SymmyS 2024

Literature that echoes from top to bottom.

The SymmyS, a palindrome-writing competition, has been gaining momentum in participation and quality for most of its eleven-year existence. But it’s sometimes been a challenge to find the results: they’ve appeared in a few online locations, but never consistently. I’d like to change that. Special thanks to SymmyS organizer Mark Saltveit (editor of The Palindromist Magazine, SymmyS organizer) and (SymmyS participant/Journal contributor) Lori Wike for getting me info on the last couple of years of entries!

Without further ado, here are the 2024 SymmyS winners for best new palindromes in every category. Future posts will address previous years’ winners and nominees, but let’s savor the thirteen most recent winners (three of which are grand prize winners):

Short Palindromes

1. Brekkie, Martin Clear

Max, I stagger off for egg at six a.m.

2. The Struggling Bard, Anthony Etherin

Too long I go, no gig, no loot.

3 (tie). Location, Location, Location, Martin Clear

All I've lived in's a snide vile villa.

3 (tie). Seniority, @SquidgyTheWhale on Reddit’s /r/Palindromes

“Now, Ned,” I began, “on age, Biden won.”

Medium Palindromes

1. Reformed Lothario, Anthony Etherin

Motto: Be most apt. Now, I won’t pat some bottom.

2. Email to R&D Division, Steven Fraser

Sir,
Is drag error relative to new racecar? We note vital error.
Regards, Iris

3. Soviet Nostalgia, Jeff Grant (New Zealand)

Putin was slapdash:
“Promote Russia is All!”
Asia is sure to morph;
Sad pal’s sawn it up.

Long Palindromes

1. A Toast for Our Times, Steven Fraser

To new eras!
To boredom!
To idiots!
To ire!
To vote riots!
To idiot-mode robots!
(Are we not?)

2. Rotative Levitator, Pedro Poitevin

No omen in a call, it's still a sign,
a faraway, reviled delivery.
Assay a war, a flavor of no wine,
risen urn, inward gaze, no laniary.

Beryl, one rock, core mass laid rotative,
layer gyrator, never ever apt,
a gift, part saved, I ride, yaw. Still, I give
no one vigil. Lit, swayed, I ride, vast, rapt.

Fig at par, ever even, rotary, grey,
a levitator dial's same rock core.
No lyre by rain, a lone zag drawn in rune.

Siren I won for oval far away:
Assay reviled delivery; a war?
A fang, is all, It's still a canine moon.

3. Meditation, Steven Fraser

Now do I repel dissent, relax.
I meditate...
Let a tide melt, subdue frosts or feud, bustle.

Meditate...
Let a tide mix alertness,
idle period won.

Palindromic Poetry

1. Ethereal Menace, Mike Maguire

I am air,
a war of evil,
a sin.

A month gifts a last fight.
No man is alive for a war.
I am AI.

2. Aurora Borealis, Steven Fraser

Spots, spires,
ions tire,
paths arc.

Loops yarned, dusk’s a madded light,
a boreal aerobath,
gilded damask.

Sudden rays pool, crash, taper.
Its noise rips,
stops.

3. Catching Nessie, Lori Wike

Yaw a raft: Nessie is sensed!
O reel at, nab, run at it!
Lasso loch’s awash colossal titan!
Urban tale erodes. Nessie is sent far away.

Visual Palindromes

1. Potatop, Malaki Stahl

2. Too far off for a foot, Jon Agee

3. A Butt Tuba, Martin Clear and Jon Agee

Grand Prize

1. Ethereal Menace, Mike Maguire

2. Meditation, Steven Fraser

3. Rotative Levitator, Pedro Poitevin