Tough choices as usual!

We didn't give you all a lot of time to dream up fresh rhymes for this year's contest (just a week or so), but we still saw an outpouring of casienated love.

Poems tended strongly towards the sweet (who win Briar Rose Creamery's goat cheese and chocolate truffles) with fewer works addressing the spicy (who win a selection of Virginia Chutney Co.'s tasty cheese lubricants). The field also tilted heavily towards submitter Lisa, who crushed the competition with sheer volume.

The Winners

♥ A top pick from our lovelorn staff was Jaclyn Stevenson's travelog in free verse, with our expatriot "foreign girl" falling for the charms of an open-air market. Sweet is the word.

♥ Of all Lisa's work, we enjoyed her hash of Kilmer's "Tree" best. She gets a spicy for impudence.

♥ Bill Krieger also won spicy for his slightly ribald Burnsian ode—"To be popped into my longing mouth / There warmed and slurped o'er teeth and tongue"

♥ Taylor's doggerel verse won the heart of at least one judge. He She gets chocolate.

♥ Cheeselover's plea to, well, a cheese lover, wins a sweet, too.

♥ Finally, Hope Adair's ravishing of a virgin wheel (the monger's jus prima noctae) earned her a spicy victory.

Thanks and much love to everyone who participated. Till next year, lovers!