WINNERS! – Grocery List Challenge

When I started this challenge, I was not expecting as many entries as I got. Why? I worried it was too restrictive, perhaps off-putting. After all, my goal for setting this up was to encourage minimalism. A grocery-list (or shopping-list) poem seems easy at first glance, but when you sit down to start, it quickly becomes clear there is a narrow path forward. How can just a few items imply a whole story, emotional depth and complexity, get to the heart of daily life?

Well.

I am pleased to say that the entries to this challenge proved exactly how to do these seemingly impossible tasks, and in many different and creative ways, too.

The Rubric

Basic criteria: it's a shopping list, there is an implied narrative, and the poem is minimalistic.

Detailed rubric, as below:

It took me way too long to write this rubric and then to grade all 26 entries. Mesh helped me sort out the kinks in the early drafts, and then I went through all the poems and graded them according to 10 criteria! Hours. It took hours. Really, it took me all day.

I will adhere to what I said my judging process would be like, which is a shortlist of my favorites (factoring in the scores from the rubric as well), the pieces with the most likes (with and without TS), and an underrated gem. And I will include my commentary on the shortlist as well.

So, without further ado, here is my shortlist for the I'd Read Your Grocery List challenge!

The Shortlist

Alex McEvoy with "A Year in Notes."

This poem is amazingly written. It follows a year-long narrative and boy, does it cover a lot. You can see on the first reading just how much the speaker is going through, but when I reread it, I picked up on so many more details! It's a truly astounding piece, with emotional complexity, many additional characters, court battles, vices indulged and ignored in turn, relationships ebbing and flowing... the list continues. And it is all balanced SO WELL.

In the second half, Alex brings in other forms of listing, like planner entries, text logs, and to-do lists. These had the potential to offer too much context, but in practice, they did not. In fact, they lead to even more shopping lists and spurred on the progression and growth of the speaker, like how certain items on the shopping lists functioned (cigarettes and emotion journal, for instance). I honestly don't see how the narrative presented here could have succeeded without these other lists. It's all done in the right spirit, that of minimalism, which was the first goal of this challenge. Alex nailed it.

Paul Stewart with "The Devil is in the Details."

Both of Paul's entries were incredible, but this one fit the brief to near perfection. I adore it. And no, I will not spoil the narrative, but it is so well executed, from the *chef's kiss* beginning with the anniversary celebration and thank you cards, to the donuts, and then to the Paris trip at the end... Every aspect of this is working SO WELL to tell a story through simple shopping lists!

Yes, there are some extra notes in this one. They make logical sense to me, the kind of notes a normal person would put on a list, whether it be digital or paper, in order to remember specific details or practice writing the inside of a card, or do math, or even correct an item. Paul utilizes this strategy very effectively here, and it's very fun to piece together the puzzle of the story.

Kristen Balyeat with "Those Few Months."

Ugh, I know many of us read this one, but UGH. Kristen's poem completely eviscerated my heart, and the way she wrote, too, is just so impressive. Every item on the lists has to be there to paint the picture to completion. Every single one. And then, seeing the pacing change with "pickles" and to see the repetition too, creates a perfect middle. My favorite is this line: "baby bottles {yay!}" Like a coda that we see return, only different the second time round.

The text log works here. It offers minimal outside context and makes complete sense given the situation at hand. Would it have worked if she had deleted the three sentences and left the italicized list there? Perhaps marginally. Those sentences establish a sudden, violent change. Remove them and the impact is too gentle, too vague, not as emotionally ruinous for the reader.

Hannah Moore with "Vicissitudes."

What amazed me most about this entry was its deception. If you read it too quickly, you miss the nuance. The apples changing color, the shift in breads and flours, how self-esteem develops, how ink becomes a metaphor for blood... Hannah is just incredible. The subtleties add up so perfectly in this piece, and it doesn't go where you expect it to. Incredible emotional complexity in a, get this, rhyming grocery list. My mind was blown.

Lena Folkert with "Long Weekend."

Based on true events, Lena's poem succeeds dramatically in its emotional center. Filled with specific items, that at first, seem unrelated and potentially random, but come together to demonstrate a weekend of non-stop care, utter exhaustion, and heartbreak. I will not spoil the narrative, just go read it.

It's a testament to how effective simple items on a list can be at implying an entire story, if you know the emotional core to begin with.

E.K. Daniels with "Penicillin."

This piece stood out as an incredible feat of brevity and minimalism, while adhering closely to the restrictions of the challenge. Beautifully structured with an almost chronological list for the quantities of each item, interrupted to keep the logical integrity of the soup. Slightly unsatisfying, much like a respiratory illness is. My favorite part is how E.K. uses strikethrough formatting to hint at a narrative (literally one word, "time"). As a reader, I felt as though I could suddenly see the speaker of this poem making the soup, waiting impatiently for it to finish, just as they wait impatiently for their illness to go away so they can feel better. What an accomplishment, to be able to draw out such a picture with a single word. Without it, this piece loses so much.

Please Note: The pieces on the short list all scored very close together.

Entry with the Most Likes (including Top Story)

Cathy Holmes with "A Simple Grocery List."

Two other entries also earned Top Story! Those are Lamar Wiggins' "Humble Hankerings" and Suze Kay's "Enough." Go read those awesome poems ASAP!

Entry with the Most Likes (subtracting Top Story)

Kristen Balyeat with "Those Few Months."

Tied with Poppy's "An Amateur's Guide to Healing."

Underrated Gems

• Kenny Penn's "Rigatoni and More."
• Chloe Gilholy's "Haiku Trip to Lidl."
• EK Daniel's "Compassion."
• Jennifer David's "Plan B."

To everyone who participated, thank you so much! This was a lot of fun and I feel so honored so many of you decided to take part in it. I truly loved every entry.

It feels like a shortlist disregards so much incredible writing, so I really hope everyone takes the time to read the rest of the entries, found in the comment section of my original challenge article, HERE.

'Til the next time!