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The NeoGAF Poetry Corner - Challenge #43: A life worth keeping

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AnkitT

Member
The NeoGAF Poetry Corner - Challenge #43: A Life Worth Keeping

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Theme: A Life Worth Keeping

"I believe that no man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping" - David Hume

What makes a life worth living? Is there any objective haecceity to life which makes it worth living? And so on. Interpret the theme as you want.

Optional Secondary Objective: Anger

Become mad as hell, like you're not gonna take this anymore!

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)
Poetry Challenge #38: The Human Experience
Poetry Challenge #39: Of Plants & Trees (+ The return of the Limerick)
Poetry Challenge #40: Homelessness (+ Etheree)
Poetry Challenge #41: Escape
Poetry Challenge #42: Eve of Destruction (+ Chōka)
Poetry Challenge #43: A life worth keeping (+Anger)
 

AnkitT

Member
The NeoGAF Poetry Society: Alumni's Archive

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AnkitT

Member
 

Alucard

Banned
My life is living
Is it worth it?
Am I worth it?
Is life life?
Is worth worth?
Is worth life living?
Is life living worth?
Or is it all just worthless?

Nay, I say

Nay

Life is worth living
For it is all there is

Yay, I say

...

Yay

:D :D :D :D :D :D
Joke post
 
BUMP!

I'm trying to incorporate the secondary into my piece, by having it start out in anger and despair and then move through to hope and acceptance, but it just ends up depressing.

I'll either have finished it by tomorrow, or I'll submit the other piece I'm writing about bacon, lol.
 
Meh, abandoned the piece I was writing, wrote this instead;

Sailor

Sweet sailor upon sullen seas,
fear not, nor falter in face of sudden breeze,
that bobs your battered boat to and fro,
and twists taut twined rigging beneath the moon’s glow,
as turgid waters tumultuously writhe against the boat’s sides,
spray splashing suddenly across the midnight skies,
while with arching grace, upwards rises the prow,
courage renewed, sweet sailor, bravely avow
to press forward through bitter wind and ice and rain
toward those homeward shores you so long to see again.
 

AnkitT

Member
I’m alive!
The proof is in the pudding
Scratch that, built from scratch apple pie
A vessel of goo, glutton and regrets
Wisdom of an entire existence
Even faeces house species
Looking for meaning in all the wrong places
Finding purpose in misplaced hatred
Every breath has a goal
An examined life not worth living
Yet every being born will lead to mourn

I feel like death
Cannot escape it by being escapist
It is on my mind, a Shakespearian skull
A lifeless body looks lively in a casket
And what’s my worth if I can’t look past it?
Treat it like a disease and cheer up
Existential dread but still glug the beer up!
On a moving globe, spinning on its axis
Yet home is where the hate has lasted
My body is a cage, yet my mind wanders
The primitive part still in awe of moving skies

A singular human is a statistic
No more important than an expensive stone
An uncaring cosmos is seen as sadistic
And looking to find your self is egocentric
Overly chauvinistic, protective of old tales
False prophets preach of the dream
The carrot-stick beyond the realm of the flesh
Tear the earth and wear it like an open wound
Go green, gangrene, all of this will end soon
Is life worth keeping? Or is it just idle housekeeping?
Out of reach meaning, but please keep on reaching
 

Ashes

Banned
When the tea is cold

When the tea is cold,
I look to the east,
and from whence the warm wind blows,
thoughts fly like dreams weaved
upon the weary mind's turncoat,
sir, I have only my beauty sleep,
and lackluster hope,
help me for I have fallen overboard,
the waves are consuming me,
the ocean is too deep,
extend me the hand of your friendship,
so that I may see the shore again.
 

Ashes

Banned
What's the point?

What's the point
in anger,
sadness, and
discontent?

When expressed,
is the burden lighter
the self satisfied,
the soul fulfilled,
the rage quenched?

NO, I have a feeling,
it's all in the head,
everything is a mirage,
the self dreamt dream
in real life made manifest.

So go already,
everything will
remain the same:
the sky, the moon,
the sun, and the roads.
 

iavi

Member
Lol, I was in here pushing for those to gets theirs in, and couldnt come to a consensus on my own in time. A real writers block atm. I will read and vote though.
 

iavi

Member
Read, critique, vote.

Haha, touche!

Crits n Votes

1. Ankit - Life as a Statistic. - Existential dread you said and, without seeming the slightest bit pedestrian, captured it with such clarity. I enjoyed this one, and ultimately your seemingly effortless display of unique technique here a lot, AnkitT.

2. Ashes - When the tea is cold. - At first, it felt a good bit disjointed, specifically at the half as I wasn't seeing how the title or initial few stanzas connected with the theme I took away--necessary friendship. It wasn't until I gave it another read and a few minutes of thought that I came to the conclusion on the stanzas, their purpose of image, and the idea of 'putting on airs/appearances,' which I do love. I recently saw your stance on authorial intent in the Short Story thread, but please do tell me if that's also what you were going for. I've taken away what I did, and am now interested in knowing what you were putting in. I enjoyed it a lot.

3. Bootaaay - Sailor. - Haha, in knowing your usual use of the motif it was way easy to discern what this one was about, and that's no fault...eh, kinda~ The imagery was strong, language was beautiful as ever, and the concept was clear regardless of my history with you, I'm sure, but I did feel as if the piece was a bit typical, not just from you (though it really is), but in general.

Hm: Ward - A hymn for the exploited. - The image was good, and your decidedly ironic permutation of the theme was an interesting one, but your use of language, and dat formatting, my god, needs a good bit of work.
 

Ashes

Banned
1. Sailor
2. WArd.
3. AnkitT

@Miri: Would it do to fall at the first hurdle? :p

And truth be told, out of habit, I nearly did!

I won't say much, except that I was inspired by someone, who said that they felt as if they were losing out to misery, and time just flew by staring vacantly into thin air. I shall say no more.* Interpret the piece how you will. ;)



*This is actually quite a bit more difficult then one imagines. Because the piece is meant to be more universal than single portrait or frame being cast for it. We all feel a bit down, sometimes, no?
 

AnkitT

Member
Ashes1396 - 7
Ward - 6
AnkitT - 6
Bootaaay - 5

Congratulations, Mr. Ashes! On to the next thread we go, and I apologize for all the delays.
 

Ashes

Banned
Lol!

Unless you meant to vote for my first poem, I'd say that according to the rules, it was your poem that won ankitT! You aren't passing the buck to me buddy! :D

Edit: or Ward but he hasn't voted.
 

AnkitT

Member
ORLY?

I thought the votes went to the poet rather than the poem? Anyways, i'll make the thread in a few minutes keeping mind of time wasted by me lol.
 
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