Thank you to everyone who participated! Judges Dusty Grein, Michael Curtis, and Damian Robin have selected the below winners for the first Rhyming Riddle Contest.
Judge Curtis said meter was important:
“Poets may pun, and poets may rhyme,
Poets may riddle, yet must keep the time.”
Judge Grein said he judged based on “originality, clever use of rhymes, and difficulty that falls apart into simplicity once the answer is known (the mark of all great riddles).”
(Answers to the winning riddles are at the bottom of this page)
First Place Riddle by Daniel Galef
I’ll tell you of a fearsome beast
That’s quite bizarre, to say the least:
A Satyr’s trunk is at its core,
And legs of a mighty Minotaur.
A Mermaid’s arms to these are wed,
Then topped with the Sphinx’s noble head.
Such a monstrous mix this beast would be,
Which I should never hope to see!
(To make this piecewise picture clearer,
Just look into the nearest mirror.)
Second Place Riddle by Fr. Richard Libby, Corpus Christi, TX
You see me nearly daily but you rarely pay me mind.
I’m at your side, above your head, in front of you, behind;
It’s rare that I’m beneath your feet, unless there’s been a spill.
(Just drop a cloth beforehand and apply me with great skill.)
You try to make me thinner, but in truth, I am not fat.
I have no shape to speak of; once you use me, I am flat.
When I am fresh, you’ll smell me, for my scent is in the air,
But, later on, you’ll brush on by as if I wasn’t there.
What am I?
Third Place Riddle by Mark McPhee
From a whale of a tale I came to be;
Now a mariner’s myth you hold in your hand.
With froth and foam upon a Black Sea;
I am short and tall and grand.
Honorable Mention
The below riddles and all others can be read in the comments section of the original post here.
David Watt of Australia for “As storm clouds gathered nearer, deeper, darker overhead”
Benjamin L. Perez of Fuchu Japan for “What’s between, what’s beyond”
Ram of Mumbai, India for “One or two”
Yolanda of Michigan for “I could be narrow and tall”
Thank you judges, for the honourable mention! I am truly honoured.