Who wins?

*Rushes in, panting* Hope this works! It's for the second level. 

Ink of My Soul

With an excited gasp

I pulled you off the shelf

Unlocked your golden gates

And left my heart within

 

To travel to times past-

Slay fire-breathing beasts,

Wield a magic sword

Alongside knights in shining armour.

 

Or chose a magic wand

And conjure wild beasts

Or heart-wound spells

Live in a secret world.

 

Or sail along the shores

Of a masterpiece spun with words

See mystical, picturesque sights

Unreachable by human transportation.

 

You are my secret door

To the trails 

Of my mind

The lantern of an explorer

The kindling of a fireplace.

 

On the bitterest of days

You melt my heart

Like ribbons of fire

Or toasty-warm gloves.

 

The dearest, closest 

Friend-

Always there for me.

Pages of my heart

Ink of my soul.

 

Ever since the day

That I pulled you off the shelf

Unlocked your golden gates

And let my heart within.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, here are the results for the higher level:

First Place: 

Ruby M.

Second Place:

Amber

Third Place:

Cho Chang

THESE THREE PEOPLE CANNOT ENTER THE NEXT CONTEST, BECAUSE THEY WON THIS ONE. THEY CAN ENTER THE CONTEST THAT TAKES PLACE THE WEEK AFTER THE NEXT ONE, JUST NOT YHE CONTEST AFTER THE ONE THEY WON.

If you didn't win, that just means that you'll get another chance, because these people aren't entering this week's contest. 

Does anyone know where I find my friend?

My friend is far away

Come and help me search for her

We will search the day away

 

Didn't win… *sigh* At least I have another chance!

Here are the lower level winners.

1st: Over the Rainbow! I have had "friends" like that and your poem hits very close to home. I like how you alrenated lines with "You" and "Me". The last two lines were amazing: "Use your dazzling smile somewhere else. I will pop my lonely-bubble for myself". It just was that final ring, an air of defiance, the words were just… perfect. I went around reciting those lines over and over until people started looking at me weirdly. 🙂

2nd: Booksy Owly! All the other poems were about people, and I loved your creativity in making a book the friend of topic. Like in OtR's poem, the last two lines were just magic: "Unlocked your golden gates and let my heart within". That so perfectly describes the poem it gave me the chills—Good job!

3rd: Poetry Alias! I would love to know who you are as much as I love your poem! I especially like the part about inside jokes… My friends and I have those stupid things that only we get and everyone else thinks we're nuts, and your poem encompassed that perfectly. I really like the lines: "But we are the same, forever in my brain". Nice work! 

 

OHMIFREAKIN'DUMBLEDORENGANDALF!!!!!!!! I GOT THIRD PLACE!!!!! YOU JUST MADE MY DAY!!!!!

Aw. Sad I didn't win, but I will participate in the next next one, after I judge this one (masters, that is).

Sooooo…April 24 is the deadline! I can't wait to read your silence poems! 

Entering Masters again! 🙂 If this is too far off from the theme, I'll enter a new poem, but I hope this is okay.

Untitled

You think you can hear?

Just because your puny

ears

Can pick up loud,

wails

of sound?

You’re only

fooling yourself. You

can't hear

better than

a rock.

Why bother giving

you humans sound at all

When this beautiful power

is wasted

On headphones,

jammed indifferently onto ears

Howling,

Muddled,

Ugly,

Music?

Not likely.

I know what

Real music is.  

Not one person has heard

what counts

if

they haven’t fought

to hear—

Blades of grass

Swishing in the wind

A river’s chuckle as it

trips merrily over

water-shined silver stones,

I see you beings,

I watch above from my perch,

You only pick up

The most obvious cries,

Of voices,

The maddening shrieks

Of human-made noise.

I can’t bear it,

When every morning,

I awaken,

sweet music—

True music—

flowing

Like a river

Out of my heart

You never hear, you never notice

me.

Not one of you

Has heard love

Has felt power,

suffering,

triumph,

emanating from a single sound.

Unless you’ve heard

Silence,

felt the peace,

of nature.

Which, I know,

is hard in your world

When honking horns and

The grinding of wheels against

A hard, concrete curb.

I know what you are thinking.

I want music,

You protest.

I’m looking for pure quiet,

but

It doesn’t exist.

That’s true.

Absolute silence is maddening.

What I mean is

Escape from all

Human-made sound.

Even after you know this…

You haven’t looked.

I see you

I sit patiently on your windowsill,

watching,

As you try in vain

to escape.

The closet

Behind the coats,

is the wrong place,

You’ve found.

Undertones ring in your ears

Voices

The oily sizzle of mom’s

frying pan.

Even the gentle hum

of

Air conditioning.

Peace isn’t the park either.

The crunch of a peanut nut in another’s mouth

Car wheels scrape the curb

In the background.

It seems impossible.

This I understand all too well.

I stay away from your towns

If at all possible,

Preferring to rest

In tranquil nature.

But remember I said  “seems.”

But maybe,

Someday,

When you visit, possibly,

your Aunt Margaret, In

say, Maryland,   

In her rural house

By the woods.

As you whine from

Lack of electricity

Your parents might just

Shoo you out to play

In the forest.

And as you angrily shuffle

your feet among the leaves

(Sending my kind flapping nervously away)

craving internet,

deeper you wander through the trees,

Till you pause to sulk

on a log,

Unmoving in your funk.

Slowly…

Your ears fill…

With a faraway babble

Of a brook,

A robin’s quiet chirp,

the gently sigh of a breeze

as it tickles your ear

and winds around your cheeks.

Then entranced,

You pause,

Listening,

Seemingly far away

From civilization.

Slowly,

You smile and stand up

As you walk

Peacefully, happily, away

I sigh and drift off

On a breath of wind,

I laugh— Maybe

Humans

Aren’t

So deaf

After all.

 

The Fire Within

By Mei-xue Li (Not my real name)

Did you notice that if you turn your head sideways, the words look like fire? 

It roars, oh, it burns!

It roils, oh, it churns!

Leaping higher, higher, higher,

Lo! That searing, scorching, fire. 

Oh, it ignites my insides, yes, and cremates and cooks my soul.

It can fuel my acts of courage yet can burn my love like coal.

Flickering, leaping, blazing, roaring, 

Jumping, dancing, flying, soaring. 

It resides in the deepest crannies of my heart,

The way it blazes, it dances like art. 

It lives at the very shores of my shadow,

Smoking, smoking, embers aglow. 

What causes fierce bravery can also spark sin,

Behold! But beware…

The Fire Within. 

Come on guys! Tip top tippity top.