The Third Writers' Study Occasional Competition - The Winner!

**Turkafinwë** · February 14, 2021, 04:20 AM

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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

Poets three braved the dangers of lyrical writing and were all found worthy. The voters loved each and one of them yet in the end only one can take the top spot. A dark and grim tale the winner's poem tells - a tale that awakens emotion in the most stoic of men. Congratulations ggggtotalwarrior on your well-deserved win. For his win ggggtotalwarrior receives one competition point bringing his total to two.

Here's ggggtotalwarrior winning poem:

The Third Writers' Study Occasional Competition - Winner
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.

Thank you to everyone who entered and everyone who voted in our Third Occasional Competition.

Keep your eyes open for the Fourth Occasional Competition - it could appear at any time!

**Alwyn** · February 14, 2021, 06:55 AM

Congratulationsto the winner! Thanks to all who entered, and to Turk for running the competition.

**Kilo11** · February 14, 2021, 09:41 AM

This was a really good poem Geggy. I am not one for poetry myself, but I definitely liked the idea, the execution, and the general mood of it all.

If I were to give one little critique, the bit at the end where they are actual aliens seemed weird to me. The alien imagery at the beginning worked really well, and set an eerie and super creepy tone to it all, but for some reasons having the experimenters be actual aliens just seemed weird to me. But that's just me. You may take the point or leave it. Either way, a darn fine poem!