A True Contest...

Firstly I would like to say that, I will not add you to my favorites or vote on your poetry.

This contest is to test your writing ability, and hopefully if you win, to train and bring out more of your poetic style. This is only open for those who truly want to train their writing skills

The rules are:

All forms of poetry are accepted, except suicide poetry or cutting poetry...

The subject will be on any of your passions or interests, your family, your garden..Anything that truly interest you. The reason is, I want to know more about you through poetry, so what better subject is there.

You'll write a 200 word summary as to why you wrote on that particular subject and what it means to you. (This rule is most important as it not only challenges your writing vocabulary and how professionally you've articulated your words, and it gives me a basic impression on you as a person.

Grammer and Spelling is very important,one mistake could give you a disqualification. Poor work is un-needed.

Rewards:

Ofcourse a contest with strict rules must have a great reward. So I'll explain the rewards.

There will be three winners:

2nd Runner up will receive a 2 hour mentorship with a poet, who I feel is a great teacher and poet. They will receive no comments or critique.

1st Runner up will receive 5 hour mentorship with a poet, who I feel is a great teacher and poet.

The winner will receive 1 day mentor ship with a poet, who I feel is a great teacher and poet. They'll also receive a comment on one poem. Which will be given one interpretation and constructive criticism.

Mentorship: The winners will receive mentorships with the best in their own right, and as with any mentorship, they'll receive guidance, critique and answers as to how they can improve their writing style.

This contest will end on 29th June. Which will give you enough time to give me your all. I want your best, I along with 2 judges will deliberate and discuss on your poems. Judging will be done 10 days after the contest closes. Again, I stress that this is for those who are serious about their expansion and learning in this field.

Show me and everyone what you can do...

I think this is an amazing idea! I will surely submit. I look forward to seeing this contest carry out.

How would the mentorship play out? say i like in RI and the mentor lives in FL? I'm not quite understanding, but this does sound interesting so if you could please get back to me...

thank you,
Keleigh

Firstly the mentorships will be done using yahoo or msn... but for this contest once the winners are chosen, the perspective mentors will learn and understand the winners poetic style through their winning poems, their summary and a few previous poems they've written, from that they can gather what your strengths and weaknesses and they'll start the mentoring knowing how to better your poetic style, and how to evade your weaknesses and pitfalls...

Mentors will answer your questions, tell you where you focus on and offer constructive critique and valuable advice to the winners...

So basically by the mentorships begin your mentor (who is a pnq member, the best in their own right) will know all about you...

This contest is to not only bring out your best, but it'll also challenge you, which is supposed to be intended as you enter any poetry site...

Does the poem have to be new or old?

I'm in!

NinjaGirl: The poems have to be new...And as per the rules it has to be on your interests and/or passions...

Jess: There is already a waiting list, and from that I'll choose a suitable mentor for the winner. Plus I have to choose a good judge as well.

Jess: It can be any genre about any of your interests or passion...So yes!

And the star question./...

who is/ are the mentor(s)????

Ok. i might give it a go

Woops, I msthave misread then- thanks for clarifying :D

Wow, and a summary? Sounds fun.

Exactly two hundred words or can it be a little bit over since I can rant a little. *Chuckles*

Spring-Danny Keightley
Parcelled by consequence, time and fate,
a dot in a colossus of empty space,
and as far as our technological eyes,
can ever so boldly premise,
we're the only souls in oh so empty space,
and our advances pollute this world with haste.
But all was calm, not long ago,
and our green earth did once bestow,
the beauty of a songbirds verse,
which choir echoes as the clouds dispersed,
and rainbow fish would dart in streams,
of silver, sparkled lakes, pristine,
surely a tuneful, tranquil bliss,
If I were in a dream to reminisce,
into a place that once did exist,
maybe my judgement-a parti pris?
All we can do is predict,
and dream, and hope, and wish.
recall the sounds of nature's voice,
but before I've time to rejoice,
I'm awoken, and paradise fades,
and the sounds of spring are driven away,
by an orchestra of thieves and whores,
choiring angels, stripped of their cause,
and as grey swallows the summer hues,
choking smog squanders sweet perfume,
we bask in industry's marvelling blocks,
that stand where once sheep in flocks
would graze upon the greenest grass,
spring, now a token of our past.

......................

This poem is all one stanza because it pretty much deals with one idea, and I thought that stanzas would break and fragement the meaning of the poem.
I have always had a passion for nature and if we set our minds back to the romantic period in which writers like Wordsworth and Colderidge wrote many poems about the ideas of nature and harmony, contrasted with what 'man has done to man'.
The first few lines show my view on this world, we are in fact a minute planet in a vast and empty space, musn't we feel lucky or priveleged and treat our planet better than we do? The idea that our technological 'advances' premise that we are the only intelligent life, whilst our advances are also the cause of the pollution and desecration of our planet.

I've contrasted this idea with the lines which show the ideas of what Spring is meant to be like, I often dream of a world, a tranquil restoration away from the city life I've grown up in, and I'm awoken by the painful sounds of reality. 'An orchestra of theives and whores' and the grey and dull landscape outside my window engulfs all the bright summer colours and hues. I can see factories 'marvelling blocks' towering over where nature would thrive.
It's merely a question of what we're doing to this planet.
I tried to combine my love of writing and nature/harmony together.

Hope you liked it
Danny

First Rain
by Tony

Running across the sky in screams and smiles;
Your white netted dress in new brown stripes.
Giggle and slip, trodding on the edge,
Dancing as the world hides,
Alone in dark rooms.

Let it rain, let it rain;
Let it pour my life down.

After prayers through dropless lightening,
And you sing, your voice rising over;
Thunder roars and strikes,
So beautiful when you skid,
Cry happy tears and shine.

And you are beautiful when you dance,
As you pull my hands along,
With smiles etched in your face,
I skid trying to race you to the stormiest part
of this little home we have made.

Laughter and wishes twisted in silver sheets,
So strong perhaps they would last forever.
And you are driving me into this maze,
I'd never want to escape;
But do..

Twirling in happy shivers;
Spinning in circles, dizzy,
so dizzy.
With arms wide open,
Kissing cold ground I fall into.
Racing, tempting,
and I've never felt so close
To your scrawny little mind
Than I do now.

I've never felt so close to your being,
Never when it's up for show.

I've never felt so close to knowing you;
It's better than I'd dream.
And I've never felt so close,
So close in days.

So close to loving life.
_______________________________________

This poem is meant to show my passion for the rain, although it does seem like it's about a girl whom I love. It is not, however, but those parts are more about the love of having someone to share the rain with. There is no particular structure, it's spurratic and intentional, and there is no rhyme scheme either.

This is about last night, which can be counted as one of the best times I've had in my whole life. I was on the terrace and there was lightening for about an hour, but no rains. I was with a girl that I spend time with almost every night (a great friend) and suddenly it starts raining, so we leave our cell phones and shoes at whatever dry spot we could find and have races on the terrace. Then we danced and stood on the edge and we screamed louder than thunder.. it was.. like for one moment I could just forget all of my trials; forget that I had to wake up early the next morning; forget that I had to go back out in the world and face another unhappy day trying to impress strangers. All I had to think about was sharing that moment with someone I cared about, and who cares about me, and I could just be a kid like I should be doing. And my last thought before going to bed was "I'm going to sleep happy tonight." The last line shows that for once life seemed worth something, even if it was only for a little while.

Hope you enjoyed, at least to some extent.

-Tony

I think...
I think I'll give it ago, it would be a challenge.

Cold Showers Of Paranoia

In the cold light of the morning,
Today no palm birds sing or love birds twitter,
Bemused, as silence creeps across the floor,
Perhaps someone got a gun, before I did.

Sitting as hours roll away, counting,
Ice droplets that fall onto my skin,
Mixing in with lather, seeping through my pores
I wish they'd clean the layers of soot,
Formed atop my brain,
Shaking my head trying to scrub it clean,
and get it working,
the water spins around in whirlpools,
creating hallucinations,
I don't want to see.

And I, I hurt myself today,
And red smears across the tiles,
In failed attempts to write her name,
To sketch her face and bring her back again,
To hear her laugh and sing, cause my heart misses,
And nobody sings like you anymore.
And I wish to cry but couldn't, in fears of being watched,
Watched like I always am..
But I wish it were with more love than suspicion.
And you never did like tears.

Watch as spiders crawl across the floor,
Awake, the sun rises in the east,
And I don't wish to live a breath today,
So I lay singing myself to sleep.

------------------------------------------------------------

Could you let me cry today.. I don't wish to spark smiles,
Could you hold me today.. I don't wish to be alone,
Could you come back to me love.. I fear the stench of death.

__________________________________________

My poem is about my little sister, Emily. It takes place about three years ago, when she was eight and I was sixteen, and it was November; about a week after my birthday. I was angry with her for going through my things, a stupid reason to be angry at your little sister for. I yelled at her and she got upset. She went outside to ride her bike, and I was all for it. I just really didn't want to deal with her right then. A little while later I heard her scream, and that's where my nightmare creeped in. She was hit by a car, and it was all my fault.

"in fears of being watched,
Watched like I always am..
But I wish it were with more love than suspicion."

^For a long time after that I was paranoid. I just knew that everyone was putting the blame on me. If only I had been watching her. If only I had forgotten about my silly anger and had been the good big brother that I was supposed to be.

"And you never did like tears."

^The part that makes me smile. I can remember one day that I was upset for some reason or another, and she told me not to cry; that for every tear lost was a moment of happiness lost. Of course she didn't say it in those words, I just cannot remember her exact words. I never did ask her where she got that idea from.

Anyhow, thanks for allowing me to share.

Haha grammar, ofc... The Danish fellow with bad grammar would like to participate, but I think I will pass this one... Good Luck to you all.

A Soul That Stands Alone
-----------------------------

Before the steps of aging stones and grassy plains
Lay a temple of ivory memories-
"To Be the Great is to be Misunderstood"

I find myself wrapped in a gold cloth
Woven from the finest dirt
And drenched in mud that sparkled
Beneath a sun of a hundred illusions.

Alone among the crowd...the world
Endurance sweats like a cascade pouring
Into some hole unseen, untouched.
And so many have turned their faces away-
Given up;
Went astray from the set path
Plunged into the dark forest and became
Just another tree.

They say to me, "Why continue when there is no end
To this torture of overwhelming silence. My friends
Have left and I have nothing more"

The road is endless and taunting
To souls like ours that need an aim
When there is none, we turn wild
Like weeds among flowers
Or torn out classics among picture books
Abandoned as before time.
"Even I have past those books
Sauntering towards the glitz"

For those who continue on like a silent gust of hope
Famished and decaying but clear
Like mountain lakes hidden from our hands;
The end lay a triumph
Not of fortune, fame, or any other tangible objects.
But that of the spirit
That of us and us alone...
------------------------------------------------------------
This poem reflects upon my battle chosing between being a conformist or a nonconformist. I was greated moved by Emerson's Self-reliance and I decided to try and stand out, to overcome my fears by facing them head on instead of decieving myself into a world of ignorance, dependence, and fuzzy bunnies. And my battle in try to see all sides of a viewpoint before making a final judgement on either a person or an event. It is very challenging to be myself when everyone else including those I love most--want me to be someone I'm not or want me to be someone I was in the past but not or present. The final thing is, it's hard to change yourself but even harder for others to change their already set evaluation on you...even if you change. Most people have simply given up or ran away from themselves to live in a world of cliques.

A Passionate Funeral

Now in the throes of that one soundless melody,
He truly opens his eyes for the first time
Like a flower bright and delicate the petals open;
Eyelashes glint with dewdrop tears and there he is
Looking out on what he fought for while he could not see
Blind as a newborn yet the colours he percieves
Astound him.

My fruitless little withering flower,
Only seeds of sorrow and misery,
You reap your own destruction as it
Grows around you,
Eats right through you,
Ravenous parasite of your suffering
Devouring and forcing the blood out,
You flee from what makes you what you are,
Wonderful, loathesome as it is for me and you.

Always seperate: 'Me' and 'You',
'Us' is no word for the damned.

You murder us
With your wish to and vows for forgiveness,
That you cannot give me anymore
These days than you can yourself.
So you pretend to us both and well,
I'd rather that than what is truly lodged in your heart,
That tattered shelled up vector of your lies.

This end of mine is a friend of mine,
Just that seedling lie you planted within me,
Innocently in your misguided ways,
Taught me to take it all the wrong way without once saying a word,
The deceitful truth you knew was fractured
I hate to believe what I know sometimes,
Words, or reality, or you,
Candid and so unlike me in your purity, as you are.
Dear.

You could be the poisoned apple
If only you'd let them,
Bite right through your delicate skin to the toxic flesh beneath,
Beautiful, no face to be flawed with,
No visage that I ever want to see again,
You may as well be dead in the name to me
All you are now is grief and envy.

Venomous and lethal,
So dark and beautiful like
The deflowered flower of nightshade,
Death bringer and bell ringer,
Passionate, boundless dancer and enchanter; ticking rythm of the clockwork in my chest,
And you can
Bury it down deep in a casket of truths woven into falsehood all for me.
But over all you will be that consuming, wild and relentless fire of cremation
Of me, of everything that is, was, will be.

Alright, so. I didn't choose to write this poem so much as it wrote itself. Anyway. I don't get this, and 'this' here is poetry, unless I love the subject, and the subject is my characters. Well two of them for this particular example. These are Irrithis and Ethos. Irrithis is completely insane, to put it bluntly, and has no soul to love with, but wants Ethos. I'll spare you the long explanation. Why I love it? Well, to summarise, I'd say these guys, and all the other 'Figments' in my head, as I affectionately term them, are my life. They think along with me, entertain me when I have nothing else to do, are my story, my joy, sometimes I'm even sad with them, love with them, get excited with them, sometimes. I call that 'synching'. They're a part of me, and the main inspiration for... Everything creative I do? From art, to prose, to poetry, to doing english essays on somebody else's 'Figment' because I felt like it. This may not be my absolute best poem but, I definitely felt with it. And that's why I love, and wrote about, this topic.

Quiet Heart's Confession

I would confess to you
A million reasons why
I feel this way for you,
Each and every day.

If I was brave,
Then I'd tell you why,
I'd tell you why I cried
And why I died, inside.

If I was truly happy,
I would run up to you
And hug you and kiss you
And I would TRY for you.

If I was true to myself,
Then I'd admit that
Letting you go is futile
But I can't admit that...

My quiet heart would confess
Every tiny little secret to you,
If it meant that you would love me,
If it meant that you would hold me...

But I could never do that
In fear of being pushed away...
I love you so much, but...
Maybe we should stay friends...

*

This is the quiet confession
Of a heart, burdened with love
And maybe it's because I love you
That I have to let you go...

I wrote this piece not just for this contest but also for Daimon, who is the one I love. This piece explains that I need to tell him how I truly feel or just let him go because we will never be together. It explains that I would tell him almost anything and everything and that I would try for him because I love him. I would try to do every tiny little thing that I have or have not attempted to do because my love for him strengthens me. I would go back on everything I have ever failed and do it again and make sure I got it right, if I could, but I can't because I am not brave or strong so I should just let go of him. Secretly, I will always love him, but I do not think that risking our friendship is a good way to get everything I have ever failed at right. I just have to be content with the fact that he is my life long inspiration, he is my shoulder to lean on even if he doesn't realize that. He is my guiding light in the dark, he is my reason to live and to breathe and to write. He means the world to me but I know that we can only be friends, so I have to try and let him go, no matter how hard I know it will be.

~Dedicated to Daimon~
©opyrighted by ~NinjaGirl~

Thank you all for participating, your poems are truly magnificent, and I truly know each and every one of you through your poems.

It'll take some time to judge, so please bear with me, and my other fellow judges, I'll announce the winners 10 days from tommorrow.

This contest is offically closed.

The judging is over, and the winners of the contests are:

2nd runner up:

Evermore

1st runner up:

Spring

Winner:

Cold Shower of Paranoia

Congratulation.... Thank you for participating, its been a tough choice for both me and the judges, however we managed to pick those that truly have had a good run. The mentorships will be announced to the winners through pm...