hello! i'm so sorry for posting this so late, and also please keep in mind that this is not proofread and probably has the most questionable punctuation, capitalization and grammar that you have ever seen in you life. i cannot guarantee that all of it makes sense and it is definitely Not the most articulate thing I have ever written. 

with that out of the way, OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS. how are you all so talented. this was so so hard to judge and i would give you all first place if i could <3 you all took the prompt in so many directions and every single poem was gorgeous. so without further ado:

HONORABLE MENTION - AYLES C. 

this is so good?? it’s short and sweet and i love the way you shift from describing things that are blue (sky and sea) and then in the last two lines discuss blue in a looser, more figurative sense. also, the rhyming is glorious. i really like how open ended it is? like, you could draw any connection you wanted between the sky, the sea, and the color blue and it’s up to the reader to come up with that symbolism. the exclamation point at the end really sets the tone? which is kind of a silly thing to say about the last character in your poem, but it really conveys the sweet, innocent take on blue and it’s just very lighthearted and fun and pretty. nice job :D 

HONORABLE MENTION - LUNA-STARR

LUNA THIS IS SO COOL WHAT. i love poetry about poetry. i also love the way this poem is about little things? and also the way blue becomes a tangible thing instead of just a color. even though the actual subject of the poem is very literal, i love how it’s still full of symbolism?? also, you so very eloquently describe the feeling of writing poetry and things not having to be perfect? if that makes any sense whatsoever. and i am very jealous. and that last line packs so much punch. i love good last lines. all in all this is gorgeous and i loved it and you are a wonderful poet and i’m so glad i got to read this :D (also, good to read you again!)

THIRD PLACE! - PERIWINKLE

PERI AHHH. I’m not going to lie I am absolute sucker for love poetry and this is just so very that. First of all, the references to siren song in the first stanza are genius and I love them?? and the way the tone shifts in the second stanza to a more direct “I loved you.” is just ahh. the punctuation is actually so powerful and you have caused me to completely rethink the importance of periods. and then third stanza wraps everything up so nicely? and i love the last line. i love this spin on unrequited love because it isn’t that sad. i love how the narrator is making peace with their emotions and not letting it stop them from you know, living their life. great job, peri <3 

SECOND PLACE! - WORDSONG

WORDSONG THE IMAGERY. IT’S GORGEOUS. “where the grass grows turquoise and the animals bleed a jean-jacket blue” beautiful. i love the way blue becomes a place, in a way, which really effectively communicates what blue represents without explicitly saying it?? this poem is so haunting in the best way possible. “and if you go out in the rain and really listen / you can hear what she was always trying to say.” are such powerful lines and pull the whole thing together so nicely. “she” is only ever referred to as “she” but she sounds ethereal. it kind of reminds me of a siren or la llorona (minus the child murder part) or a woman mourning herself or i don’t know. but i love it and you did such an amazing job with the prompt, wow <33 

FIRST PLACE! - ARTEMIS

ARTEMIS. THIS IS BEAUTIFUL. I especially love the lines “(i want to sail in them / like the birds)” and “lost in the wintry-white sky like a kite on a broken string” and honestly just all of it. The way you start the poem with the blue sky and go on to explain the way blue feels and end it with a line about a white sky is just. so. genius. and I love the contrast between the words “vastly” and “finite” and honestly all the contradictions. i don’t even have words. You so effectively communicate what blue means and that the narrator doesn’t have it and it is actually amazing and I’m so glad I got to read this <333 amazing job!! 

I'm... really not sure how I feel about this one. Also, I'm sorry that it's so loosely tied to the prompt, I kind of got carried away. 

~~

you know, lately i've been thinking about love,

the romantic kind.

i'm trying to imagine what it tastes like

maybe strawberry ice cream and fresh cherries

or rose petals, but I think those would taste like rot and be hard to chew.

i’m imagining because I don't know,

i’ve never had a crush (orange soda and rock candy)

or a partner (crisp apple slices and pumpkin pie).

quite unusual for a fifteen year old girl to not know what butterflies fluttering in her stomach feels like

(uncomfortable, i'd imagine, and the butterflies would bruise their wings)

for the longest time I thought that they were dormant in their cocoons

or maybe poisoned by the sludge of self-hatred that I swallow every morning with breakfast

but only now am I considering that I might not have them at all.

maybe my brain just isn't wired that way

I wouldn't mind; i've always like the aromantic flag (mint and sprite)

but I just don't know, and I can't help holding out hope that I might be wrong

and that there’s someone out there for me. 

Sometimes I feel like i'm a maiden stuck in a tower

awaiting my knight in shining armor,

the person who will save me from solitude, who'll make my heart come alive,

make me blush and giggle and lose sleep over the exact color of their eyes

and be the perfect fit for me.

but when I try to imagine them clearly

i can't get past the shiny, flawless armor

to the tangible person underneath.

I guess until they come for me i'll stay up here in my tower,

hands on the windowsill, looking down and

perhaps wondering why i’m waiting for an empty suit of armor to come rescue me in the first place. 

(and i've never like the taste of strawberry ice cream)

I like never share my poetry and I rarely rhyme but I was inspired by the prompt so uh here you go~ (oh and i doubt you remember but a while back on this thread there was a person under the alias of Serpentine? yeah that was me :P)

A Different Kind of Armor

It’d have been easier if we’d fought with gleaming swords,

Easier to face the enemy, than to face your cutting words.

It’d have been easier to explain if you’d left me on a battlefield, bloodied and broken,

Because explaining my crumbling mindscape sounds to them more like joking.

Before you, life had been a stained glass window — beautiful and made to last.

Now I’m trying to assemble a suit of armor from the shards of broken glass:

My facemask: my helmet; my computer screen: a shield;

My words, my intelligence: a sword I refuse to wield.

My fortress is the schoolyard fence, topped with coils of barbed wire.

My converse sneakers grip the asphalt ground, refusing to climb higher.

But my castle may well be my prison, and my gauntlets are my shackles—

I’ll do anything to protect myself from your reverberating cackles.

You tell me that if I just took off my hard shell, I could be doing far more—

Funny, when you’re the reason that I forged this different kind of armor,

The reason that I’ve always frozen, too afraid to fight or run.

So I guess I ought to thank you, for the lessons I’ve hard won:

When I was younger, I thought that forever meant eternity,

Now, because of you, I know it means as long as you’re useful to me.

See, you’ve taught me, don’t open up your armor, don’t give them a chance—

Open up your armor and have your heart pierced with a lance.

Couldn't really come up with anything I liked for some reason, but I wanted to enter something-

broken Barbie

sometimes I feel like the Barbie dolls I used to play with 

when I was young - just a soulless body made of plastic 

built to be loved but also built to be used

smile melted on as I’m staring off into useless dreamy space

pretty little perfect airhead

and sometimes I forget to be a real person

sometimes I forget to take off my armor

and I hope it’s not too frustrating for you

how I’m just 

not used to needing people like this

not used to being weak

sorry