Picture Poetry Contest (...continued...)

[prendrelemick]

Some interesting and diverse entries.

Adolecent - Liked the same line rhymes. couldn't quite get the rhythm.
Pendragon - Liked it, but too "nice" for the picture I thought.
Dark Muse - The story was good but I found the language a bit too unpoetical.
Cacian - Prunes??? Apart from that, the repeating ooo noises worked well.
Kittypaws - Got the scene spot on. made me laugh.
YesNo - As usual short and pertinant.



Ok you have to find something to differentiate between poems, so the winner is Gilliat Gurgle. I liked the approach of using the girl in the background as an involved narrator, paranormal orbs though!

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Some interesting and diverse entries.

Adolecent - Liked the same line rhymes. couldn't quite get the rhythm.
Pendragon - Liked it, but too "nice" for the picture I thought.
Dark Muse - The story was good but I found the language a bit too unpoetical.
Cacian - Prunes??? Apart from that, the repeating ooo noises worked well.
Kittypaws - Got the scene spot on. made me laugh.
YesNo - As usual short and pertinant.



Ok you have to find something to differentiate between poems, so the winner is Gilliat Gurgle. I liked the approach of using the girl in the background as an involved narrator, paranormal orbs though!

I would first like to thank the Academy, bla, bla, bla.
Thanks Mick. Interesting picture selection.
It was difficult to look past the attributes in the foreground, but in the end, I was drawn to the gal in the center.


Here's the next picture, I titled it "Bonito Passages"; a series of openings in the ruins of what is now referred to as "Pueblo Bonito" at Chaco Canyon National Historic Site in New Mexico. Occupied from approximately 850 to 1200.

Here's the National Park Service link...http://www.nps.gov/chcu/historyculture/index.htm

[YesNo]

Through lined doors go light and sound
That thread the rooms with weather
And what's remaining on the ground
Now threads us all together.

[prendrelemick]

At Chaco


Itzil son of Coatl picks up a stone,
It's warm and dusty,
He weighs its possibilities,
Checks its flatness,
Judges its thickess
Checks its fitness
Decides which edge is the face,
Which is the bottom,
Which is the top,
He gauges it against the space,
He checks its match with its neighbour,
He knapps off a back corner,
So it will lie flush and sweet,
He does all this in a second,
Then he lays it.
It lies there still.

[Pendragon]

Doors Within Doors

When you open your mind to possibilities
There are doors within doors on to infinity
Seeking the truth just opens more doors
Each time that you close one will open one more
Infinite diversity in infinite combinations exist
The more that you deny them the harder they are to resist
That door that you protect, that you let no one pass
Could be the one that reveals the whole mess
Open all doors, fear not what you may discover
The answers to life are yours to uncover
But it has to start with the door open to the mind
Then open the others, who knows what you'll find!

Pendragon
(C) 6/18/2013

[Dark Muse]

Dreams of Ariadne

Fleetingly I caught
the ghost-like shape
of a girl in spectral light.

Compulsion overcame me
and I had little choice
but to follow.

She vanished
before my eyes
but her laughter beckoned
me forth.

Down through the doorways
I was led,
they appeared never ending,
as if lost within a maze
which leads nowhere.

Twisting down
archaic pathways
where secrets may never
be revealed,
guided by nothing
but a vision.

How many before
have walked these crumbling halls?
And who is the phantom girl?
What life as she lived?
And where did death find her?

I feel myself Ariadne
as I touch the stone
and my heart quickens a beat
awaiting the Minotaur
to round every corner.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Promotional "bump" and set a deadline.
Let's give it one more week to EOD Saturday 29th.
Nice entries so far btw.

[kittypaws]

Promotional "bump" and set a deadline.
Let's give it one more week to EOD Saturday 29th.
Nice entries so far btw.

Thanks! I am working on something!

kittypaws

[Melanie]

Writer's Block #2 (my first "Writer's Block" poem was in post#1282 re: photo of a canoe on 3/13/13)

illumine imaginations
from stone passages of the mind
in perpetual dimensions
of silenced echoes in time
where poetic songs lie dormant

[Adolescent09]

∃
Adol09

On my trip
to catch lost time
I found it jailed by infinity
No door opened
for no door closed
thus time repented for its
ever openness
and ever closeness
to closed as infinity dozed
while dreaming about time

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Thanks to all for your entries.
Chaco Canyon is a special place for me, full of mystery, offering quiet solitude and time to reflect on a culture that left no written record, all we have are shaped stones, artifacts, petro glyphs and oral histories passed down to their descendents.
Having walked among the walls, scrambled along the cliffs, seen the night sky so clear the Milky Way is easily tracked from horizon to horizon, it is a delight to read poems on the subject.

YesNo
A simple yet compelling thought, especially the notion of the ruins threading us together.

Prendrelemick
“…He gauges it against the space,
He checks its match with its neighbor,…”
“…It lies there still.”
Very nice, making the rocks the focal point of the poem. Itzil and Coatl? Interesting choice of names, if only they had left us clues about their language and names.

Prendragon
An entirely different approach with the motivational lesson for life.

Dark Muse
Greek mythology and the “ancient ones” of Chaco Canyon, far removed from each other in so many ways except for the common thread of mythology and its significance to each culture. I favored the 5th and 6th stanzas believing they have a stronger connection to the mystery of the place.

Melanie
Like YesNo, simple but stirring, imagining the echoes of the “ancient ones” sounding off the canyon walls.

Adolescent09
I was struck by the imagery of the first lines feeling that this is the stronger half of the poem, recalling my first “trip” there to “catch lost time”.

All are worthy, but alas only one must be chosen, one combines both the imagery of the openings and the mystery of a vanished people.

My choice is Melanie’s poem tipping the scale with these lines:

“…stone passages of the mind”
“of silenced echoes in time
where poetic songs lie dormant”

Well done.

[Pendragon]

Congrats, Melanie!

[Melanie]

Thank you so much Gilliatt (and Pendragon). The photo you posted was perfect for inspiration. Good job with that! I'll get a photo posted soon.

[Melanie]

Here is your next photo. It's a painting I did and I'll post the title below in case you don't want to be influenced by it when choosing a theme for your poem. You may feel free to interpret the painting any way you want...or you may use the title and quote below for your poem.


The title of the painting is "Deforestation". I edited out a quote for here (so that you all
wouldn't be locked into that single interpretation but that still appears on the original) is
"Thank God they cannot cut down the clouds" ~Thoreau. Feel free to use it...or not.

[YesNo]

The trees that shade the ancient native mounds
Above the swamp drained by a winding brook
That marked the way a thousand years ago
Now have a suburb to make clear their edge
And trails that take us past their mysteries
Of bear and rabbit shapes upon the ground.
Some geese rise up in graceful, morning flight.
We watch them blending with the springtime air.
They watch us, too, perhaps with peaceful wonder.