Well, I know you’ve just been on the edge of your seats waiting to find out who the finalists are in the Diapers and Divinity Summer Poetry Contest. I have selected four of my favorites. (I have also altered them just a little bit so that I could fit them all into two succinct little stanzas more uniform for contest purposes. This may seem a little dictatorial on my part, which really does not matter because it is my blog and everything you write on here actually belongs to me by copyright law…. I really don’t know if that’s true, but I figure that if I said it with authority, you would believe me.)
These poems are haikus about summer vacation with children. Anyway, without further ado, the finalists are:
When the kids were small,
Camping fit the fam’ly funds,
Which were sparce and spare.
No more camps for me.
You can keep your tents and bugs.
Hotels come with pools!
I made a chore chart
To teach the kids about work
I have learned to nag.
House shrinks in summer
Too much noise, not enough space.
We go to the beach.
A soft, fuzzy head
Whiffs of coconut sunblock
Gold skin and freckles
Cute little white bums
Peeking out of swimming trunks
I smile. It’s summer.
Charlotte
(sorry, Charlotte I couldn’t find your actual profile picture on your blog.)
Hot grilled hamburgers,
A slice of watermelon,
ice cream and snow cones.
I can taste summer.
Summer scents permeating-
Intoxicating.
Diapers and Divinity 
These are all great! Such talented readers you have here. With the exception of me, of course.
So fun! I like them all…very difficult choice.
Yay!
These are ALL great, but I find myself saying, “Awww….” when I read Melanie J.’s. That’s how I want to feel in the summer… What a positive outlook!
Great work by everyone!
I’d like to thank the academy, and to declare that it’s an honor just to be nominated. But I really wish I had used the word “intoxicating” in my Haiku. Seriously, that is a twelve dollar word if I ever saw one!
(Oh, and MINE is the one Stephanie shortened to fit the letterbox format of your screen. It’s too bad; the missing stanza reveals the secret to life, salvation, and how they get the pimientos inside green olives. Tell her you oppose censorship! Otherwise she’ll never learn.)
I’m off to vote!
Oooh! I’m all a-flustered!
My head looks really big compared to everyone else’s. Especially Melanie J’s.
Such cleverness!
Good ones! I am so not a poetry kind of girl. Except for the ones in So I Married An Axe Murderer.
Thats the last time I make a hat out of aluminum foil, wear it, take a picture of it, and post it on my blog making a face. Next time I’ll use chicken wire (or convince my husband to wear the hat).
These are all terrific. What a great idea for a contest. I loved the responses. Such clever women.