The Third Writers' Study Occasional Competition Submissions thread - Poetry-Night

[Turkafinwë]

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First page of Beowulf in Cotton Vitellius A. - provided by Kip Wheeler's homepage at Carson-Newman College

The Third Writers' Study Occasional Competition:
Poetry-Night

For this Occasional Competition, we challenge you to pull out all your creative juices and muscles and write us a poem. This competition has been requested for a long time and now it's finally here, so suprise us with your unending creativity.

- There is no theme, you're free to use your own imagination.

- Your poem can take any shape or form (whether it's a limerick, haiku, sonnet, something that doesn't follow a conventional formalized structure, etc. etc.) - but it must be poetry. The field is yours!

Rules - PLEASE READ

• No more than one entry per person.
• The submission period will last at least one month. If we have six entries after that period, voting will begin. If we have fewer than six entries after that time, the competition may be started anyway, at the discretion of the competition organiser. The submission period may be extended at the discretion of the competition organiser(s).
• The submission must not exceed a maximum of 300 words INCLUDING all titles, footnotes etc. This is the word-counter used by WS Staff to check your entries, and this is the one we will rely on when deciding whether a submission qualifies for the competition.
• Advertising the competition is allowed. Asking for votes for a particular submission is not allowed and will result in disqualification.
• This thread is for submissions only. If you want to suggest an idea for a future WS Occasional Competition, we'd love to hear it - but please post it in the Writers' Study Chat Thread!
• Writers' Study Staff have discretion to disqualify submissions where it would be unfair or inappropriate to allow them to enter. If you have a question or want to check whether an entry is eligible, please send a private message to a member of the Writers' Study Staff.
• Please note that all rules including word count will be strictly enforced. Rule breakers will be disqualified from the vote.

Awards

Each winning entry will receive 1 Writers' Study Competition point. This point will be added to the total number of points you have won from TotW and other Writers' Study competitions, and recorded in the Writers' Study Hall of Fame. When you have accumulated enough points, you will be awarded the appropriate Writers' Study Competition Medal.

• 6 points - bronze medal
• 12 points - silver medal
• 24 points - gold medal

[The Wandering Storyteller]

The shivering traveller endures


the cold blizzard


upon the Red Dragon's Mountain

[ggggtotalwarrior]

Hopelessness

She begs, she pleads
But no ears listen.
They look down from above,
Like some sort of alien tribunal.

They turn their spotlight on her,
Illuminating her in the pit of black.
Wild fear creeps across her small dark eyes,
As she braces for their attack.

There's no use being honest with them,
To have your truth turned to lies.
I hear the desperation rise in her voice,
As the tears fill her eyes.

Once they have you labeled, you'll always be wrong;
There's no use in fighting it.
Coerced to come by threats and fear,
There's no salvation to be found here.

And as her soft voice begins to crack,
She knows there is no turning back.
Because opening up, telling your life,
Leads only to more anguish and strife.

And that's how it goes for that pretty girl in psych,
Her begging and pleading for help turns to more harm.
The alien judges with their grotesque green skin,
bulging black eyes and terrifying height,
Reach down from their thrones and inject another needle in her arm.

[Turkafinwë]

A New Beginning

On a hill, sheer and tall, lonesome I stood,
for countless years I dwelled as such,
far beyond the world that lives.

Among the clouds and stars I remained,
musing about dreams far away,
losing myself in the blackened sky.

From the hill I came rolling down,
like showers that summer storms bring,
leaving behind fear and pride.

In the valley the journey begins.