Signify? That ought to be a fun one. I think I'll go slightly obscure on my primary choice of verbal definition for that one.
Printable View
Signify? That ought to be a fun one. I think I'll go slightly obscure on my primary choice of verbal definition for that one.
Oh, hell. This is a fun one, yeah. Now, to find out when and where "Amplified" can be used. :smalltongue:
A clarification: are we meant to use the words as prompts or actually include them in our poems?
My impression was that it was just going to be "anyone who's still reading, PM me with your favorite poem of the whole competition and I'll make a post stating which one got the most votes" but I could be wrong. So this would include judges, contestants, and voyeurs to the process like me.
The words are just meant to be an inspiration. The judges should be able to see a tie back to the prompt, but you don't necessarily have to have the word actually in the poem. If having the word in the poem makes for the best poem then, by all means, put it there.
What's not intended is that you have a poem totally unrelated to the prompt with the word just thrown in there so that it can be in the poem some how.
Alright here is my submission, I don't think I'll be doing much in the way of editing, but I'm going to try to find a better title. I don't like the one I have now.
Prompt: Diverge
The Throw
SpoilerIt all begins so easily,
The simple tossing of a coin
Brings Lady Luck into the game.
She foresees the path of heads
Winding away from that of tails.
So do trivial casts divert fate.
Blindly lost in this world of chance,
Surrounded by these divisions;
None knowing how Her coin will land.
How can we determine our course?
For when future breaks from future,
All remaining is absurd.
I think 'Best in Show' would work best being simple.
And by simple I mean everybody who's still reading PMs Vaynor the votes and he does all the work. :smallbiggrin:
Of course he would have to remember to ask us to bug him...
Probably going to be editted later, but first draft of my poem.
Prompt: Diverged
Title:
Sundered
SpoilerWhat shall I whisper, when you are here,
What shall I feel, when I see you near
Torment or tragedy?
Pain or pure silence?
Regret and longing, or,
Heart-broken violence?
Our paths no longer touch,
Since that desparate day,
Since the morning you stood up,
And left forever, on your way
You chose this barricade.
You chose to keep me out.
Destroying all we've made,
Make us live without.
Diverged, our paths have parted,
An end to what we knew
Finishing what we started
No prior chance or clue
What did I do wrong, that you cast away,
All we did hold dear, why could I not stay?
"A child's Romance," you said,
For all that I believed.
"Why?" My dreams were dead,
My hopes and plans bereaved
The first time you kiss,
A special memory,
But mine was a pain,
discordant melody
A picture of you,
A pain so new,
Love so acute,
That you refute,
You left me behind,
Diverged, we are adrift,
Leaving me to find,
A gaping open rift,
"Farewell." For I can only offer this,
"Good Luck." Not a single kiss.
Perhaps the memories will serve you in your life,
For now their only use is to cut like a knife...
I agree. Nominations will lengthen the process even further. Vaynor, have you thought about the exact process of choosing Best in the Show?
I thought I said in the original post? Everyone still reading the thread sends me a PM with their favorite poem of the contest. The one with the most votes win. I will break any ties, as usual. Pretty much like Zeb said, which is to be expected as it was his idea.
Well, I did win Trog in the Playground some time ago. I even stole his talk show for an episode or two. :smallcool:
Point by point, then? OK, let's see how it works out.
I approve of the best of show award.
Now for the show! I may edit this a little before the deadline, but I wanted to put up what I have just in case. Prompt: Mingle
Together at last
SpoilerFireworks flying,
together at last.
our minds, bodies, hearts as one,
together at last.
Our souls now mixing
finally able to be
out in the open.
There is much hope here,
there is much love here,
there is so much here
between us.
I hear the right words,
I hear such sweet words,
I hear no more words,
only love.
Our words get started up
made up, mashed up,
mingled then switched up
cuddled up, mussed up
to the brim filled up
shared love mixed up.
Our breath mingles
in the air between.
My skin tingles
at the joy now seen.
I feel a blaze of hope
pushing my joy through the skies;
I can no longer cope
not seeing her gorgeous eyes.
Love is nothing more
than finding out what’s in store
past each other’s door.
Still, we are here now,
and that’s what really matters.
Us two, together,
together forever,
forever together,
together at last.
I also will likely still edit this.
prompt: Signify
Suicide Watch
Spoiler
Soft carpet cradles the solitary mattress,
frameless, springless,
devoid of weapons for the making.
You huddle, centered,
gnawing nails grown ragged
in the weeks since you trusted yourself to clip.
I stand at the door,
allowed only because you believe
that an audience suppresses action.
Pale, listless, you mutter in your hands
and it becomes too much, too heavy,
your weight crushing at my windpipe
until I sink to kneel, fall against the jamb,
choking back sobs and clenching closed
eyes against what you have become.
I dredge my memories.
Seek to supplant your quaking form
with the smiling waif you once were.
My thoughts defy direction, skipping
past dates, dances and dinners
to relive the fateful moment
when you slipped away.
A summer’s eve, arm in arm we laughed,
joked of your mother’s dabbles in the unknown,
her foolish superstitions. You’d called me silly,
insisting on walking you home, inside.
Thank god I did.
So I was there to hurry you from the room,
bundle you in blankets, quell your screams,
to be your rock in the chaos that followed.
I plucked the envelope from her hand, kept it from you
until you were strong enough to see.
I should have waited longer.
But two weeks had passed,
smiles graced your face again
and I thought it was time.
We’d expected a letter, an explanation,
Not the cards that tumbled unbidden from your grasp.
Tower, hanged-man, nine of swords
and finally death pooled at your feet.
We didn’t understand.
And so we tucked them away,
went on with our lives, as a week,
a month, a year, blurred past to another
summer’s eve, a booth in the moonlight
and a reading on a lark.
Tower, hanged-man, nine of swords, death.
You shoved the table over, fled
left a frightened mystic in your wake.
I lost you then.
Your sobs bring me back, wracking cries tell
what memory binds you.
And so I enter, to hold you, rock,
repeat my mantra over and over,
“That isn’t what it means.”
Prompt: Signify
The Signifying Monkey
SpoilerLittle monkey wants to play the dozens
And one up his cousins – he’s got to
Insult, cajole, and connive and prove
He’s got the drive to succeed, the why
To the how of the winning – and he can fill
The sky with the what and the who and the where
For all he cares because it’s the game
He plays and the fame he craves
That make the difference when he signifies.
Testify, little monkey, and give a sign,
Speak from the coal mine, from the dirt
And the grime; keep your speech low to the ground
Like the sound of the hoe on the farm
And plant us a seed of venomous screed
And then see to the need of the weed
That’s growing and how it gets bigger
The more that your words are flowing
Until it blooms as a flowery signal.
Little monkey let me read your face,
See you raise up from the disgrace you
Lay down on the hairless ape, who waits
With mouth agape for you to drag him further
But now you brag – it’s murder you did
And your cousins don’t know what to say,
A fine sign you can’t be beat and they’ll
Fall at your feet and glory to you,
Signifying Monkey, new king of the jungle.
I didn't think I was going to make it. I honestly thought this would be my very first no-show in my spotty Iron Poet history. It just wasn't coming together. But I got it done.
Prompt: Conspired
Poem: With Breath
Spoiler.
Weeeeeeeee. I had a bit of fun with this one. :smallbiggrin:
Prompt: Clamor
Title: Jailbreak
SpoilerBrain or brawn is always the choice,
but why do both!?
High security, high risk, hell: high fence!
but I got out.
I've been told there's a gleam to me,
the eye of the tiger.
I was a hunter alright,
only as I could be.
That's why they took me in,
I'd offed one too many.
Even taking me in I was feisty,
put to sleep right away.
Caged, I looked for my escape,
the cover of night being best.
The moon was high when I pounced,
snarling at the big guy next to me.
Man, did he kick up a fuss!
the guards came at his trumpeting, as I planned.
One came for big-ears,
the other for me.
He opened the cage with caution and needle in hand,
but he already saw the gleam.
I jolted past, stripes a blur,
through the cage and to the open.
Gangs of monkeys hooted,
the fat cats clamoring for escape.
The whole jail awake now,
I kept running.
I couldn't help 'em with no key,
I was just as likely to hunt 'em.
I finally got out, expecting the jungle,
only to see one of concrete.
Amplified
SpoilerStanding on the stage,
a giant reflection hangs above.
Words from off the page,
through stacks of black scream out about love.
Every word a scream,
every motion magnified en masse.
A mirror it seems,
a million facets, wave and pass.
His style a brand,
enlarged by the adoring crowd.
His lyrics a stand,
parroted by a million proud.
A life of one man,
the life of so many satisfied.
The LIFE of each fan,
He lives eternally amplified.
Heeere goes. :smalleek:
(Bullied down) A Downward Spiral
- Prompt: Amplified
SpoilerIn the beginning was a word
of rudeness, whispered, nearly,
one well unsaid and best unheard,
and yet I heard it clearly.
A grievous, terrible insult,
I found, against me, levelled;
the history of its result,
I guess, may be unraveled.
For as the hours turned to days,
the one who first had said it
had set his ilk upon their ways
to propagate and spread it.
This tasteless joke at my expense
which I could not deem witty,
nor humorous in any sense,
spread all across the city.
And ere the day could end at last,
you'd hear it all around thee,
it had grown wings and travelled fast,
to anger and confound me.
That very eve, as going home
I had been followed, hounded,
right to the doorstep of my dome,
I felt besieged, surrounded;
As even once I was inside
my castle - Independence! -
I heard them holler in the night
my thoughts first turned to vengeance.
The days became a week before
they ceased their persecution,
but not their slander, and "No more!"
I cried for resolution.
To see this over with I longed,
to live again, not suffer;
and him who had, so long, me wronged,
I turned to with an offer.
Asked him, who had such horrors wrought
to stop such machinations,
have to its end the matter brought,
and cease his allegations.
I told him such, but he just spat
upon my face and threatened
to call those cronies which he had
and have me "soundly flattened".
And sure enough, another week
I weathered under fire,
had been the gentlest of the meek...
yet even those can tire.
Upon my door, my desk, my back,
that horrid slur was written,
in crimson, carved, or inky black
by those too long unsmitten!
By now a stranger to the sun,
I ventured out just rarely,
though when I did as must be done
I oft' survived but barely.
From fear rose rage, as will transpire,
by my hardship amplified,
and thus I pledged, in darkest ire:
No more would vengeance be denied!
And when another week had passed,
my patience spent and broken,
and all the dice of Fortune cast,
the final word was spoken.
Okay, here it is:
AJ's Poem MKII: This Time With The Correct Prompt
What is There Left to Say? (Prompt: glimpse)
SpoilerThat night they lit their lamps and silent danced,
an ensemble reflected in the sky
by stars, and below by still lake. Entranced
I sat and looked on at the fireflies
and as I looked I glimpsed a light expire
that had just emerged from the long-stemmed grass.
Had I seen the dimming of this fire?
For eyes may doubt what briefly comes to pass.
To emerge and then to die within a glance,
to never even join his brother’s dance.
That night they lit their lamps and silent danced,
shining so bright though they in distance lie.
The stars, spread out across a vast expanse;
solemn, they process across the domed sky.
Born of inferno’s ire, rapid-burning
bomblets outlasted by eternal night,
moments bright until their death, returning
to the cosmic dust, once so full of light.
That distant star so like the firefly;
they’re born, you get a glimpse, and then they die.
Prompt: Mingled
Spoiler
ahead, not
___beside me,
_____night
a night
___down her thighs.
_____a girl
and a skirt
ride staring
of my face.
_____________________I took the stairs
___________________with anybody,
______let alone
____the door
____for Desmond
_______a moment
______until I_______________________heat
______stripped,___________________ran over my back
______bed, and
________and
________and
something
__of
___Desmond.
___________that he
stepped into the
chill of
my legs
____________I put my
__________past
____beneath an
__________time
____________grimace.
staring at me
______of my
_____smile
sing my arms.
____There was
____Silas
___More silence. The
empty plate.______'why' without cracking,
_______Desmond's imitation
A machiatto was
_____Perfect,
of my
smile.
_____She remembered Desmond.
____________________He pulled
_____________________them out
____fingers_________________________even a piece of parchment
I think I saw_________________and
__fingers.____________________on one,
____________________________the tea cake.
_____and passed it
________as I could,
converge and render
______eyes flowed over the
_____________typewriter,
and he
the words
___of leftovers
________(Silas was
_____that it my
_____fingers,
They were words
read it
of his
valuable thing____________he had cleaned out
____under the tongue.
___________________________Silas
__________in a 2 A.M.
_________under his bed
__________________a thank you as he folded
Elfin, just wrap your poem in [code] brackets and you can space it all out all you like.
Elfin, I ran into the spacing problem too in the last competition.
A more difficult alternative is to use the Spoiler text color to hide the spaces, which is like this:
[$color="#E3E9DB"]__[/COLOR]
only without the dollar sign. Then you can hide underlines in the spoiler box. (it will not let you use only spaces :smallannoyed:) Personally, I wish I'd knew about the bracket workaround, that is far simpler.
Only 3 poems to go and we'll have all for the first round!
Prompt: Clamor
SpoilerLegendary
My voice will ring eternal
Your heart I will inflame
You will know my name
I will not be silenced
My spirit won't be tamed
My voice will ring eternal
I stand apart from others
Alone in my domain
You will know my name
My words enrapture billions
Inspired by my fame
My voice will ring eternal
None approach the bounty
Of honors that I claim
You will know my name
While rivals are forgotten
My legacy remains
My voice will ring eternal
You will know my name
Thanks very much, both of you.
Do to a critical and unexpected loss of angst, muse, and free time, I now regretfully withdraw from this competition. Good luck gentlemen, ladies, happy poeting.
Translation: A friend became a girlfriend, woo!
Here's my entry.
Prompt: Atone
Title: To Save My Own
SpoilerA sea of bullets lying in the dust,
The air thick with pain and shattered trust,
Corpses lie and rot, metal is left to rust.
It wasn't my fault.
It was my duty.
I must.
A cacophony of screams,
a chorus of battle-cries.
I remember it all,
whenever I close my eyes.
Bodies torn, broken,
an endless feast for flies.
I can no longer remember the faces
of enemies or allies.
Beaten souls and broken hearts,
caught in a web of lies.
I didn't do this.
I'm not to blame.
Don't bother with your whys.
Glory, valor, symbol of awe,
I was all this, and more!
Explosions, screams, bullets singing,
the terrible and sweet song of war.
This is what they asked of me,
I did what was right, I am sure.
Traitor, defiler, hero no longer,
but am I not also savior?
I try to clear my mind, tell myself
that it is not death,
who's knocking on my door.
I am innocent, I swear.
I am victor, I am lord.
But god, I cannot take it anymore.
I am traitor, liar, fiend, defiler.
I lead them into my deathtrap.
Cacophony of screams, chorus of battle cries.
Explosions, bullets singing.
This song, frightful and beautiful,
ringing in my ears.
Hearts broken by the web of my lies.
The forgotten faces of enemies and allies.
Glory, valor, awe, hero, more!
Air thick with death, pain,
and shattered trust.
I close my eyes, wipe the tears away,
I tell myself once more.
I killed them all to save my own,
I have no sins for which I must atone.
But it is so cold, in this dead hall of stone
where I sit, weeping, alone.
I killed them all to save my own.
I have no sins for which I must atone.
I killed them all--
. . . to save my own.
I have no sins--
I cannot atone.
The bullet sinks deep, silently I scream.
My blood spills, a dark river of red.
The gun drops from my hand.
I fall to my dead stone bed.
And I am the last man
who I have left
dead.