Poetry competition CLOSED 20th March 2019 3:13pm
WINNER
MadameLavender
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Ravens and Poets

gothicsurrealism
Daniel Long
Thought Provoker
United States 10awards
Joined 26th Nov 2018
Forum Posts: 188

Poetry Contest

Write a Gothic style poem. Edger Allen Poe's work is excellent to look over for this.

Guidelines:
1. Two maximum submissions per poet. Collaborations accepted.
2. Poem(s) must include Gothic elements.
3. Poem(s) can be any length.
4. One month! Good luck!

Herein I've attached a Gothic poem I've submitted:


The Raven's Shrill, The poet's Echo

“In the company of imageries within my castle,
I voice for everyone my next poetic verse.
All the empty halls listen and echo my passion,
And in darkly rich verse I immerse.”

Through the courtyard, pulls up a hearse,
Beneath the arms of stone archways and hideous gargoyles –
All the ravens disperse.
The blood veining through these stone figureheads’ boils.

The coffin-conveyance disordered the black-wolfs of the court;
Heavenly light shot into their black eyes
And deep, rasping calls followed in retort.
They soon returned with their harsh, grating reprise.

Trespassers! The black flock surmised.
Their shrill shadowed the echo through these hollow halls,
The dark-suited burial conveyance led amiss of a poet’s demise.
Still, the poet’s verse calls.

Paths such as these treaded the dead poet’s caretakers,
Like old footpaths in the snow.
They foresaw a ghastly corpse, still, as soundless as open acres.
Little did they know…

The sullen ravens protested the bearer’s presence.
The pain in their knocking hearts,
As the blizzardy gusts of winter’s menace,
The black flock hovered the hearse in trepidation, till it departs.  

A melancholic tune radiated throughout the halls of the castle,
Thought the ravens it was time for their poet to depart
And behind him, they would follow his trail of light.
Lo! Then in place of squinted, teary eyes, they widely part!

Little did they know…

poet Anonymous

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poet Anonymous

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poet Anonymous

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gothicsurrealism
Daniel Long
Thought Provoker
United States 10awards
Joined 26th Nov 2018
Forum Posts: 188

Very soothing read AEMelia! Bravo!
-Daniel

MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 90awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5726

The Lace


They tore the veil from off her face,
and pick’d her eyes, behind the lace,
those raving, rabid, black-winged crows—
their motives, only they did know.

For when she set upon the ground
her footsteps, nary made a sound
‘cept for the crisping of the leaves
‘tween tooth-like graves, amid the breeze.

She came upon a certain stone
which beckoned her to kneel, alone
and place her palms upon the soil—
no time, there was, to then recoil

and make her haste back to the gate
which when she entered, sealed her fate.
“My God, my life!” in wails, she did
when pulled down in, to where they hid,

those black-winged crows, a-rave in wait
‘neath sodden earth, within the grave.
Ah, the blood, and ah, the lust
to pick and pick, they surely must

leave no flesh, no trail, no trace
of how they work within that place,
and when the banquet is all done,
she and they, become as one.

Alas! And lo, and rue the day—
she, now winged, shall fly away
and leave her lace upon the ground,
a testament to what she found.

gothicsurrealism
Daniel Long
Thought Provoker
United States 10awards
Joined 26th Nov 2018
Forum Posts: 188

Madame I must say you are an extraordinary poetess! The piece was darkly rich and velvety in its flow. Beautiful write!
-Daniel  

MadameLavender
Guardian of Shadows
United States 90awards
Joined 17th Feb 2013
Forum Posts: 5726

gothicsurrealism said:Madame I must say you are an extraordinary poetess! The piece was darkly rich and velvety in its flow. Beautiful write!
-Daniel  


Thanks so much, and great competition idea!

Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 9th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 5134

Lethean Rose (with UbiquitousVoid)

 

A sound of rain upon the water            
Washing out the world I left behind  
This morning of magenta, another  
Upon shoulders of eve, wept the light  
 
And from the stream, magnolia petals  
Dew-laden, like distant memories  
Or perhaps, like rust upon metal  
Porcelain symbols of life bereaved  
 
It hangs from my neck, still  
Iconography, beckoning my affinity  
 
Her semblance, fairest that she was  
Yet swathed in sorrow, held an ossuary  
 
And a shadowy hand in hers...  
 
And I knew that perdition was surely mine  
But of what accord do I haunt the slopes?
 
 
I long for flowing current's dream  
Of wind and rain and gentle sighs  
Upon my earthly body streams  
To have your breath within me rise  
 
Before thy soul sank shadow deep  
Within an ornate tribute room  
Thy body, bones, within its keep  
I felt your presence in this womb  
 
Like a hidden face, Lethean tapestry  
In the gasp of a moment, invection  
 
The mirror that lies that she could see  
She was paler yet  
As if birthed within its reflection  
   
I could wrap around her vapour arms  
And through her…  
 
Where we are so close, but oceans apart  
An embodiment of my surging grief
 
 
I do not wish thee stray, my lord  
To cause upon thy death this fate  
For you will find a way to go  
To Hades river Lethe's gate  
 
Thy trial will surely leave you dry  
And down upon the shore you'll kneel  
To cup the waters to imbibe  
And not remember how you feel  
   
And what remains of our Winter's white  
All stained by this equinox epitaph  
   
Snatching at the Summer where we could lie  
That our solstice never did bleed dry    
   
So far I have come to see you there  
To solemnly caress your raven hair  
   
In a fit of misery I’d never leave  
For life was just a reverie
 
   
I've seen forgetfulness set in  
On those who know not what it brings  
To quench a thirst, not where they've been  
No bell would stir a single thing  
   
If I could cross the river Styx  
I'd stay to wave thee on to me  
So I may help your mind to fix  
The tragic loss of memory  
   
Our abode…  
   
By overture of dust, crestfallen    
As you dance with death itself    
   
And you would not question why    
In the blink of an eye    
   
You feel that aura capture you    
The same aura you knew  
   
Wherein was your soliloquy    
That which I intervened!
 
   
And if there's nothing to my charms    
To will you from where Death convenes    
I'll find a way back to your arms    
In ether's netherworld between    
   
In that damp air, deserted frame    
Where daylight never felt the same    
   
Grief gave pardon to the bridge between    
My soul was the toll, my darkness gleamed    
   
For the first moment since    
We shared a glance she wouldn’t miss    
   
For in the end, bittersweet irony  
The memory was mine,   
And farewell was the kiss.
 
   
   
   
   
Note: Lethean: Of or relating to death.              
Italics: UbiquitousVoid
           
Normal: Jade-Pandora
Written by Jade-Pandora (jade tiger)
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Jade-Pandora
jade tiger
Tyrant of Words
United States 154awards
Joined 9th Nov 2015
Forum Posts: 5134

A Lasting Mist of Candles Snuffed (with UbiquitousVoid)

Here, our noctambulant kingdom  
Wherein disdain girds our lament  
As morrow was the first descent  
I’d sleep until the dream was dead  
 
The rogue from our deluge of rain  
Continued to walk dark the night  
And would each time deny the day
 
 
Out of reach from admiration  
An ire could not mask what had bled  
Nascent into lust-borne prison  
The days that festered in her head  
 
As hours passed, onset of pain  
Which gave no voice to give me sight  
A reason why, a chance to pray
 
 
I saw you there by aperture  
A listless gaze toward opal stir  
To thus avail this portrait blur  
Still winsome as you ever were  
 
Without the sun of how it was  
I lost the hands of time within
 
 
As time grew short, dissonant knell  
Our solitude had struck a bell  
 
The constant damp and dark to feign  
My lord who first had offered love  
A brilliant light, a symphony
 
 
And like plucked rose soon atrophied  
Bereft of what had nurtured it  
Devoured by the void e'er dim  
 
Poetic-twisted ligatures  
The ties that bound us in our need  
Of boney fingers' strangled creed  
 
Where did all of my powers rush?  
For I was youth in its full flush  
 
With skin of white like Dresden rim  
'Twas such that captivated him
 
 
Upon the canvas wretched ghost  
Like mirrors the eyes of failing health  
Her chiseled crevice marked the host  
Catharsis through an emptied self  
 
The days were stretched as was my flesh  
O'er features sinking into depths  
That plumbed the very death of me
 
 
A drowning will, an ecstasy  
Perverse the thrill, malignancy  
That clutched the dying heart in me  
 
And like tsunami's deepest surge  
It dragged me under from its scourge  
While sirens sang a mournful dirge
 
 
And venom ushered forth from you  
In sanguine love, I lavished you  
With vivid funerary hue  
This art that has become of you  
 
I woke into a deeper sleep  
To witness from my crypt a keep
 
 
The evil, clearer still, that bloomed  
While echoed chanting filled the room  
 
Embraced by him as cultish priest  
In preparation of a feast  
To sanctify his temple beast  
 
And quantify the list of crime  
My lord had justified from time  
 
Inscribed on pages of a tome  
While bending low his shaven dome
 
 
The deed is done, no turning back  
Disrupted shadows fade to black  
As one-by-one the candles hiss  
In darkness that I never missed  
 
A climax for an epilogue  
For it has been so very long  
 
I’d seek a pattern for the grave  
A rose to meet ivy ingrained  
        
Will e'er the night burn fast away  
The gloom that still denies the day?  
 
Beneath the earth I will run deep  
I’d pray for Hell, my soul to keep
 
 
 
fonts:  
italics: Jade-Pandora  
normal: UbiquitousVoid
Written by Jade-Pandora (jade tiger)
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poet Anonymous

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poet Anonymous

anonymouslyhere
Pariah Shadow
Dangerous Mind
United States 5awards
Joined 31st Oct 2013
Forum Posts: 1633

Darkened World Apathy

Follow me downward
Into my greatest depth
Stumbling madman
It was I, indeed it was

I drove, I lashed out
The world was dark
The people objects
And I could not
Care less

I do now, it scares me
Murder was at hand
The knife was mine
Every breathing soul
Out and about
And yes it was I
Angry and disfigured
Misunderstood

The world was dark
Lights meant nothing
Nor law, raging
Intense eyes shined
I laughed in apathy
The ruins of me
Lay in clear view
My humiliation
A lesson I suppose
My carelessness
A frightful terror
To me now, sober
The world was dark
People only objects
Yes it was I and I
Couldn't have cared less.
Written by anonymouslyhere (Pariah Shadow)
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anonymouslyhere
Pariah Shadow
Dangerous Mind
United States 5awards
Joined 31st Oct 2013
Forum Posts: 1633

Twelve Maggots on a Rose Named Lilly

Into my dreams
You enter
Merely an onlooker


Fractured skies swallow
Sky scrappers whole
Children beg to go
To the gallow

I've seen corpses dancing
To circadian rhythm
I've seen the moon and sun
Intertwine their light
And leave blind the world whole

Grief is a tune
Sickly mice dance to
Open in their rejoice
To the overwhelming
Sadness

I've seen too many things
Twelve maggots on a rose
Named Lilly
A school turned to paint
Then splashed upon a sidewalk

I've seen icy lakes in summer
Pregnant police women
Chasing ghostly childhoods
With faces of love and bitterness

Twins conjoining
Then leaping
From a great bridge

I saw a newborn
Put out her eyes
For sight of this
Her mother sighed
With a timid relief

Lovers embrace atop
A mound of half-deads
Holding on to their
Final waking breath
Awaiting fates hand
To give them to death.


Written by anonymouslyhere (Pariah Shadow)
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SatInUGal
Kumar
Dangerous Mind
United States 25awards
Joined 31st Dec 2015
Forum Posts: 941

SOUR GRAPES

The dark lady waits for me
       In her cathedral on the sea.
I will come dressed up as Satan.
        I will kneel upon one knee.
I will cry a cry like Hamlet
        When he first saw Hecuba.
I will bow down at her feet
        Betwixt Sodom and Gomorra.
I will find a paradise
        In her lovely lotus prism.
I will bring her my self-portraits
        And enjoy her masochism.
I will try to hold her smile
        As it slips between her thighs.
I will try to wriggle free
        When I'm submerged in her green eyes.
I will crumple her all up
        As she tries on three dimensions.
She will claw me like a cat
        Unloosing all of her contentions.
She will witness my forced laughter
        And she'll follow it with tears
That I will catch inside a bottle
        That will age for many years—
Yes: I'll catch them like a Pan
        Plucking, measure for measure,
Ripe fruits from an orchard
        That I'll keep as pirate treasure
In my old dusty cellar
        (For that's where I'll pine),
Dreaming cathedrals
        And drinking my wine.
Written by SatInUGal (Kumar)
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