Poetry Contest! 

Chatterbox: Chirp at Cricket

Poetry Contest! 

Poetry Contest! 

I know this should go in the Inkwell, but I have  a feeling that it will die really fast if it's there.

So, as the name says, this is a poetry contest. There will be two levels, because I want more people to have a chance to win. I'll be in the second level, because I honestly don't stand a chance against some of you. The first level will be for the masters of writing, and the second level will be for us apprentices to have a shot, too.

So I'm entering the lower level, and I'll judge the higher level.

Masters of writing, your theme for your poem is:

Sorrow.

Can be free verse, rhyme, haiku, anything as long as it has to do with sorrow. 

submitted by Mei-xie (May-shyeh)
(April 10, 2016 - 12:07 pm)

Thank you. I didn't expect that, and I don't think that poem deserves it, but such is life. CL, I thought yours in particular was really well done. It was a fantastic piece of literature. Cho's was just as well done. You picked a really cool poem design!

I'm not going to enter this week's round, but can I write a poem for it anyway? 

submitted by Ruby M.
(April 18, 2016 - 12:21 am)

Thanks, Ruby! 

submitted by Cho C.
(April 18, 2016 - 12:32 pm)

Aww, thanks Ruby. Yours was very-well written and spaced, and kept an interesting but straight meter. You did deserve to win. 

submitted by Clouded Leopard
(April 19, 2016 - 11:21 am)

Does anyone know where I find my friend?

My friend is far away

Come and help me search for her

We will search the day away

 

submitted by Pineapple the cat, age 4 cat year, Bunbury
(April 17, 2016 - 3:18 pm)

Didn't win... *sigh* At least I have another chance!

Here are the lower level winners.

1st: Over the Rainbow! I have had "friends" like that and your poem hits very close to home. I like how you alrenated lines with "You" and "Me". The last two lines were amazing: "Use your dazzling smile somewhere else. I will pop my lonely-bubble for myself". It just was that final ring, an air of defiance, the words were just... perfect. I went around reciting those lines over and over until people started looking at me weirdly. :)

2nd: Booksy Owly! All the other poems were about people, and I loved your creativity in making a book the friend of topic. Like in OtR's poem, the last two lines were just magic: "Unlocked your golden gates and let my heart within". That so perfectly describes the poem it gave me the chills—Good job!

3rd: Poetry Alias! I would love to know who you are as much as I love your poem! I especially like the part about inside jokes... My friends and I have those stupid things that only we get and everyone else thinks we're nuts, and your poem encompassed that perfectly. I really like the lines: "But we are the same, forever in my brain". Nice work! 

 

submitted by Abigail S., age 11, Nose in a Book
(April 17, 2016 - 3:57 pm)

Oh my goodness! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I didn't expect to win!

The only bad thing about it is that I can't enter the next contest, oh well.

Thanks again, Abi! 

submitted by OtR
(April 17, 2016 - 7:41 pm)

Oh my goodness, I got second place! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Yay yay yay!

submitted by Booksy Owly
(April 17, 2016 - 8:36 pm)

Congradulations! Your poem was beautiful.

submitted by OtR
(April 18, 2016 - 1:14 pm)

OHMIFREAKIN'DUMBLEDORENGANDALF!!!!!!!! I GOT THIRD PLACE!!!!! YOU JUST MADE MY DAY!!!!!

submitted by Cho C
(April 17, 2016 - 4:21 pm)

Aw. Sad I didn't win, but I will participate in the next next one, after I judge this one (masters, that is).

Sooooo...April 24 is the deadline! I can't wait to read your silence poems! 

submitted by Rose bud
(April 17, 2016 - 7:52 pm)

Entering Masters again! :) If this is too far off from the theme, I'll enter a new poem, but I hope this is okay.

Untitled

You think you can hear?

Just because your puny

ears

Can pick up loud,

wails

of sound?

You’re only

fooling yourself. You

can't hear

better than

a rock.

Why bother giving

you humans sound at all

When this beautiful power

is wasted

On headphones,

jammed indifferently onto ears

Howling,

Muddled,

Ugly,

Music?

Not likely.

I know what

Real music is.  

Not one person has heard

what counts

if

they haven’t fought

to hear—

Blades of grass

Swishing in the wind

A river’s chuckle as it

trips merrily over

water-shined silver stones,

I see you beings,

I watch above from my perch,

You only pick up

The most obvious cries,

Of voices,

The maddening shrieks

Of human-made noise.

I can’t bear it,

When every morning,

I awaken,

sweet music—

True music—

flowing

Like a river

Out of my heart

You never hear, you never notice

me.

Not one of you

Has heard love

Has felt power,

suffering,

triumph,

emanating from a single sound.

Unless you’ve heard

Silence,

felt the peace,

of nature.

Which, I know,

is hard in your world

When honking horns and

The grinding of wheels against

A hard, concrete curb.

I know what you are thinking.

I want music,

You protest.

I’m looking for pure quiet,

but

It doesn’t exist.

That’s true.

Absolute silence is maddening.

What I mean is

Escape from all

Human-made sound.

Even after you know this…

You haven’t looked.

I see you

I sit patiently on your windowsill,

watching,

As you try in vain

to escape.

The closet

Behind the coats,

is the wrong place,

You’ve found.

Undertones ring in your ears

Voices

The oily sizzle of mom’s

frying pan.

Even the gentle hum

of

Air conditioning.

Peace isn’t the park either.

The crunch of a peanut nut in another’s mouth

Car wheels scrape the curb

In the background.

It seems impossible.

This I understand all too well.

I stay away from your towns

If at all possible,

Preferring to rest

In tranquil nature.

But remember I said  “seems.”

But maybe,

Someday,

When you visit, possibly,

your Aunt Margaret, In

say, Maryland,   

In her rural house

By the woods.

As you whine from

Lack of electricity

Your parents might just

Shoo you out to play

In the forest.

And as you angrily shuffle

your feet among the leaves

(Sending my kind flapping nervously away)

craving internet,

deeper you wander through the trees,

Till you pause to sulk

on a log,

Unmoving in your funk.

Slowly…

Your ears fill…

With a faraway babble

Of a brook,

A robin’s quiet chirp,

the gently sigh of a breeze

as it tickles your ear

and winds around your cheeks.

Then entranced,

You pause,

Listening,

Seemingly far away

From civilization.

Slowly,

You smile and stand up

As you walk

Peacefully, happily, away

I sigh and drift off

On a breath of wind,

I laugh— Maybe

Humans

Aren’t

So deaf

After all.

 

submitted by Abigail S., age 11, Nose in a Book
(April 17, 2016 - 9:54 pm)

The Fire Within

By Mei-xue Li (Not my real name)

Did you notice that if you turn your head sideways, the words look like fire? 

It roars, oh, it burns!

It roils, oh, it churns!

Leaping higher, higher, higher,

Lo! That searing, scorching, fire. 

Oh, it ignites my insides, yes, and cremates and cooks my soul.

It can fuel my acts of courage yet can burn my love like coal.

Flickering, leaping, blazing, roaring, 

Jumping, dancing, flying, soaring. 

It resides in the deepest crannies of my heart,

The way it blazes, it dances like art. 

It lives at the very shores of my shadow,

Smoking, smoking, embers aglow. 

What causes fierce bravery can also spark sin,

Behold! But beware…

The Fire Within. 

image.jpeg
submitted by Yong-huo (Yohng-hwor, age Meaning:, Brave fire
(April 18, 2016 - 5:01 pm)

Nice! I really felt like there was a fire dancing in my heart! (I know that sounds weird)

submitted by Cho C.
(April 19, 2016 - 6:27 am)
image.jpeg
submitted by Yong-huo (Yohng-hwor, age Meaning:, Brave fire
(April 19, 2016 - 7:33 am)

Come on guys! Tip top tippity top.

submitted by Cho Cho.
(April 20, 2016 - 11:44 am)