Hopefully I didn't completely butcher my Spanish in here heh

-Translate WATER

Staring in 

El muy bonito Azul

The ocean and

Your eyes

I always dive right in

Your laughter drowns me

Yet I'm buoyed by your smile

When I'm in your 

Presence 

Everything feels so

Perfecto

I'm liquid around you 

Going with your flow

Is that wrong? It's just

It's hard to stay afloat

When you're gone

You are

My life source, my more than a

Bueno amigo

I see you holding back

Can't you just try and

Take a chance 

Por favor? 

Come swim with me in

El aqua de amor  

I wrote a narrative poem~

Out of eternity came forth Aqua,

The beautiful water goddess.

She looked over the Earth along with

The other deities, with a loving care

For the humans, the inhabitants of Earth.

In those days, Earth was drying up

From the heat of the sun, and the people

Begged Aqua to draw forth water upon the land.

She agreed, flowing water from her fingertips

And onto the Earth, creating lakes and streams,

Of freshwater for the humans to drink,

As well as filling oceans to make homes for

Marine animals, for the humans to admire

Or to take as food if they so wished.

The humans began to thrive in the land,

Spreading to every corner of the Earth.

They began to industrialize, turning

The sky gray with smoke, the land

Dry and poisonous, and waters polluted.

The other deities were angry, understandably so,

Yet they could not do anything, for they

Loved the humans too much to discipline them.

Aqua knew that it was up to her—otherwise,

The humans would never change if they

Were never told that they had to.

So she called up her friend Terres, who ruled

Over the land, and Terres shook the Earth

With their grand might—creating an earthquake.

 Aqua then caused ocean waters to rise up,

Crashing them into the humans’ civilizations—

A tsunami—flooding their dwellings.

Soon the humans came and asked the deities

To never again flood their homes—

Knowing that a future situation of discipline

Could arise, Aqua came up with a promise—

As long as the humans did not cause destruction

Upon the Earth, the deities would leave them

In peace for them to go on with their lives—

And although the humans would forget 

From time to time, a little discipline,

Aqua knew, would cause the humans to

Remember again their promise. 

This is a short one, but I'm quite proud of it!

waves, like dog’s tongues, 

the delicate aqua is waning with the whisker-thin moon 

they have hunted us and hurted us and now we are alone

the everest current is the heartbeat of our fleeting lives

we sing lullabies for the sun and we serenade the stars

we are star-crossed lovers of a lily-tongued romance

our souls are bleached bone white like driftwood planks

sirens warble their gold-gilded melody of deceit and death

how bittersweet these woven tales of aureate times lost

white capped waves rise to meet us; the bracken of the sea

the higher you go the worse the fall on these liquid mountains

we could never be more than a destiny to fall before we flew

the wistful sailors’ yarns nevermore than broken myths

we fear the deep and the haunted blue shattered with the tide

the salt in the air hurts to breathe into our raw aching lungs

the fire in our cloven hearts always intertwined it betrays

i’m so tired of these endless eternal forever games of playing nice 

the sea is a restless ebony maw waiting to swallow us whole

numb with the wind and empty with the endless cobalt ocean

we cried for the moon and screamed at the bitter bitter wind 

the wolfish hunger clawing and snatching at our fatigued bodies

the thrashing sea eliminates all memories of sun-kissed beaches

they poisoned our thoughts and consumed our faltering minds 

are we just another Icarus who flew too close to the burning sun?

are you just an eclipse to me, a wandering and celestial desire?

we were bound to our bane and that was our first mistake they say

so many unspoken rules and invisible boundaries that trap us 

i have tried and tried and got so far but i know it’ll never be enough

the sky burns ember with the setting sun stars falling like ashes

in an impeccable regard i no longer feel anything but illicit sorrow

the horizon snares our eyes, glossy with crystalline unshed tears 

i can feel the regretful current flow gently through our broken bodies

it was good while it lasted now it’s our time to let it all go with the tide

it was never anything more than a dreamy-hazed paradise of love

people can never get past the fact that deep inside we are still all human

we left to escape a world where we had to be okay when we won’t ever be

so now the strong aqua sweeps our devastated spirits away with the tide

don't really like this one *winces* but hey feedback would be great. also the formatting is probably gonna die when I post this... 

some days the water pours down and i am

untouchable. unshakeable, immovable.

reaching my arms up to touch the showerhead in an approximation of the

‘pencil dive’ i learned at swimming back when

i was eight. on those days the water is a memory; a photograph of

my grin. i was missing two teeth and my smile

glowed brighter than a thousand suns, even through the rain.

some days the water pours down and

over me. and i throw my worries into the drain, imagining

the little droplets are my fears and my deficiencies, feeling them

precipitate, condensate, evaporate.

plug my ears and listen to the drumbeat and feel insignificant but

never hopeless. i told someone that on a trip to new york,

three years ago. she said it was beautiful but we haven’t talked

in years.

some days the water pours down and mixes with my tears.

curled into a little ball on the cold tile floor because

it grounds you just a little more. those are the days when the heat is

turned all the way up but i am still shivering,

because the only thing that could warm me is a hug but i

do not want to be touched. blocked ears and eyes but

the relentless thrum is

overwhelming. devastating.

it tastes like sorrow. i can’t escape soon enough but

i am unable to move.

there is no memory for those days. they embody the present,

all that is left of me.

but maybe they are all the current.

some liminal space between the past and the future, 

snapshots of every evening. moving in

waves.

Whoa, y'all are so good! I really wanted to give first or second place to every single one of you, which is what everyone always says, but it's true. Congrats to everyone who entered :D

Honorable mentions:

Moon Wolf~ If this poem could be described in two words, I'd use "pretty" and "mythic". The embodiment of aqua as a "beautiful water goddess" is a fascinating interpretation, and it feels fitting that she would be powerful and decisive where the other gods weren't. I also love the worldbuilding and mythology, of course, and the idea of a narrative poem is very unique and adds a lot to it. Good work :)

Woodwind~ Honestly, I love this. I'm not sure how well I can describe it, but it's gorgeous - difficult and fluid and a depiction of the world though water. The imagery is perfect ("my smile/glowed brighter than a thousand suns, even through the rain"), and it's like a snapshot of memories and hopes and current life, all somehow linked to water. I also love the lines "i told someone that on a trip to new york,/three years ago. she said it was beautiful but we haven't talked/in years." Beautiful :)

Third place - KatanaLuna~ This is incredible. Every word is so carefully chosen, and each one shines on its own but also combines perfectly with the others. The sheer language is spectacular, and the imagery and ideas are too - "the higher you go the worse the fall on these liquid mountains" and "are you just an eclipse to me, a wandering and celestial desire?" It's perfectly woven together, and it's highly evocative of the ocean. The conclusion is also expertly done :)

Second place - Hawkstar~ There's a lighter feel here than in the other poems, and it's both partly in Spanish and about love, which are definitely points in its favor >:] The use of both languages is perfect here, and the poem feels sparkling and liquid, like the sea. The parallel between "The ocean and/Your eyes" gives nuance and double meaning to the rest of the lines, and the romance feels sweet and genuine. The play on words with "aqua" and "agua" is lovely too! (Btw, I think it's "buen amigo" instead of "bueno amigo", but that's the only error I caught - your Spanish is really good) :)

And first place... *drumroll*... WordSong! So beautiful :) It has just enough words and just enough images to give you the full picture, and it feels like you've lived it along with the narrator. It's bittersweet, happy but sad at the same time, the contrast of memories and the present - it somehow manages to capture the feeling of losing something special and remembering something better. It kind of reminds me of my grandfather, actually... anyway, congrats, you're the next judge :D

Thank you so much!

Next prompt is windows, and I'll be judging on Saturday, December 21. Good luck!

-trapped

A duck lazily drifting in the cool pond on a sticky summer day

Golden afternoon hours weeding my humble patch of earth

Reading a beautiful story in an aurate autumn spot of sun

Catching frogs to see if they were princes when I was young

Chasing wild rabbits to see if they would lead us down a hole

In a magical midsummer pursuing fireflies and mythical fae

Devouring gorgeous tales woven with magic in the pages

Drinking a warm cup of tea while reading on a dreary day

The ones that rained, we would stomp and splash in puddles

Secrets on our lips as we blew out colorful birthday candles 

Murmuring wishes to the stars and the dandelions we found

Spending hours at the library because we thirsted for books

In the spring we would try to lucklessly find green leprechauns

Make villages and forts and spaceships out of cardboard boxes

When fall rolled around we harvested tangy and sweet tomatoes

We would dance with the ravens on a whisk of the wild wind 

Light candles when the power went out and saw them flicker

Stealing our kitchen’s broomsticks so we could fly fly away 

On Christmas we wrapped lumpy handmade gifts for family

Staying up all night to see Santa’s sleigh (as we knew he was real)

We’d hold our breaths when we saw poppies so we wouldn’t sleep

We would mail letters to Grandmother on home made stationary 

Telling her to beware of wolves and little girls with red coats!

Once we wouldn’t eat apples for almost a year in fear of poison

If our shoes broke, we would leave them out for elves to fix

We would leave out tuna for the stray cats we so adored 

All Hallow’s Eve was a delight for candy and friendly tricks

We always plotted a way to turn swans back into princesses

We saw ballets with delicate dances we aspired to dance like

Cooking up rough stone soup to feed a whole town in Mama’s big pot

Grinding chalk to make pixie dust so we could fly to Neverland

We found lucky pennies by the cracked pavement lining our lawns

Together we fell in love with worn paperbacks found in bookstores

We would coax spring plants to rise out of the snowy ground 

Singing and laughing off-key in karaoke-like we always had done

I love remembering every aspect every window of our lives 

The windows we made and the windows we found together

The glass is stained

In a multitude of colors

Which tint the world

In its vision - The window

Is tall and lined with

Frozen tears - of lost hopes

And dreams long given up on - 

Which sparkle in the early

Morning light - Only frost now -

The chapel is shadowy dark -

Lit by a single candle which

Blinks like a weary eye - The

Window is the only way

I see into the world which

Mocks and scorns me - Yet

I can do nothing but watch

The world pass me by - a 

Fading - flickering ghost in

The chapel - Never aging -

And always bathed in sorrow -

No longer does joy reach

Through the cracks of the

Cold - unforgiving walls -

Which are all that grounds me -

Anchors me to this world

Which keeps my soul from

Fluttering away - like wings

Of peace - which is a butterfly  -

When? - My soul asks insistently -

When will you give up? - When

Will you let go of this world? -

But something within me keeps

Wanting to see what happens

To the world in the end - when

It is led to its own destruction - 

However - one day - the window

Will break - leaving behind

Shattered glass

Hello lovely people! Today was busier than I had anticipated it to be, and I have not gotten around to judging yet. Thank you all for your patience, and I will give my judgments tomorrow! You all did amazing.