Poetry competition CLOSED 22nd November 2024 1:32pm
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Poem of the Month - November 2024

poet Anonymous

Poetry Contest

Three weeks to nominate your favorite DUP poems!
You have THREE weeks to nominate no more than THREE of your favorite poems from another DUP poet!

Please note the following guidelines when making nominations:

The voting for this competition is anonymous; therefore, spoken word nominations will be disqualified.

1. Self-nominations are not accepted. The great majority of the competitions here are about spotlighting one's own work on a particular topic or theme.  This is a chance to nominate that poem that you wish you had written but some other great talent here beat you to it.

2. You may nominate only THREE poems from THREE different DU members.

3. No DUPLICATE NOMINATIONS. If you nominate a poem that has already been nominated you will be asked to replace the nomination.

4. Any genre except erotica or pornography. This is a Facebook feature and we must adhere to their guidelines.  

5. Any member who is banned or disables their account PRIOR to winning will be automatically disqualified.

6. One win per member per calendar year, beginning with the month they win.

7. Please notify your nominee they have been nominated. Please make sure your nominee has not won within the last 12 months.

Current Poem of the Month Hall of Famers:

2024:
January - Styxian
February - Confluence
March - Thor_Azine
April - Indie
May -  LjDynamic
June - WillowsWhimsies
July - Nixprty
August - Shilohverse
September - Her
October - Wallyroo92

2023:
January - Styxian
February - Daniel Christensen
March -  Betty
April - DaisyGrace
May - Northern_Soul
June - Neves
July - Razzerleaf
August - _feral
September - Adelphina
October - Cipher_O
November - no comp
December - sophos

2022:
January - Luna Greyhawk
February - AspergerPoet
March - Relic-54
April - Alan-S-Jeeves
May - _feral
June - Nevermindthegaps
July - Indie
August - inechoingsilence
September - Rianne
October - Bluevelvete
November - Honoria
December - KristinaX

2021:
January - brokentitanium (k.)
February - SatinUgal
March - X
April - RiAN
May - DaisyGrace
June - Bluevelvete
July - Jemac
August -  Northern_Soul (-Missy-)
September - Joshsam
October - cold_fusion
November - Buddhakitty
December - Particles_of_HerII

2020
January - New Beginnings
February -  Edible Words
March - Madame Lavender
APRIL - Monkeyman
MAY - Timagination543
JUNE - Lepperochan ( Craic-Dealer
JULY - Strangeways_Rob
August - Daniel Christensen
September - Aspergerpoet
October - Lunagreyhawk
November - Kristinax
December - Ahavati

2019
January - Daniel Christensen
February - Sophie_Ericson
March - AudioHarleea
April - From the Ash
May - Miss_Sub
June - Naajir
July - Layla
August - Ahavati
September - Miss_Sub
October - Howling_Whelms
November - Johnny Blaze
December - Rachel_Lauren

2018
January - Lady_of_the_Quill
February -  ( Craic in a box )
March - Tinabubuya ( Tee Mali )
April - Crowfly
May - AtomicBomb
June - Miss_Sub (Missy)
July - Meadowsweet
August - Layla
September - Cold Fusion
October  - Todski28
November - TheMuse22
December - Bender

2017
January - Vee
February - Crimsin
March - Onefiftysix
April - Daniel Christensen
May - Alexander Case
June - Aemelia564
July - The Silly Sibyl (Jack Thomas Heslop)
August - Quietusquill
September - Shadoe
October - Poetsrevenge
November - Naajir
December - Poetspeak

2016
November  - John Feddeler
December - Ahavati

poet Anonymous

Flashing Lights

when the twilight is a fading glow  
beacon of life tell a tale of woe  
the star is now a distant light  
the fading glow signaling night  
 
once strong stark and bold  
standing as a sentinel with stories told  
of bravery with audacious breath  
never minding there lurks death  
 
dances of love rhythmic embrace  
not seeing shadows on fragile face  
moments not seen, lost and found  
thinking love last forever no end  
 
with the zenith of the sun  
reaper will make his stand    
a smile a wink and a guiding hand    
he takes us forward to the inevitable end    
 
II: The Beginning  
it was all based on trust  
which led to the deceit  
spoken in shadows cast  
by an unsure heart  
 
it was betrayal so bitter  
the exquisite pain so sharp  
with grace she held to her  
love songs sung with angel harp  
 
the friendship with hearts entwined  
intricate patterns emotions designed  
surface glitter in darkness lies  
truth concealed in lying eyes  
 
III: The broken Vows  
her journey long her rest were short  
kisses and hugs strewn along the way  
confetti and rice thrown outside the church  
ended vows when scene betray  
 
hearts shattered yet try again  
holding another stranger's hand  
yet again promises made ended  
kisses land on her bridesmaid  
 
the fight was short  
the battle lost  
she walked away with a broken heart  
yet again she travelled forth    
 
...footprints on the sand  
handprints on the wall  
graffiti of life  
in the walls of time...
poet Anonymous

Dreams, Streams & Waterfalls

This life has had it's way
This place has had its way with me
This loss that burns so cold
Won't back down it will never go away

These dying breaths are fading now
Seems like breathing has lost its charm
That flame i once felt inside
Seems the glow finally died

The memories i had of you
And the place where we ran through
Streams and waterfalls
The memories are fading now
Just like the strength that carried us through
Dreams and waterfalls

Is this what it will come to?
A drowning pool of hopeless heartache
A pond where memories die
Slowly drained and washed away

If i had the strength i would lift us up
If i had some more undiscovered ways
But this time it is real
This time i will surely die

This is the last goodbye
The final words of regret
This is the last goodbye before i die
poet Anonymous

I Do Not Agree With Reality

I am alive.
Open my body, what do you find?
Periods and question marks.
A useless hide.
A meat sack of trivial answers and lies.

Locks of hair entangling my mind.
Wading through emotional turmoil tides.
Combing through the who's and why's.
Leaving all of reality behind.

I'm just a cunt. Some useless meat.
Come prize me as your specialty.
I'll give you your dose of prime protein.
And fatten you with psychological schemes.

Keep me alive in your dreams.
Keep me close, don't try to hide.
Keep me wet, squeaky and clean.
Keep me exposed; opened wide.

I am alive, for you to question.
Make a statement and you are wrong.
What you think is the lesson.
I've been leading you astray all along.

I'm your world of your creation.
That cunt that always lies.
I'm the beast you're hunting for predation.
While I mimick my enemies crimes.

Open my body, what do you find?
Accusations and remarks.
You're wrong to trust your own creation.
It's your mind that's in the dark. ;)




poet Anonymous

JUDGING A POEM

I
Confess that I am among
the innumerable souls that
dare to venture into the magical
and amazing world of writing
and reading poetry.
I
use to try to write and judge
poems by syntax, grammar,
and all the rules Mrs. Know it All
taught in English 301.
I
use to read the great and
well known poets and conclude
that "I might as well forget trying
to write even a simple poem."
THEN
after years of silence but still
in the corner of my heart there
was the urge to write something,
maybe even a poem. Then one
day in a coffee shop years ago
I jotted down these words:

"I am not going to write poems
worrying about being judged by others;
neither am I going to read poems in
order to JUDGE others." I was free at last.
poet Anonymous

Awhile

colour
my heart
with your lips
it's been
fading
awhile

fill
my soul
with your fire
the embers
have cooled
awhile

touch
my skin
with your breath
it has
not felt in
awhile

hold
me close
with your arms
love has
evaded me
awhile


poet Anonymous

The false pretenses campaign

Natural men, in their awkward majesty,
descend to the lushly absurd fields of paradise,
where the spectral line of sports begins.

A peculiar ballet of limbs,
an odd assortment of sinew,
unfolds like a grotesque tapestry.

Under the surreal sun, their bodies,
partially symbiotic, partially independent,
contort and stretch in clumsy elegance.

The air thick with the irony of sweat and flowers,
a collision of the primal and the sublime.

Grunts echo like misplaced sonnets,
as they engage in the bizarre rituals
of competitive absurdity.

Every jump, every throw, an idiosyncratic gesture,
a tribute to the awkward beauty of existence.

Paradise, a haven of the perfectly imperfect,
witnesses this disjointed choreography.

The audience, a blur of indifferent spirits,
observes in bemused silence,
the incongruous spectacle,
as natural men play their endless,
bewildering games.
poet Anonymous

The Way I Love You

 

When you are not with me

You are my first thought when I wake up
My last thought before I fall asleep
You are every sip that I drink
You are the sweet fruits that I eat

You are my healing water of life
You are the cooling breeze of wind
Caressing my skin on hot summer days
You accompany me deeply rooted in my heart

When you are with me

We are completely naked
There is no holding back
I share every thought with you
Listen to you attentively

I feel your feelingso
Sense your needs
Fulfill your wishes
Even before you express them

Your skin is my canvas to write on
With my fingertips and juicy Ink
An invitation to a wild dance
Ecstatic and with burning passion

Our souls are intertwined
Our hearts beat as one
I love you unconditionally
Your body, your mind and your soul
poet Anonymous



Blood jet is poetry: after Plath

And here you come, with a cup of tea      
Wreathed in Steam.      
The blood jet is poetry,    
There is no stopping it.    
~ Plath    
     
Your poems: I feel like I enter a forest      
of toothpick trees, a rigid summer      
where shadows fossilize  
the lungs of poetry asthmatic⁠—      
wheezing air does not absorb;      
but, there is a silence here⁠—    
I do not feel alone.    
     
I seek artifacts, pooled      
in the sweating hollow of your verse    
I read and read and read    
while their prison'd orange contrasts    
the etiquette of embroidered lace⁠—  
tablecloths, crumpets and tea  
 
white-gloved pinkies  
attempting to mediate  
nervous chatter of saucers and cups      
over the infidelity of an oath⁠—    
over the drought of belief  
and drying roots of a rose bush    
     
'There is no stopping it' ⁠—  
blatantly excused ignorance  
     
I mind my manners out of respect:    
right foot over left, intentions    
shaded by a wide-brimmed hat;    
steaming skin contained    
in an apricot scarf⁠—⁠  
polished silver service    
tablecloth stiff with starch    
     
The blood jet of poetry    
a sanitary napkin in my lap⁠—    
my phallic posture smiling  
hard, and politely erect.

Written by Ahavati

poet Anonymous

Yankee Doodle Eulogy

I thought nations might learn from their mistakes  
but now I know this to be far from true  
as malice aforethought will just renew  
like venom through the fangs of deadly snakes  
and thusly have my countrymen been bit  
by premeditations of pain and death  
forevermore heard in their shibboleth  
of famed cruelty and discarded wit  
that shows my country is now dead to me  
but for that slow expiration of heart  
beating before the carcass falls apart  
in the feeding frenzy of anarchy...
now comatose here and necrotic there  
on life support...and palliative care.
poet Anonymous

darling...who is always in my prayers and complaints

it was a crowd of strangers
it was a fleeting moment
when we exchanged smiles
it was a quiet meeting
in which two worlds wanted to add colour
i left my footprints in
his courtyard
n turning away from there
spark ran through my body
to touch his rough lips
in a few seconds of meeting,
that face made its place in my eyes
my soul was touching
his soul with tenderness
his spiritual eyes
had hypnotized me
and a dripping virgin stream
starts flowing through me...
i would say
it was a pure moment
when the green-blue oceans,
laden with salty, sweet beauty,
danced to merge into one another...
poet Anonymous

Reality with no end

Always attached to her sadness
abandoned
loneliness was her best friend
forgotten by society
no one wanted to be her friend
abandoned in the corner of the silence
that is her life, every day
she hides her sorrow in a blade

In the silence of the darkness she wakes up alone again
a dream to never surrender,
a reality that has no end
poet Anonymous

Humble Me

I don’t lack ego in life
I’m stop short of conceited
In quest after Miss Poetry
in the World the same not repeated
Recluse adolescent shy cub
raised best as could by young mother
Never taught to be king
so chose a player thru struggle
Reluctant confidence self assured
Ripley believing or not
I made myself into the vintage Man I raised
chiseled in slow mastery thought
No virtuous grandeur where I stood
pebbles can’t pass before shame
Maybe was meek when I was formed
now word gets born from my name
Onto discover flight in esteem sand views
overseeing wordplay routines
Life couldn’t humble me so easy
so the Lord dissolved arrogant things
I can’t sight one direction
so I scribe one handed upwards of fore
Kobe Bryan practice rounds
is how the drive became more
Pineal panoramic roads spin
settling birds eye emotional pages to table
Mission accomplished at sign of quill release
now I reverse what I’m label
Captured in provoked tongue tied phrases
held hostage at stroke of a thumb
Chose to be genuine in architect bound by design
is where thought originates from
poet Anonymous

I Wrote of writers today, today

Wanting hearts pulse at tepid pace in fingers that run across hastily inked planes, where listless, blind, complainers feign smart and hold the word creative, claimed  
 
By straining, linking unrelated trains of thought that carry waves of brains on wheels of rot to the place where myriads of bad ideas coughed up atop the page, splash and stray, crash and break  
 
As they relate like oil spills to floors of lakes and spades to rakes, as some dig deep through soul to vibrantly paint and others' teeth take bits washed ashore, long having sat to bake, to bind and sell and though, the grind is Hell, I'm dispelled as mixed emotions flake  
 
Moments of joy, clash, with points of ache Sadness, fast to poke in, deflates sorely staged, acts of plays that gain acclaim, as they employ, contain scenes, as alien to the others words and ways and meanings chopped up and spirit splayed as the soothing aid of rain to hydrophobic blades and wasted crop, dropped neath ceilings, beige or grey to fast be dragged beneath displays by rats, untamed where authors shop for turnips  
 
With their noses turned up to 12 o'clock and papers sticking out their pockets  
next to pens they use to jot to show their couth and class and let you know they have a name and stones to throw and words just strong enough to afford to hone brash homes from crumbs they stole out the mole hills they were made  
 
Cold and unconstrained in glass abodes, insanely lacking shade, when that's the rage, is where they stay, behind walls and stronghold gates that surely hold a dozen cats and back on to pastures grazed  
 
These posers often stroll our streets, holding leering gazes and quill-tips raised at coffee shops and inns they stay in, like hand position and dismal disposition could convey that their rhymes might drip from pen at any minute and set  
the largest flame, still more ablaze, of which we'd be amazed  
 
But most are are daft and dull and born to laze and twist the truth till it's consumed by either love or hate which shapes the views and guides the reigns of reader's fates, as those who butcher stolen quotes from film and stage fill their plates by judging others through some pseudonym or actors face  
 
Some should have left night's blanket, blank  
of their designs, their constellations staunch and rank, they cheapen skies  
Messing where perfection lies  
like if Vegas strip were flown and placed  
where Atlantis sank,  
it'd be less a prize  
but no surprise, as it attracted lavish snakes to throw confetti high past scaly mouths that gaped and up to caps of ocean waves to boast to oafish sailors in every color's, every shade of sunken castles, desecrated far below their empty boats and vacant lines and  
as they whined of fish and bait the rich would sigh, There's no debate in soulless eyes  
 
And so I know, until every mystery's exposed and excavated, sold, sapped, drained and had it's corpse revived, until they're all smacked with cash to be propped back up, over sounds of ancient cries Until every effort ever made to rise above matte, mundane, and easels dry is dusted into dust and crumbled grain, polished into pixels plain like crushed crust of apple pies, those who suck at veins will go on milking wonder's pain,  
I pray some wonders  
will  
forever hide  
 
In the world resides, much insane  
 
Voices, vapid,  
choices, vain like girls who dance and rave on aging tanks, once deployed on war torn banks where very few survived, yet on they climb to have their photos taken, draped in uniforms, with phony ranks, cut at sleeves, legs and tatted waists to show their booties bounce and stomachs shake  
 
Some inhumane, are lost inside  
 
A blatant shame, like plastic money filling banks and those not thankful for summer's rays wasting in basements on sunny days  
 
Some assess the human race with no thoughts of real stakes Basic, uncreative minds focused on their estates which leads those without the parts to make a sum or thumb to grow a garden home to compelling traits, to quickly trace, to cheat, compile waste and cheap thrills to later defecate onto sacred pages without a pound of prestige being chased  
 
Potential beauty strafed, in lieu are shadows laced with ghosts of poets, most irate that keep Shakespeare rolling in his grave from cooling ears to Atlas vertebrae and back he sways  
 
Lord forbid these abhorred horrors do more than hope to fornicate and get to pass the bucks and ink to buck or doe, misshapen  
by long, being inundated  
with lazy words  
and the haze of craze over deadline dates their parents were never late with  
Children, trying to fake it, to prove they were no mistake, overflowing with goals to pop the world with the point of dull, hand me down, rapier blades  
Kids trying to save  
every, man, woman, boy and girl from so called, pitiful lives, they rate lower then their own from isolate caves, glaring at diamond rings and bones of slaves laid out in silver spoon and ivory cages, they parade in  
 
Buffoons, letting thoughts unfurl from claw foot tubs where their rubber ducks are played with as they hum to tunes and bathe, shave and rinse in their very favorite, white decadence  
from some bovine's tit, we only need a few to help save all wit, to crash the ship of pompous twits and flakes who write of tundras from shores of barely frosted lakes they won't plunge in, yet on they skate on ice that's thin and as bound to break as the binding of books which are truly great or the genius is, with no peers to help displace the massive weight of being the one inmate who still sees straight down crooked halls  
 
It's on he, the burden falls to heed the call, to demonstrate how words have the power to draw every person, big or small, in one imperfect statement It's on she, who's talent's tall to madly quake, knowing there are books and scrawls we cannot erase  
then shift a gear and change the pace with words of fate and conclusions, clear as cubes of glacier, crushed by the strength of apes  
 
The only way we can topple shelves disgraced and clean the slate, is to rise as fog through sewer grates and knock the grubs from window panes of poets, late as we grow as grapes that will not wait, or be slow to show the way though this lonely maze  
 
We need not flop complacent, cells in stasis could  
still spawn as stars in space with heroic names that shine Hell through walls, opaque, into every demon's oasis  
We can plant seeds to overtake the disease of smut, dumb, stolen glee and fake hatred  
 
I hope the world embraces those who sprain wrists, wiping stains and waste from this overpopulated, depressing, degrading, fading, once sanctimonious place that soon won't exist  
 
We few, it's chosen saviors, savor finer things, make tea to sip, then sit and quip on days more patient  
 
But maybe I'm the stick in the mud, mad from chafing and it's not the way the wind's been facing but the past, this art form finds abrasive, maybe today's works, still fresh and new, are acquired tastes and I should trap my tongue in it's old and tired, flappy gum, rudimentary case, tap my foot to drum as words plummet from broken sponges into pools of decay, as I soak in the view and quietly say

"Pass me that fool's book,
who am I to judge?"
 
poet Anonymous

This too shall pass

Autumn fields with chestnuts strewn,
Resound October's chilly tune,
Spreading down through dirt and grain,
Touching roots of sugar cane.
 
Above, where mist and shadows flee,
Squirrels will gnaw at pumpkin seeds.
As ravens harvest bits of grass,
Securing nests before snow's pass.
 
But scarecrows do and will discern
A human's passing was its turn,
Much like seasons at their start;
Soon they age and then depart.
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