Picture Poetry Contest (...continued...)
Hello all, and welcome to the new Poetry Contest thread. This is a continuation of the much loved old thread, which any interested parties can look through here: http://www.online-literature.com/for...ad.php?t=17115
For any newbies, here's a list of the rules describing how this works:
1. The winner from the previous round will select a picture for the next round and set an appropriate deadline date for submissions (usually about two to three weeks has worked out well). The same person who selects the picture is also the judge for that round.
2. Participants then write a poem inspired by what they see in the picture for that round and submit the poem in a post to the thread before the deadline date.
3. Only one poem per person may be submitted for judging in each round.
4. The judge for each round is responsible for posting when the deadline has been reached and the contest is closed to any new submissions for that round. He/she is then responsible for selecting a winner in a (hopefully) timely fashion.
5. Once the judge for that round has posted the winner, then it is that winner's turn to select the new picture and act as judge for the next round. (Traditionally judges have given brief feedback to all participants in addition to selecting a winner).
6. This contest is designed for the purposes of having fun and exercising our poetry skills. The only prize offered is the pride of winning and the fun of getting to select the next picture and act as judge. The greatest reward, however, has proven to be the enjoyment of improving one's own poetry and the chance to read the really great contributions of others here. So join in, and have fun! :)
Envious Eye (though I'm envious too, this is supposed to be the poem's title :P)
I must say, after reading the already posted poems related to this picture, I'm positively intimidated by them, and slightly insecure of my own writing. No joking, no phony flattery. You guys are good at this, I'm just glad I've joined this forum.
Well now. My shot at it:
It's immense
(ly grand).
Immersed in perfection,
result of interaction
between genius and idle hands
(why would one wonder
at the beauty of things
if one was not rendering oneself
useless?)
There it is,
up high,
where human beings are not allowed.
We were not given wings.
We were not given anything;
we created love, and hate,
and all the shades of feeling
in between.
We created this,
this mesmerizing hymn to symmetry
this sage, century-old, all-seeing circle
mercilessly judging who is fit
to look it in the eye.
He are grand, as grand as it,
As grand as all the things in every earthly land
Built by beings such as ourselves.
We didn't have wings, we created them
And so we can fly, soaring high
even higher than the scrupulous, hideous, monstrous ceiling
envying us with all its feeling.
the sky over archbishop becket
all flesh is as light
two thousand golden apples
are a memory
a cross encircled
did the unremembered laugh
celtic to the last?
grey flowers display
masons bow beneath the sky
that their hammers wrought
shield ringed with fire
eight gates pierced with light above
what rough beast was made?
pilgrimage ends here
the century's weary hands
play a nave of swords
old stone holds old air
a thousand years of sainthood
stained glass, empty vaults
shielded from the sky
this sanctity will survive
the meaning of god
=====
Note: I think that photograph is breathtakingly, heartrendingly beautiful. I was there once.
