Stranded

It was lovely to see so many of you out last night at our literary battle of the heavyweights! The Quickmuse event was a lot of fun--thanks to everyone who braved the rain to see Eliza Griswold, Paul Muldoon, and Brad Leithauser.

But if you weren't able to make it out to The Strand, Quickmuse has you covered. For the competition, both Paul and Brad were asked to write a poem in response to this piece by Alicia Ostriker:

The Blessing of the Dog

to be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other dogs
can smell it

You can play Paul's piece here--just click on the 'Play Back the Piece' function, and you'll be able to watch the poem appear as Paul wrote it (be sure to keep an eye on the first letter of each line). The same goes for Brad--his poem is here.

Ultimately, the audience decided that it was just too hard to crown one winner, but what do you think? You can comment on the blog below, or discuss the poems at the Quickmuse site.