2010 Poetry Contest POLL! congratulations poem submitters

Amnesia

I can count the seconds
Since you went away
I can count the times
I begged you to stay
I can count the times
You put me in my place
I can count forever
But I can't recall your face
Who were you to me?
Who was I to you?
Staring out the window
Staring out the door
Staring at the ceiling
Staring at the floor
Staring at the photograph
Taking all the blame
I can stare for hours
But I can't recall your name
Who were you to me?
Who was I to you?

― HI DERE

The Lucubrations Of Luca Brecel

drown down from the bedroom
no sensation, subaqueous
when all playthings are dense
anchor-strewn baize mentor
stumble then glide
like leaving a nest
tonight only one boy bears the trident
one boy falls to rest
silt-settle acrylics
cold effluvium
spin across
in shadow-congress
or tidally back
and inside each droplet is a god
particle instantly vanquishing itself
as it disappears into holes
dug by methane worms or oil workers
lined with nets to catch bathyspheres
and return them safely to the sea-bed
tonight only one boy naps
and flicking his nap are anglerfish
the shade of red you can’t see
because it’s pressurised blindness
marking dreamy channels
in the deep green
with a child’s taut assurance
he joins shots for this
hidden ecosystem
fragile to the softest kick
broken at chalky baize
mentor
friend or
cue for
insomnia
surface, O champion
and let the strands of kelp
spill from your shoulders

― acoleuthic

We never go downtown

I need cable internet access
so I can look at more furry porn,
is what I eventually said,
because the landlord said
he kind of wanted to know why there was a bucket truck
instead of the sun, something of the divine
in this exchange, like realizing suddenly
you are indifferent to God
in the middle of an orgasm.
And then, I think, a moment of silence
before grinning at the weather,
small red birds and water everywhere, what a planet,
but cold cocks
my fuzzy thoughts with his talk
of snow and late winter-
bums shit everywhere, what a disaster,
so let's just wipe our noses
and think about where does that shit go to
because a man who, you know, likes to watch
dudes dressed as animals get it on, well,
maybe he thinks in a different way
than I do, maybe he knows things. But really,
I don't know, so we just wipe our noses
and stare enigmatically at the bucket truck.
Sometimes I see other people wipe their noses on their sleeves
so now I look for the residue on most everyone and everything
but it's not always the thing you think it is
is the thing, so sometimes you've got to really think about it. He's thinking
and then he says, far off someplace,
they actually make that stuff, well, I always knew
there was a market.

― casual rigmorale

Cherish your fingers
For they may be your last
Car doors slam!
Trunks slam too!
Alligators don’t regard humans as prey
But I wouldn’t stick my leg in there

Pancreas Cancer effects 5 million children each day.

― CaptainLorax

i placed a vote but good work all imo

no stanzas for me

I actually had a dream last night that the table is the table had written a brilliant collection of poetry. I can even still picture the cover.

I haven't actually read anyone's poem yet besides the short jokey poems

lol, I just misread something in Abbott's poem as "cosmic thong"

common mistake

also lolled at cosmic thong until I realized I misread

― (e_3) (Edward III), Friday, May 21, 2010 2:42 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark

Acoleuthic, please post your other poem. I still want to read it. Heck, if anyone has a poem they want to share this is a better place than any

OK, as you asked...

Sips of Raki

tonight with lemonade
covenant love-coloured
steep to taste
then aniseed shard
sward-swarm of tender tongue

liquor your gift
my tonic bead together skin
salt-sweet once more I
throng myself your body
gridiron

from bubbled intercourse
reflecting geometry
shard invites more sips
you’re tasted nor
vibrantly recalled

its guile is time’s thud
on drunk knowledge
glass and lip
along aerial bond which
flights every lick of love

drinking to moisten
all that’s chapped
now chair-slumped man
whose fake leather clings
to your humidity

should next wind bring
slow-cooked juices
you slew yourself
gulf-kissed with a gusto
this raki is not

the above purely for ornamental purposes - please do not let it sway your vote ;)

That ornamental poem has prominent knucklebones.

Oh, and here's a nonsense poem I wrote, just by-the-by

JL ETOV

Rever of seo
Tru OY! Folort
Noces ol' L
Lah! Su OY!
JL ETOV! ton
Odu OY! FI!

It must have taken real fortitude to eschew rhyming that one.

tough decision here tbh

Bert Parks to thread! We need someone who can sing the theme to the Miss America pagent with suitable crooniferous stylings.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

voted - found it QUITE an easy decision in the end - there's a pool of about 5 from which to choose a serious winner IMO

i'm gonna vote when I can focus on reading better, but I better vote soon

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I broadly agree with the general trend of the results, except for my poem accidentally getting top billing, and acoleuthic's poem getting shut out.

nah it's fine, post 3 poems and nobody will vote; a lesson that has been learnt before (plus neither have been my best)

voted for table fwiw, dude has skillz

congrats to the triumverate

I agonized over table vs casual, glad I went with the darkhorse tho, poems about furries require care & recognition

Would have voted Hi Dere but for got #^_^#

oh hi everyone, thanks for many kind words said about my...er...words. fwiw, i didn't vote? reading over all of them again, i think i'd go with "We never go downtown." but my moods change a lot, thus explaining why i didn't vote in the first place.

i regret that i totally dropped the ball this year on the contest, but i only just recently finished a thing -- just wanted to throw a link to it here as i feel like sharing.

(i'm just posting a link because of gratuitous m/m non-consensual sexual content; consider yourself trigger warned)

SAINT SEBASTIAN, PRAY FOR US.

^^ please note that each line of the poem is an anagram of the title

strong work

That is fucking incredible.

Awesome. Am I correct in presuming that you only used letters that were in the title?

the lines (and title) are all anagrams of each other

so yes

!!!!!!!!!!

probably a good thing for purposes of vote-spread that you didn't submit that one

game = raised

is ilx user casual rigmarole a lurker? i like his one

also elmo is next level

That is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen. And yes, I'm a lurker... most of the time! *slinks back to cave*