Autumn Contest (Poetry) – Message in a Bottle

[Tau]

The next contest theme will be ‘Message in a Bottle’.

Good luck and have fun.



* * *


Entries:

Members are allowed one entry in the poetry contest. (You are welcome to enter our prose contest as well.) Poetry entries should be submitted as posts to this thread. The competition is open to all members of Writer’s Beat, including staff.

Members are requested to refrain from commenting on entries in this posting thread. Please use the Autumn Contest Comments thread instead. That thread will remain open throughout the posting period and afterwards, and members are encouraged to let entrants know what they thought of their entries.

Word Limits:

Poetry: 40 Lines

Edits:

Once an entry has been submitted, it cannot be altered. Any work that is edited after it has been entered will be disqualified. If you feel you need to make a small alteration (a misplaced comma, a spelling error), contact a member of staff. If we feel your request is reasonable, we will make the correction on your behalf.

Close Date:

22nd September 2012, 12 midnight GMT

Judging:

Winners will be selected by means of a public vote, so you, the members of Writer’s Beat, will choose the winners.

After the closing date, a voting thread will be posted. Voting will commence on the 23rd of September and close on the 29th of September 2012, 12 midnight GMT.

* * *

Recognition:
The winning entries will be considered for publication in Writer's Beat Quarterly, subject to the approval of the editors. To increase your chances of getting published (whether you win or not), make sure your document is as error-free as possible!

Also, the member (or tying members) with the most votes will get to suggest the next contest theme!

* * *

If you have any questions about the contest, contact a staff member and we will happily answer them for you. Now sharpen your pencils, fill up your inkwells and get writing. Good Luck!

[norvbrooks]

The gasp for air
Life emits a cry
Did it choose the time
Or select the where

Better is our death
Not that of birth
Those are words of a king
Better is our last breath

How can this be
Death not our birth
Defies logic it would seem
Perfect sense you will see

Much yet to be done
Began as a clean slate
Life spent doing good deeds
Honor the Father good son

Pages with our accounts
What has been written
Life is like a message in a bottle
If He smiles that’s what counts

[ghstarks]

Autumn Longing

My mind races with words unsaid,
Every tear, a leaf, falling from me.
So thoughts of you, the day we wed,
Seem to mock, taking flight, leaving me.
Am I he, pruned, letting you go,
Gone from my limbs a love such as thee.
Each day stranded, forever more,
Idle and wanting, amiss, in a breeze.
Never, I thought, this day would come,
Abashed I pray, your return I’d seize.
But here I stand, minus my sum,
Omitting you who’d given me glee.
The thought too late, dire pain has come,
The roots I severed, I fall and I brace.
Listing, rolling, tumbling, drummed,
Each day longing for my Heart’s embrace.

[Quetzalcoatl]

To whomever should find this please,
Forward it to my darling niece.
She's the only family I have left,
To care if I'm alive or dead.
In London you will find her humble abode,
At 1600 Nottingham Road.


Dear Susana, I'm sorry to say,
By the time you get this I'll have passed away.
Tomorrow at dawn I shall end my life,
End the worry, End the strife.
Starvation shall take me before long,
And I would prefer to end my life strong.

I've been marooned on an island off India's coast,
Stranded here by an idiotic boast.
I can see the mainland, but the current is swift.
If I tried to reach it, I'd be set adrift.

I do not believe that there is anything on Earth,
Which could equal my situation, or worse.
No food, No water, No family, No friends,
Just a bottle to put this message in.

The tide is turning and I must cast this away,
With hopes of this message reaching you someday.
My house, my money, all my belongings are yours,
Please remember your Dear Uncle George.

[glyndwr99]

Notes in Dead Soldiers


Labels on the outside—

Messages inside.

Promises.

Lies.

Sleep Easy—

Respite and reprieve.

Freedom, release and renewal.

It cloaks your mind, stunts the world; you drown in blood.

Pain Relief—

I will take away your agony.

Uncoiling, un-throbbing, smoother edges.

Veins are scorched, liver is shredded; bloody stool on the bathroom floor.

Rinse and Repeat—

Sexy hair is mine to give.

You will be a shrine to women, a man-god, a hunk.

Scalp left ragged, seared, skin scraped bar; drain plugged with thick locks.

Jack Daniels—

I am strength, I am power, I am courage!

Only one small taste will unleash the macho, the rock star, the hero.

Death, decay, and venomous, stumbling words; blood and pus and bloated innards.

Labels on the outside—

Messages inside.

Promises.

Lies.

Messages in bottles; words within words,

Meanings buried deep in pain—

Body corroded by chemicals, broken by a bottle.

Words and death in bottles; pain, suffering, fear.

Messages in bottles—death in life.

[Agatha Christie]

MAROONED

Who will find my promises when they float out to sea?
Will someone, someday understand what you mean to me?

Will those words I've crafted explain my depth of feeling?
Will someone, somewhere wonder at what I am revealing?

My words of love and longing remember all your smiles
They recall every detail of a beauty that beguiles.

I think of that golden hair that left me mesmerised
The golden locks of fairy tales before my very eyes

I promised if we met again, I'd never let you go
I promised at my side you'd be in wind or rain or snow.

I asked if you'd forgive me now for my big mistake
Said I'd make it up to you whatever it may take.

For now I watch the bottle bob along the deep blue wave
My love for you will stay with me through life and to my grave

I sit here on the island sands staring out to sea
One day if I am rescued, will you come back to me?

[Loz]

The explosion of warmth
gurgles in his belly
as he stumbles
glass clinking
down abandoned cobbled streets.

But not a moments rest
from death's choir
snow stinging
his rested eyelids
as he watches
the pictures play
of the woman of his dreams.

Beautiful
she was
stepping from the mashrutka
coffee spilt
as she bent
to lay newspaper
over his face.

Yes a corpsicle
he became
born from
Petersburg
winter nights
when the message in his bottle
arrived just one shot too late.

[luckyme]

encased in glass
afloat on watery ways
reaching out with words

[Juilingstar177]

Message of the bottle
enclosed in glass
closed inside my only hope
my soul moves through
floating drifting dancing on the waves
I shadow my eyes till it vanishes
I, alone in the life's fields
can only dream

[Nacia]

messaged and wrapped
words are thus cast
spoken with fast
line after line
they write a sign
thoughts of a kind
their fate is timed
bottled inside
to float the tides
of hopes and highs

[Ethan Blake]

Flotsam words drift idly by, somewhere lost, twixt sea and sky,
hopes or prayers, pleas or cries, like jetsam, simply surfing by.
One plea one thought, tight sealed and tossed,
In a storm of words, glass sealed, less lost.
Perhaps upon some welcome shore, a listening heart may find,
the message sent, with hope and heart, and lent to time and tide.

[KBR]

dear bottle opener
first and foremost
at the front of the line
I'm oh so sorry for the empty you find

for years beyond count
I've lived in this thing
with nothing much more
than my thoughts and this ring

this ring has the power
to make wishes come true
but when I found freedom
I kept it, so you

will find nothing but empty
in the bottle you've found
but I'll leave you with this
since on your shore it ran 'ground

my years all alone have left something behind
a lesson for any willing to take mind
that alone can be lonely without this one truth
be true to your friends and lovers in youth

or the end of your days will be lonely for sure
if you live for yourself, you pour it all out
your love, your compassion, your anger, your doubt
but if you pass it around, you can share all you are

then when life runs aground at the end of your days
full of good things will your bottle then be
and friends will gather to lift it up high
we're here to the end, and tonight WE will buy!