And the winner is...

I set you a challenge.

You set your minds straight

Delivered with feeling

and little debate.

The outcome is awesome

I'm truly in Zen

You've shown all-and-sundry

The power of PEN!

Thank you all for a truly wonderful effort in submitting your entries to my Fountain Pen Day Competition.

As I mentioned in my first blog on this competition, the winners are not chosen at random; but are the poems that I was most moved by. Yes, I know this may put me at odds with some who may argue the relative merits of one poem over another; but that is what is so wonderful about literature and art, there is no right and wrong answer!

So thank you again. Especially to the winners who knew just the right pistons to turn to deliver the best outcomes.

Picking the first few, was honestly a difficult task. In the end, I went with my emotions and this is what you delivered:

FIRST:
Eric Aycock for this beautiful piece:

The light dims, as the pen moves

Describing life and places

From humble thoughts to lonely faces.

Observing a life at a passing glance

Processing and distilling each experience to a word

Be it known or new, strange, familiar, or absurd.

An ageless grace of love

Romantic, heartfelt, and pure.

A pen stroke creates at a glance

A look of change so demur,

The Poet creates a world

With each stroke, the meaning grows deeper

And soaks each phrase and word

Like a pot of tea left to steep.

Eric will receive the Jinhao of his colour choice, one of two Field Notes notebooks, the Pressy and Pressy t-shirt and a collection of FPD loot. Well done and thankyou Eric.

SECOND:

Geoffrey Bennett Speer for his imagery and humour:

You can take my fountain pen away

And force me to write all day with a 

Vulture talon dipped in blood,

Or a greenbrier thorn inked up with mud,

Some axle grease on a piece of barbed wire,

Or a red hot poker just drawn from the fire,

Creosote on the end of railroad spike,

Or lipstick on the butt of a Lucky Strike,

I'd crank out verse like Poe, Byron or Donne

With communion wine from an ole tattoo gun,

I'd rather hand copy the phone book

With any of them

Than sign my own name

With a cheap ballpoint pen!

Geoffrey gets the Jinhao of his colour choice too, the other of the Fieldnotes Notebooks, a Pilot notebook and FPD bits. Great effort!

THIRD:
Gerald Taylor for his take on the eternal lament of the Pen acquirer :

I think I have a problem

That is plain to see

Fountain pens keep coming

Through the mail to me

I tell myself "don't worry"

It will be all right

But still I keep on shopping

Especially at night

That's it I've had enough!

I swear I'll buy no more!

I just found three new slips

All waiting on my door

But oh there are those colours

Materials that delight

And all with golden nibs

I cannot win this fight

I give up.

I want all the pens.

Gerald gets a Jinhao (he'll need to tell me his colour preferences incase the first two have taken his preference) FPD bookmark and bits. This is the second time Gerald has done well in an Eclectidbits competition, clearly a skilled communicator! :D

... and FOURTH: 
Aumbrine for this thoughtful work:

The paper in my notebook

Waited with abated breath

As its lover wrote out

the words to MacBeth

The ink flowed out 

Like a melody to a song

As my pen

Stringed the notes along

My pen and I 

Do this dance, you see

This love affair

Is hard to believe

That someone like me 

Who had no sound to this voice

Who now writes words

Like it's even a choice

Give me a pen, a nib

And some ink if you please

My mind, body and heart

Will surrender with ease

This tongue will no longer fold

With stories untold

This voice, it will echo

Words laced with gold

Aumbrine also wins a Jinhao (I will again need to know colour preferences incase the first two have taken your preference), FPD bookmark and paraphernalia. 

Of course there are still more pens and FPD material so there are a few more winners too. Congratulations also to:

• Chris Edwards
• Josiah
• Robin Keys
• Bonnie
• Raschon
• Janet Faught and 
• Sara

All of whom will get a Jinhao plus stuff! Just email me your details so that I can send them. By all means tell me your colour preferences and I'll see what I can do  - but no promises!

For everyone else, thankyou again for participating and let's do it all again next year!

Until next tine...

Eclectidbits