Bonus: Freestyle Poetry 2

Bonus: Freestyle Poetry 2

Freestyle poetry
Contest ended 8 months ago 9/22/2011 12:00:00 AM EDT

Contest Info

  • Cost: 10 credits
  • Jackpot: 100 credits

Contest Options

rss
 
 
Share
Sponsored by MsgtBob
First Place
# 1
By suomigirl (Score: 7.65)
7

A sad lament the songbird sings,
Through rain and sun, through dark and light -
To life, to love and broken strings.

With tiny beating wings he brings
A song of love lost in the night;
A sad lament the songbird sings.

From darkened tower his singing rings -
His ode, 'cross rooftops, spreads his plight
Of life, of love and broken strings.

To airs of joyful things he clings,
While darkness fills his heart, once bright -
A sad lament the songbird sings.

And onwards through the lands of kings,
His ballad alters with his flight
For life, for love, unbroken strings.

They say that time heals heart and wings,
But 'til the time black fades to white,
A sad lament the songbird sings -
To life, to love and broken strings.

Word count: 129

A Villanelle written in iambic tetrameter.

 
Share
Sponsored by MsgtBob
Second Place
# 2
By jago (Score: 7.114)
7

Flows the ichor, flows the Styx:
Clotted blood and gore en-mixed.
Rancid roils this murky pitch,
Sombre, silent, sour.

Acheron, a wash of woe:
Anguished sorrow ebbs and flows.
Never happiness to know:
Fading by the hour.

Lamentations! Weep with us
On the river Cocytus.
Rapids spray, bring no solace:
Salted waters shower.

Raging pyre; Phlegethon
Flaming river rages on.
Churning, the conflagration:
Purge, and cleanse, and scour!

Lest the Lethe be forgot,
Quaff it, and remember naught.
Sweet nepenthe it is not --
Steals the memory's power.

Word count: 87

The 5 rivers of Hades in Greek mythology.
I rewrote from memory, so any discrepancies from the original (which will be published only posthumously, if someone finds it in the basement) are my own fault.

 
Third Place
# 3
By KMATH71 (Score: 6.877)
5

She used to be an innocent child,
Running free, half bare, half wild.
In summer fields of dust and gold,
She’d let her wildest dreams unfold.

Deep in the corn,
A feral child was born.

She used to swim in warm seas,
Dance on ripples in the breeze.
In glinting waters full of light,
She’d let her fantasies delight.

Deep in the sea,
The feral child swam free.

Then men would come and rape her corn,
Leave her fields bleeding, torn.
In would clatter loud machines,
To shatter all her childhood dreams.

In the real world,
The adult slowly unfurled.

The glinting waters became still,
The child within had lost her will.
Shoved in shoes and choked in ties,
The feral child said her goodbyes.

In the mainstream,
She forgot how to dream.

But as the years accumulated,
She who grew, matured and mated,
Watched with pride as her young grew,
And when it stirred within she knew…

That forever deep inside,
The feral child had never died.

Word count: 168

I must be nuts to enter an advanced comp, but I recently dug this back up after years, and edited all the bits I wasn't happy with, and then this competition came up, and I thought it'd be rude not to enter!

 
4

She makes love to the edge of insanity
and I follow along willingly
we walk hand in hand along the pathway
oblivious to the monsters in the woods

following along willingly
intoxicated by the scent of her passion
oblivious to the monsters in the woods
I am devoured by her beauty

intoxicated by the scent of her passion
I have abandoned all sense of self preservation
devoured by her beauty
I weep for the sheer joy of it

having abandoned all sense of self preservation
I am blind to all but her form before me
weeping for the sheer joy of it
standing at the brink of the abyss

blinded to all but her form before me
we walk hand in hand along the pathway
standing at the brink of the abyss
we make love to the edge of insanity.

Word count: 140

A Pantoum is an obscure form of poem which conforms to a specific formula whereby each stanza must contain specific lines from previous stanzas and the poem must close with the opening line.

 
5
By stephenvantuyl (Score: 6.243)
3

What about them?
What about the faces on the evening news?
What do I do with them
while I'm putting on my shoes?

What about him?
What about the man on the street
with the sign that says he's homeless and hungry?
What do I do with him
as I'm sitting down to eat?

What about her?
What about the woman who's husband beats her black and blue
but she's too frightened to leave?
What do I do with her
while I'm making love to you?

What about the children
hiding from the bombs falling on Afghanistan and Iraq?
What do I do with them?
What do I say to them
while I'm thinking of payback?

What about him?
What about the man staring back from my mirror at days end?
What do I do with him?
What do I say when he asks
What about them?

Word count: 147
 
2

Like two lovers draped in beauty,
She's the sunlight on my moon;
Like a moth's hypnotic candle
I am dawn into her flame.

She, in negative, defines me -
She is all that I am not.
Yet I bask in her reflection,
Without her I would not shine.

Midnight skies they are my kingdom,
Dawn and sunset trace her realm;
Faded hues reflect my silver,
Colours shine beneath her gold.

Like two lovers draped in beauty,
She's the sunlight on my moon.
Like two lovers; nature's soul mates -
Our two hearts they beat as one.

Word count: 94
 
7
By James111222 (Score: 6.192)
3

As a child we would float boats in the drain.
We would make them out of twigs and leaves, twigs and leaves built for speed.
We would run and laugh to the end of the race, where the drain would swallow the winner.
We would laugh then, and give it up so easily.
It didn't make us sad to see our boats go.
We would run to start fresh, twigs and leaves for speed.

I tried to float a boat today, sticks and a leaf, built for speed.
But at the end of the block, I grew afraid.
My pretty boat! My precious boat! Oh, mindless me! My boat! My boat!

I fished it out from in the drain, it mocks me now from the windows pane.
My horrid boat! My mocking boat!
It shows me how things aren't the same, for as I grow older, I grow more afraid.

Word count: 150
 
8
By jeroboambramblejam (Score: 5.918)
4

Earth pirouettes about the sun
warming first her cheeks then buns
so vapours rising from her sea
condense in perpetuity

Restless Coriolis forces
ceaseless currents oceanic
winding misty wisps into
horrendous hurricanes titanic

Intermediary calm
gives precious life a chance to flower
Tranquil seasons foster trust
then dash new hope with careless power

Far flung typhoons send souls aloft
to join the gods they can't appease
Ignoring signs of more to come
will bring survivors to their knees

Gaia oozes molten goos
as gravid mountains split asunder
Lightning charges through the sky
to usher echoed peals of thunder

We don't exist despite her rage
but as a natural result
Her patience with our careless ways
is clearly nearly running out

Word count: 120
 
Share
Sponsored by MsgtBob
9
By amivox (Score: 5.903)
2

Masking deception with deliberate smiles
I, the monster
A facade of misconceptions built like a shell
Fear replaces all rational thought as paranoid thoughts decay morale
Self consuming, self defeating, self incriminating
Consequences of an open book with pages torn and discarded
Where was the fear when what has been sewn was reaped?
I, the liar
This purgatory was constructed by my own hands
Forever suffering for a past wrought with failure
Time is unforgiving, unchangeable,
A tumultuous foe, unbending,
Forever a reminder of the pain, of the loss, of the mistakes.

Word count: 92
 
Share
Sponsored by MsgtBob
10
By cannedice (Score: 5.828)
4

I've got a weak grip on this body;
I trip on my jagged edges.
I feel fragile like an ever aging antique.

My head, it pounds with thunder.
It can't concentrate to wonder why
until these eyes can see through my wilting hair.

My spine, stabbing into me.
Cutting down the trunk, the source of pain.
This body is but a rotted pile of junk.

Who's body am I trapped in?
I've been kept in here for too long.
I don't belong in this decay.

My knees, they shake under me.
Like a tree blowing in the wind,
intertwined in its own limbs.

My feet, decomposing from the roots.
They are becoming incomplete,
losing too many pieces.

My veins, they burn like acid rain.
It travels fast and floods the roads
until this arm goes into overload.

My body, falling apart under me.
I'm left with not even a heart.
A tree battered to debris.

Word count: 155

How it feels to be twenty with arthritis.

 

Related Contests

14 entries
12 entries
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
24 entries
30 entries