I really wanna thank:

Whoever's prompt this was. I had the best time putting a thing together for this. :)

Mike

I agree, I like this one!

This flies a little over my head, but I think it's personifying galaxies and talking about the rise of entropy and the heat death of the universe? It maybe feels a little long, though I see what you were going for in the structure as it relates to the prompt: 7 stanzas of 7 lines each. The ABABCBC rhyme scheme goes off without a hitch, and the meter is there. I think I'm more impressed by it adhering to that structure than by the plot itself. The most interesting parts are where you cash in the personification full-bore and have them going to bars and bazaars, while the rest feels more detached.

Ah, the different ways of notating numbers. I recall in Belgium they had a quirky way of writing 1, which even more necessitated differentiating the 7. Nothing too deep here, but a nice commentary on the ambiguities of writing that's hard to tell apart. Odd choice to have the 5th line not rhyme with anything. The rest is flawless rhyme and meter.

Irregular meter: 8, 4, 8, 5, 8, 5, 4. I can't tell if the change between 5 and 4 is deliberate or if you just weren't being careful with the meter. There's definitely a plausible pattern. No problems with the rhyme. Given the prompt, of course everyone's writing 7-line poems. As to meaning, I think it has something to do with holding on to hope even when there doesn't seem to be any. A time-worn theme, but still a nice sentiment.

A lot of this went over my head. I get that it's someone who once got a gift of a telescope who didn't have some huge interest in it at the time but who later enjoyed it and now has once more lost interest. Given the title, I'll guess the theme is that aging makes you lose your wonder? I don't get the prompt tie, unless the internal rhyme on the first line of each stanza means I'm to take that as two lines so each stanza has seven. The rhymes work well, though the meter takes some liberties here and there. I wish I understood more of it, because I like the mood it strikes.

The rhymes work fine, and there doesn't seem to be an intended meter. It reads more like a set of instructions, so if there's supposed to be more to it than that, I'm missing it. With one arm up, I guess the figure is waving? Cute enough for a short piece.

I like the symmetry of the rhyme scheme in the first four lines, followed by three which form a "foot". It's hard for me to visualize what a "prismatic nook" is in this drawing.

I'm inclined to say that this reads like an extended metaphor for the cycles of human civilization, rather than an ode cosmology. The personification is all too scrutable, and we know very little about our physical origins. In the end, we are left to talk about ourselves.

I like the odd-numbered feeling that is created by the rhyme scheme. Following my interpretation of the poem, I wonder who or what 'entropy' is, whether the actual physical concept is being referred to or something more along the lines of postmodern futility. Or both.

This poem has a nice sound and the anecdote is mostly clear. There are a few blurry lines. For instance, what is the "rope" in the second stanza? Another might be needed to explain what the "shiftless class" is to a reader not familiar with the writer's biography.

There's a bit of ambiguity here but the subject seems to be psychological. Shame? The shortened final line gives the poem a claustrophobic resolution.

This sounds like a riddle you'd find in one of the old point-and-click style games I used to play as a kid (King's Quest, Monkey Island, etc.). As I poem, I like the immediacy of action it gives to a mundane consideration.

>>Pascoite
>>Heavy_Mole

Thanks, folks:

And congrats to the other medalists! The prompt made me think of the whole "seven ages of man" thing from philosophers and Shakespeare and all those kinda guys. I also knew I'd need a seven line stanza, and my favorite is the one called Canopus after a long poem Clement Wood wrote back in the 1930s. Canopus also being a star, I had to go all cosmic, and here it is.

I think it needs one more verse, actually, each line using one of seven rhymes already established in the poem to bring it back into the present and say something about how the universes know the end is coming someday, but that day isn't today so they don't worry about it. Or something... :)

Mike