• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• ahoyhoy - Freedom
  
• Alarif - Light Blue Reminds Her, Second Movement of Discordia Part 2, Uncanny, The Balloon, Untitled, A Game of Cat, Mouse & Fuck Bioware, Blessed
  
• Amir0x - A painful note, Battlefield Bliss
  
• AnkitT - Gray Areas, Point of View, I See, Internal Conflict, Sightsee, The Circlejerk, Be Pee, You Expected a Title? Really?, Development Hell, Cover Your Eyes, They Say I Talk in Obsoletes, Collective, Sensory Deprivation, Nuclear Winter, Deception, Cremation, Match Made in Heaven, Nobody Came to Mine, Hot Douche, Asylum, Deadbeat, Happenstance, It's Personal, Everyone becomes a philosopher after 40, Untitled, Fossil, Placeholder, If Only, Don't fight back, and see what happens., On again off again, Open to Interpretation, Open Your Mind, Dead;We, Life as a statistic, Cheap death, Frayed
  
• Ashes1396 - Left and Right, Trouble Belongs to Me, The Head & Tails of it All, Blind Faith, The Brain, the Heart, the Kidneys, Mary Poppins vs. other classic musical sing-a-longs, Epoch encroaching mass atrocity: The Rwandan Genocide, und sex?, Golden Phoenix & River Thames, Nobody has time in the city of London for anyone else, Developers, or a poem written in one go in under ten minutes, Soft dreams treading on winter nights, Live, War Torn Machine, Taking Flight From the Nest, The Abominably Rich Man, Prison, A Pure Winter's Daughter, Mechanical Heart, Frightened Rabbits, The brevity of life, Valentines day is over; see you next year!, Don't be sad John., Speaking to the Bottom of a Bottle, Thief, High Seas, Why Believe in Hope?, Time, my best friend, What a Wonderful World, The path of the hitch hiker who doesn't give a f**k!, Lonesome Boat, Death Likes War, till we awake, Sleeping beauty, Rest amongst the lilies, Hometown Glory, Mindless violence? Fuck you! - A Youth Cut Rhapsody, Her Words, Walk Not Alone, The unkempt poet on Old Holloway road, We are in this together., Torn, Open for Business =/= The Cracks in the Ceiling, Spectator at a Fireworks Festival, A modern retelling of a Shakespearean tragedy, A Grandma upon hearing her dear friend was ill..., Of plants and trees., Broken Homes =/= Childhood dreams, Free Escape, Lacklustre Song, Ghost in the Rain, When the tea is cold, What's the point?, Murder, Turning to flames, Lea Valley, Steam Punk, The city is too big; I want to go home
  
• Beelzebozo - Letters
  
• Bootaaay - Untitled, "Happy" I muttered, trying to pin the word down, November Rain, Vuvuzela & Untitled, Delirium Tremens, Poor Gary Coleman, Nimbus Watching & Crocodile Tears, An Ode to Oscar (the former life of the party), Nerevarine, Trev & Bill's night out on the town, Bastogne, A Man Out of Time, A Dose of Reality, The Storm, The Tower, Smaug, Winter's Shroud, Gone to Ground, Live to Regret, The Sourceress & Current Affairs, Beneath the Waves, Morning Dew, Sea Spray, In the ink deep blackness of night-time's embrace., Ticker Tack, Vigil, Carousel, Death Rattle, Where the Wind Blows, The Road Yet Travelled, A Summer Death, From the ashes of empires we rose once more, Bloodied & Torn, Crows, Streets of London, A Wasp Among the Hoverflies, Either or Or?, Corpse Lights, Sea Wall, Unknown, Wake to See the Sun, Brimstone, Shroud, Whiled Turkey, Deceit, Caged, The Piecemeal Soldier, Sunny Disposition, Dawn, Untitled, Cold, Untitled, Seer, Sunset, Sailor, Spires, Worm Stripped Fingers, Smoke, Tarnished and Torn
  
• Botolf - I Heard Something, The Lights, O Musician
  
• ChiefKief - He Carries On
  
• cory - I'm not that Fond of Ramen
  
• Crunched - Promise, Steam, Such Bugs
  
• Cryptozoologist - Untitled
  
• Cyan - Goals, George Washington & Ashes1396, Adrian Brody, Untitled, Slow, the End
  
• Dartastic - Untitled, Untitled #2, Within - "Fear"
  
• Davedough - Concious Babblings of a Frail Psyche
  
• disappeared - January 27th, maybe tomorrow., Ape Shit, at last
  
• Divine - Life or Death
  
• Dresden - Chipping Away at the Statue, Old Callisto, See-Through Lenses, It's always within you, Cristiano Ronaldo & They Call it the Vuvuzela, Alarif, Said the Monkey to the Monk, Galactic Trooper, Expectations, Orange Everywhere In This Bitch, High & Low, Scuttle, Ferry, Untitled, Broetry, I ain't caring, just wondering, bind
  
• dvolovets - An Elegy for a Forgotten Artist
  
• FantasticMrFoxdie - The Ending*/, Our Binary Star
  
• FelixOrion - The Gaseous Pipedream is a Dream No More, Oceanic
  
• Flink - Your Bed
  
• Freezie KO - My Flag
  
• goldlion054 - The Girl at the Grocery Store, The Abandonned Neighborhood, That Day
  
• Grakl - A New Beginning?, If it Pleases You, Fear of the Known, Like the Stench from a Tomb, Hammer and Tongs
  
• half a moon - Untitled
  
• H.B. - I've been tired for a year and ten days
  
• hey_monkey - Afterward, In Summer, Chiggers: A Dream Song, Cyan Hobbes, Just One, Untitled, For Monica, Jeddah is Drowning

• Igoritza - Untitled
  
• Irish - Faint, Down the Street & Journeyman, What Have I Done?, B Covers Bread As Well, Never Always, Live the Life, Lock, Mud, Lack of Focus, How It Is..., Ever, Continued, Cement, Went Out, The View, Return
  
• Jangaroo - Tomorrow, Now
  
• John Dunbar - An Ordinary Chap, A Winter Wonderland, This Morning in the Kitchen, Wake Up
  
• Karakand - Steampunk's Not Dead
  
• kid ness - Me, Coin Flip, The Angry Man, Sandbox King, The Market, Somewhere a World, Lizard
  
• The Lamp - Melanoma
  
• LiQuid! - My lifelessness, I have always valued..., Gold Rush
  
• MaxSteel - Poem #1, Interior
  
• Melchiah - Beneath the Flesh
  
• Mike Works - Desire
  
• Miri - Sheath, Entry With Ego, Saboteur. Society. Cycle, As the Sirens Sang in the Halls of He., The "Oh Lordy Lordy Few Forties & an Oz" Sex Mind, Warm, Wild, and Starving, I Am, Upon the Town of Red & Blue. Repeat, Fallen Angel Felled, Wander walks with Lucidia, I am Arlevana. I am Villain, Wander walks towards an Intro, Shallow Gouge, Old Man, Victros, Her Name, Vaccine., Safe with 2-ply, The messenger, laugh as he does tell, I've heard your wishes, woman, now -- let me sleep as I do., Goes my love,, don't dare nod, To be buried, Uke, Thorough. Through, Cowardice crafted Cowardice, For the scent and serenity of home, From Shoddy Construction, Ludgar
  
• Monocle - Untitled
  
• More Fun To Compute - Things and stuff
  
• Mudkips - Interior
  
• Nix - Bitter Dreams; Sweet Relief
  
• Neutrality - Goodbyes, Sunne, Vincent, Theo Baldwin's Final Entry, About a Queen, Smoke and the Feeling of Weightlessness, Forever Yours, Autumn in Empire
  
• Nightshade1765 - Reterning the key to the Rightful Gatekeeper
  
• NotTheGuyYouKill - Untitled
  
• OrangeGrayBlue - A Trip to the Moon
  
• PolarBearsClub - Forgetting Birthdays, Guest
  
• Plywood - The Masochist, Again
  
• Plumbob - Untitled, The Witches Wade South, Control, Untitled
  
• Raguel - Untitled
  
• RDreamer - Two Days Short of Forever
  
• Reneledarker - The Stolen Eternity
  
• ronito - Vespers
  
• Salvor.Hardin - A Weathered Man, A Virgin Afternoon in the Arabian Desert, Of Jungles and Lights, Beyond the Horizon, A Soldier For All
  
• Seam - The Tearful Moment/The Sane Moment, Located moment, senses poem.
  
• SoccerGoaliePro - Untitled
  
• soul creator - Overanalyze
  
• soultron - Untitled, Embodied in Copper
  
• Snowman Prophet - Indigestion, THE BOOK OF SEGA GENESIS
  
• tehrafe - She was the one, Hero
  
• ThLunarian - Untitled #1, Untitled #2
  
• ThoseDeafMutes - Tab Explosion
  
• Tim the Wiz - All We Humans, More Love, The Waning Earth, Glorious Field, Utoya, Stardust, You, Mother's Christmas Song, The Harbinger's Screams, Another Waking Soul, The Choice, Conquistador
  
• Timedog - Waves Hitting Rocks (Godfuck), Nothing
  
• Trip Warhawkins - A Meaningless Affair, The Coward Says Goodbye, Chained to the t.o.s.
  
• Truth101 - Partings, Alone we wonder
  
• ULTROS! - Room
  
• umop_3pisdn - Untitled, Cellular Matrix, Like sand drinks water
  
• WanderingWind - Untitled, Untitled
  
• Ward - Puffy Chicken Pickle Chips, A Muddled Puddle, A hymn for the Exploited, Born in 1921; Airborne in 1944, Words Want for More
  
• Zamorro - Time Well Spent
  
• Zapages - Prince & Farah Meeting in the Two Thrones
  
• ZephyrFate - Dislocation, ZephyrFate, Niche in the Canyon, Left Behind, Untitled

Truth101 said:

Don't know how often this is done, but I'll bump the thread for new people to see.

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FelixOrion said:

It's usually not, and then people complain about missing these threads, so idk.

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Crunched said:

I haven't been participating for too long, but it seems like there is a core group of "usuals," and I expect it will be bumped as they post their entries.

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FelixOrion said:

But there's always room for newcomers; I'm not a "usual," maybe someday.

Plus, entries usually come in sporadic times, even "usuals" might miss the thread.

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Miri said:

You're dead on. You'd be surprised at how many people come into each challenge saying that they never noticed the thread, but wished they had. Bumping it's always been appreciated.

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Crunched said:

01101001001000000110000101101101

i walk
talk
like a man.

...

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Ashes1396 said:

Is that deadline correct AnkitT? or is dst messing things up?

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lopaz said:

I frickin' love this one. Count on my vote

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Sentry said:

Poem-gaf is quite impressive. I've been trying to do a "The White Man's Burden" poem from the a black man's perspective of the time (i.e. 'Take up the Black Man's burden') but am failing miserably.

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Miri said:

You've also been writing some great stuff these past few challenges, FO; great to have you around as another regular.

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