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The NeoGAF Poetry Corner - Challenge #38: The Human Experience

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Ashes

Banned
The NeoGAF Poetry Corner - Challenge #38: The Human Experience

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Theme: The Human Experience

Interpret the theme however you see fit. From the senses we use to see and think about the world to emotions we feel to the fights people take on. And yes, picking the film image had something to do with the copyright debate on GAF this week and last.

Secondary Objective:

--- I got nothing. Do what you will. Let Anarchy reign.

Poetry Thread Rules 2.0

For poets entering:

  • You are allowed one entry based on the theme; and an optional second entry, if it meets the secondary objective.
  • There are no word counts. Interpret the theme as you wish.
  • If you're a brave soul, there is a 'super secret' optional objective: performing the poem. Don't worry - we will only judge your official entry (the written version). Try it out. Poetry Slams are always cool. ;)
For voters:

  • You can vote even if you haven't posted a poem.
  • Vote for your three favourite poems. But remember that:
    • you can't vote for your self
    • you can't pick two poems from the same author
    • you can't vote for an entry labelled 'ineligible'
  • You cannot win unless you vote.
Competition:

  • The contest runs for two weeks.
  • The deadline is on the last Friday. Once the final entry list is up, the voting begins; it finishes at the end of the weekend.
  • How we count the votes:
    • 1st place is allocated 3 pts; 2nd is allocated 2pts; 3rd is allocated 1pt
    • If there is no outright winner, we add half a point to 1st place, so that the person with the most first place votes win. If we still don't have a winner, we then leave it up to the op to decide how to best go about it; or to choose the outright winner
  • The winner gets a round of applause. They are then in charge of the new thread. If you can't make a new thread, just ask somebody in the current thread, and they might do it for you.
General:

  • This thread is not merely for winning or losing, but for critiquing and improving your own craft.
  • We like to keep the finale on the alternative week to its sister thread: the creative writing thread. Every so often, we get interrupted, such as during E3, and/or Nanowrimo.
  • The archives and the op templates are managed by Bootaaay. If you have a question about it, you can pm him.
  • A big thank you to him, and everybody else who manages the thread week in and week out. We would be worse off without them.
  • Everybody is welcome to enjoy the poetry on offer, or just vote, or just critique.

Submission Deadline; (PST)

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Voting Deadline; (PST)

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The NeoGAF Poetry Society: Previous Challenges:

Poetry Challenge #01: Reflection
Poetry Challenge #02: Making the Blind See (+ 5W poems)
Poetry Challenge #03: Interior (+ Incorporate a song or album title)
Poetry Challenge #04: History (+ Dream Song poems)
Poetry Challenge #05: A View From Afar or Within (+ Clerihew poems)
Poetry Challenge #06: The Surreal and the Fantastical (+ Haikus)
Poetry Challenge #07: Expectations versus Reality (+ Ode)
Poetry Challenge #08: Mirror's Edge (+ Rhymes)
Poetry Challenge #09: Look on the Bright Side (+ poem must end with _________________ as it's last line)
Poetry Challenge #10: Obsolete (+ Ink)
Poetry Challenge #11: Pride (+ Kanye West)
Poetry Challenge #12: Passing By (+ Allegory)
Poetry Challenge #13: Take this Society (+ Ballards)
Poetry Challenge #14: The Dark (+ Add Zombies to taste)
Poetry Challenge #15: The Great Winter (+ Elegy)
Poetry Challenge #16: What Nature Reclaims (+ Lay)
Poetry Challenge #17: Storm Clouds Rising (+ First Person)
Poetry Challenge #18: The Phoenix (+ Enjambment)
Poetry Challenge #19: Psychopomps (+ Assonance)
Poetry Challenge #20: Death in the Family (+ Limericks)
Poetry Challenge #21: A Night on the Town (+ Didactic Poems)
Poetry Challenge #22: A Letter to the World (+ Inside Outside Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #23: The Blues
Poetry Challenge #24: Space, Above & Beyond (+ Prose Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #25: Futurism (+ Avoid Technology)
Poetry Challenge #26: Prove you Exist (+ Lyrical Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #27: Love, Happiness, Peace, Summer & Pixar! (+ Couplets)
Poetry Challenge #28: Dying Earth (+ Blank Verse)
Poetry Challenge #29: War (+ Narrative/Epic Poems)
Poetry Challenge #30: Dreams (+ the return of First Person)
Poetry Challenge #31: At Gunpoint (+ Epic Poetry/Broetry)
Poetry Challenge #32: Two Sides of an Epic Coin Toss (+ Metre & Rhythm)
Poetry Challenge #33: Lust (+ Poetry Slam)
Poetry Challenge #34: Fear (+ Lyric Poetry *To Accompaniment)
Poetry Challenge #35: Detachment (+ A return to allegory)
Poetry Challenge #36: Open (+ Throw Paint on the Wall, See What Sticks!)
Poetry Challenge #37: Chained (+ Cinquain poetry)
 

Ashes

Banned
The NeoGAF Poetry Society: Alumni's Archive

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Ashes

Banned
 

Ashes

Banned
A modern retelling of a Shakespearean tragedy


"Put on a blind man's bluff,
make a cup a tea,
see how difficult that is.

"Pick up the telephone,
order a pizza,
put your tongue on a leash,
try to say please."


"Oh look how poignant
the images are,
how beautifully I speak.
Look how great the lessons are I teach -
the bastard child from an ill-gotten marriage.
Wait for it; wait for it; the cliche will come,
let him entertain the notion:
that what he writes is what is"


"Oh what to do when a critic speaks,
bite not the hand that feeds,
for all of us preach
from books we do not read."

"Like as such like,
what sounds right is right.
An ignorant cannot write what HE writes,
the varsity of human experience,
so beautifully captured -
that is the rich man's educated art."

The gullible intellectual,
it fits,
he says,
it fits.


He stands in the shadow,
of the crowd behind the gallows,
shedding misery,
from his lonely soul.

Poor author,
poor author indeed.
 

AnkitT

Member
I want to enter, typed out 3 different opening lines before backspacing my way back to my recluse. I just hope this rut i'm in clears up soon so I can get back to writing stuff.
 

Ashes

Banned
AnkitT said:
I want to enter, typed out 3 different opening lines before backspacing my way back to my recluse. I just hope this rut i'm in clears up soon so I can get back to writing stuff.

This 'rut' may produce the best work. Get your thoughts onto the page. Edit when you have a page of thoughts down. The subject can be absolutely anything. Even the drought like weight of a creativity block deserves space.
 

Ashes

Banned
I may post the poem I've been working on for my NaNoWriMo novel. It was supposed to be in one of the later chapters.

An old lady gets news that her friend has broken a hip, and the lady can't go see her friend, so she sends a love letter. Not that kind, no, the friendship kind. Old fashioned stuff...

^^^^ Don't know how to fit all that in title, but I'll give it my best try.
 
This is a bit shit, but it's all I've got at the moment;

The piecemeal soldier limped,
shedding blood and skin
that congealed in gory puddles
and was drank deep into the mud.
Slung across his shoulder,
his weapon half forgotten,
it's weight a barely noticed burden
as he trudged slowly onwards.
His hands, red and raw and twitching
as remembering the horrors
wrought at his fingertips,
he sees again the bodies fall.
In waves they come, the hundreds,
shambling wrecks of men
gouting blood from deathly holes,
staring with accusing, hollow eyes.
He cries, holding forth pleading hands,
begging wordlessly for forgiveness,
as he crumbles and falls,
waiting for the earth to swallow his bones.

Trying to work on another piece for a secondary though.
 
Your sunny disposition couldn't assuage the suspicion,
that somewhere beneath your overt, ivory-cool veneer
your mind was sealed tight by heavy chains of fear
whose cold, icy touch sought to remind
that even in days when everything seems fine
you're still a prisoner, trapped,
emotions stowed until they snap
under the pressure of the brittle façade
that keeps your character whole and unmarred,
while those around you never quite come close
to touching the real person below, full of woe,
hidden by layers of paint built up over years,
obscuring loved ones from your silently shed tears.
 
My God, there is less than one hour before the competition ends! I wasn't even aware of this.

Ok, I'll make this up on the fly.

Crawl into the room alone
Wild as an animal
Everything's so bright
Not for long

Follow the line
Like everybody else
Maybe you get lucky
Maybe you don't

Wander around the little square room
This grand cube
With its walls of words
Restrictions and inhibitions

Do it all to somebody else
Let the body fall apart
Let the world forget you
Walk out of the room alone

And into the dark.


Wrote that in like 15 minutes, it's pretty crappy... poetry was never my thing.
 

Ashes

Banned
We here at the Poetry Corner are much more liberal with the idea of deadlines. ;)


And to be honest, I got no clue when midnight over in PST Land is anyway. We've reverted back to GMT over here, but they're gonna do that sometime soon over there.
 

Ashes

Banned


A Grandma upon hearing her dear friend was ill...

I wanted to write about love,
but I had nothing to say...
I'm not talking about the romantic type,
not the 'fucking', as the night calls it,
'making love' says the day;

but of love that friendship produces;
the blood that families run on;
yes, the stuff, that good is reduced to;

the love that is similar to hope;
the idea that lifts the soul,
when happiness lets down her nice rope;

that thing that isn't sadness,
but is a synonym to life-long friendship,
said to alight hearts with honesty,
no it isn't madness;

I wanted to write about love,
though I merely described it,
I hope it crosses through air, water, wind, and
touches you with some of its kisses,
some of its tender bliss.
 

Ashes

Banned
This week's entries:


Reminder:

- Vote for you favourite poem; where possible list them in the order, 1st,2nd,3rd.
- You can't vote for the same author twice (just hm if you like the poem),
- You can't vote for your self. And you don't need an entry to vote.
- Critique's welcome

You have till the end of the weekend.
 
Posting my votes quickly, gotta rush;

1. A modern retelling of a Shakespearean tragedy
2. Crawl into the room alone
3. A Grandma upon hearing her dear friend was ill...
 

AnkitT

Member
1. Ashes1396 - A modern retelling of a shakespearean tragedy
2. Bootaaay - untitled(Your sunny disposition couldn't assuage the suspicion)

Ashes1396 said:
This 'rut' may produce the best work. Get your thoughts onto the page. Edit when you have a page of thoughts down. The subject can be absolutely anything. Even the drought like weight of a creativity block deserves space.
I used to do this whenever I used to feel down before, but this time it just doesn't seem to be working. I'm at my wit's end it seems. But as always, it'll pass, I hope.
 

iavi

Member
Votes:

Ashes - A modern retelling of a shakespearean tragedy
Bootaaay - Untitled (2)
HM: NotTheGuyYouKill


Sorry, guys, I meant to get a piece or two in, but hit a creative rut and instead of working through it, focused on my studies along with a multitude of other non-creative pleasures, lol. I'll be in the next ;).
 

Ashes

Banned
Winners

Ashes1396 - For entering.
Bootaaay - For entering.
Nottheyoukill - for entering.

;)

That poem about Shakespeare - 9pts.
that poem about the soldier - 4pts
That poem about one's character - 4pts
That poem about being trapped in a room - 3pts

And we're done. :p

Thank you all. You will not forget these threads. I promise you that. ;)
 

Ashes

Banned
longest few hours in the history of man.... :p

Really busy today... pls put up the next thread when possible...

Theme: Of plants and trees.
Secondary: The return of the limerick.
 
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