Special Mentions (Introduction)

Even though they didn’t receive awards, a number of poems scored well above the average and some poets accumulated high overall point scores for their respective bodies of work. A few of these most popular poems received comments from the voters who favored them. All of the following poems resonated powerfully with readers and richly deserve to be part of this Valentine Awards issue. They are divided into two sections. The first section is comprised of poems that received comments, the second of poems without comments.