We have a winner in the election of the 2007 Poet Laureate Of The Blogosphere.

On Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 9:41 PM I took the following screen shot. It's possible but not fair to continue voting but the results are now final and Amy King of AmyKing.org is hereby crowned the 2007 Poet Laureate Of The Blogosphere with 229 votes to runner-up Collin Kelly at 163. Accolades are due to Amy, Collin and all of the poets who were nominated in what is really a popularity contest more so than an actual reflection of the works of all of these wonderful poets.

There won't be any big check or even a crown. (We'll consider it lucky if an A-list blogger picks-up the story.) Perhaps by having this contest we have all managed to shine a little more light on some of the great unknowns-- The Long Tail of poetry-- as that has been the goal of this process all the way back to day one.

Note: I tried weaving 2005 winner Jilly Dybka a kudzu crown from kudzu I pulled from the shoulder of NC. 68 but the odor forced me to trash it.

Amy will serve for one year and her responsibilities are to promote poets and poetry throughout the Internet and the Blogosphere-- a job she has done well for several years as the editor of MiPOesias.com.

The process of electing the 3rd annual Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere was less than perfect. Rightly or wrongly it is a popularity contest. As the creator, founder and administrator of the nomination and election process I accept the blame for any mistakes made. In previous years people have complained that not enough people knew about the election. The same was true this year but until enough bloggers take it on their own to help promote the election the problem will remain. I can only hope that with each passing year the results will continue to be better than before.

As for my critics... Shove it! I'm doing the best I know how.

As in years past there was some tension. Write-in candidates could not be accepted as there is no way to verify write-in votes and reconfiguring the 3rd party polling would have required deleting all of the previous votes-- something I consider unfair to the nominees and their supporters.

We had some fun, we had some fights and we made a few new friends. I consider the election of Amy King as the 2007 Poet Laureate Of The Blogosphere to have been a success. Congratulations Amy.

Please visit all the candidates on the list as well as the attempted write-in candidate Bill Knott. They are all great poets who deserve your attention and all will be added to my permanent blogroll and to Poetsarus.com.