada Limón–just clouds—disorderly, and marvelous and ours.
In the East
Lori Desrosiers–I wish you were just you in my dreams.
Joie Bose–Isn’t that love even if it answers not to the heart or heat but to the moment, to make it complete?
Kushal Poddar–Your fingers are alight. Their blazing forest burns towards me.
Stephen Cole–Where every thing hangs on the possibility of understanding and time, thin as shadows, arrives before your coming.
In the South
Nalini Priyadarshni–Denial won’t redeem you or make you less vulnerable. My unwavering love just may.
Chumki Sharma–After every rain I leave the place for something called home.
Joe Green–I’m tired. Don’t even ask me about the gods.
Julie Carr–Either I loved myself or I loved you.
Congratulations to all the winners!!!
