Poetry competition CLOSED 1st November 2019 4:57pm
WINNER
PoetsRevenge
PoetsRevenge
RUNNERS-UP:
Jade-Pandora
and Heaven_sent_Kathy
Classic Corner Championship - Female Division
A Spirit That Needs Nothing
( after Wendell Berry )
And the gods are loose their powers,
and have nothing to guide by in their folly.
So piteous their pride, forgetting how it was.
They have nothing to free us from ourselves.
The aura divides, the fire eats the seasons,
turning us from false oaths and rites
that make it worse by which we embrace.
Abandon what we knew by Nature’s instincts
that now burn the scrolls of the temple,
that deem we lose our way, for nothing is simple.
So it is written where it cannot be seen.
The time is autumn in its spring —
To leave the fire’s ravage is to release
the prideful gods so we may hear
the song of the concealed making things right.
And the gods are loose their powers,
and have nothing to guide by in their folly.
So piteous their pride, forgetting how it was.
They have nothing to free us from ourselves.
The aura divides, the fire eats the seasons,
turning us from false oaths and rites
that make it worse by which we embrace.
Abandon what we knew by Nature’s instincts
that now burn the scrolls of the temple,
that deem we lose our way, for nothing is simple.
So it is written where it cannot be seen.
The time is autumn in its spring —
To leave the fire’s ravage is to release
the prideful gods so we may hear
the song of the concealed making things right.
Written by Heaven_sent_Kathy
Go To Page
The Double Image (Portraits)
'I made you to find me'
'It doesn't matter if there are wars,
the business of life continues
unless you're the one that gets it'
-Anne Sexton
I went around in circles writing the empty vernacular,
writing it out in reams until it stood for something.
The dead heart followed along, musing me.
Why are the words so empty?
They echo, those words, rat-tat-tat and ka-ching
as the hills of my mother's bounty became flattened.
Each faint pulse of her heart, a wind of the ribbon ink,
and sentences strung together becoming my
reflections of her inside my own mirroring me.
I live on the canvas that is her foreshadowing of
my own story told.
There is a tender spot within the dry hull;
it is here with her, at last, on the wall.
It would be bare without her, I would be;
no story backlights her like my own,
my fears highlighting her slow demise.
I want to die with you, Mother, I am already there
where you are fading away as I am writing of it.
This letting go we share is like a November rainstorm
soaking the yellow, flattened leaves.
It knows so intimately the tree it smothers,
knows how to cover it fully in despair,
to exhaust its remnants of summer growth.
How we knew each other in Summer
in these portraits we shared.
The joy that will be my own child
will be as I was yours in her own Summer's growth.
She will not know my voice,
she will not know this fear and dread,
this Bedlam that is your unforgiving of me
as I die before death wants me to.
The innocence of her hurts me so that
I cannot bear to stay.
The tapping keys are what remain
to overthrow my first love and
her mocking mirror of which I let go.
Together, we rot on opposite walls,
finally at ease, finally at home.
.....
(a non-entry)
'It doesn't matter if there are wars,
the business of life continues
unless you're the one that gets it'
-Anne Sexton
I went around in circles writing the empty vernacular,
writing it out in reams until it stood for something.
The dead heart followed along, musing me.
Why are the words so empty?
They echo, those words, rat-tat-tat and ka-ching
as the hills of my mother's bounty became flattened.
Each faint pulse of her heart, a wind of the ribbon ink,
and sentences strung together becoming my
reflections of her inside my own mirroring me.
I live on the canvas that is her foreshadowing of
my own story told.
There is a tender spot within the dry hull;
it is here with her, at last, on the wall.
It would be bare without her, I would be;
no story backlights her like my own,
my fears highlighting her slow demise.
I want to die with you, Mother, I am already there
where you are fading away as I am writing of it.
This letting go we share is like a November rainstorm
soaking the yellow, flattened leaves.
It knows so intimately the tree it smothers,
knows how to cover it fully in despair,
to exhaust its remnants of summer growth.
How we knew each other in Summer
in these portraits we shared.
The joy that will be my own child
will be as I was yours in her own Summer's growth.
She will not know my voice,
she will not know this fear and dread,
this Bedlam that is your unforgiving of me
as I die before death wants me to.
The innocence of her hurts me so that
I cannot bear to stay.
The tapping keys are what remain
to overthrow my first love and
her mocking mirror of which I let go.
Together, we rot on opposite walls,
finally at ease, finally at home.
.....
(a non-entry)
Written by PoetsRevenge
Go To Page
A huge THANK YOU! to all who paid tribute to the poets featured in our Classic Corner challenges these past 12 months. As in previous months, these comps are very difficult to judge, and sometimes come down to a simple typo or grammatical error breaking a tie. This month was no different. Call it emulation, we seek the essence of the classic author in the entrant's own style - not just replacing words of existing poems, but writing as though they were those classic authors ( regardless of form utilized ).
Our Classic Champions, as we like to refer to them, work HARD, and it shows in their writing. They study and deliver without any borderline plagiarism. They double-check spelling, grammar, form, guidelines, and put forth their heart into these comps. We recognize that effort and award accordingly, judging on a scale of 1-5 spelling, grammar, punctuation, form, and content - while the most important question we ask ourselves is this: Did we feel like we were reading a classic poet?
All that being said, congratulations to the following winners of the First Annual Classic Corner Championship Female Division:
QUEEN OF THE CLASSICS and FIRST PLACE: PoetsRevenge! Your entry "Just Once (Living River Of Hell)" inspired by Anne Sexton's "Just Once", and "45 Mercy St." was so reflective of her highly personal, confessional verses it was uncanny. Despite the ‘confessional’ label placed upon her poetry, I always felt she was more of a storyteller – and that’s exactly what this piece reflected. To top it off, you yourself are a storyteller through your own personal poetry. I have honestly felt the same essence from yours as Sexton and Plath. You just have that “thing”, which is one reason you’ve won so many of these classic competitions. The other is because you STUDY the poet; you leave no stone unturned in getting to know them, and continue long after the competition has ended.
QUEEN’S COURT, SECOND PLACE: Heaven_sent_Kathy! You nailed the essence of Mary Oliver with "The City, The Forest and Other Bird Songs" inspired by her poem "This Morning Again It Was in the Dusty Pines”. It captured perfectly the ability of Oliver to distance and even separate herself from society, and fall into nature despite her location. Your ending twist was an absolute delight in capturing that very essence.
QUEEN’S COURT, THIRD PLACE: Jade-Pandora Your entry inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca is clearly a representation of his flamboyant use of symbolism recurring throughout his short-lived career, as well as your signature poetic forms.
SPECIAL RECOGNITION to eswaller for her Body Love Letter tribute to Rupi Kaur, who herself would be proud of this message.
PoetsRevenge, as soon as Webmiss is available, she will award you the special trophy designed for the QUEEN of the CLASSIC CORNER CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2019! Congratulations on a well-earned crown!
A massive round of applause to everyone else who braved the Championships! And a special thank you to butters for stepping in as our third judge!
Congratulations to everyone for quality entries; thank you again for honoring the classics. We hope to see you in next year's Classic Corner Champion challenges beginning in January to honor Langston Hughes and Louise Gluck – both winners of the latest CCC poll.
Our Classic Champions, as we like to refer to them, work HARD, and it shows in their writing. They study and deliver without any borderline plagiarism. They double-check spelling, grammar, form, guidelines, and put forth their heart into these comps. We recognize that effort and award accordingly, judging on a scale of 1-5 spelling, grammar, punctuation, form, and content - while the most important question we ask ourselves is this: Did we feel like we were reading a classic poet?
All that being said, congratulations to the following winners of the First Annual Classic Corner Championship Female Division:
QUEEN OF THE CLASSICS and FIRST PLACE: PoetsRevenge! Your entry "Just Once (Living River Of Hell)" inspired by Anne Sexton's "Just Once", and "45 Mercy St." was so reflective of her highly personal, confessional verses it was uncanny. Despite the ‘confessional’ label placed upon her poetry, I always felt she was more of a storyteller – and that’s exactly what this piece reflected. To top it off, you yourself are a storyteller through your own personal poetry. I have honestly felt the same essence from yours as Sexton and Plath. You just have that “thing”, which is one reason you’ve won so many of these classic competitions. The other is because you STUDY the poet; you leave no stone unturned in getting to know them, and continue long after the competition has ended.
QUEEN’S COURT, SECOND PLACE: Heaven_sent_Kathy! You nailed the essence of Mary Oliver with "The City, The Forest and Other Bird Songs" inspired by her poem "This Morning Again It Was in the Dusty Pines”. It captured perfectly the ability of Oliver to distance and even separate herself from society, and fall into nature despite her location. Your ending twist was an absolute delight in capturing that very essence.
QUEEN’S COURT, THIRD PLACE: Jade-Pandora Your entry inspired by Federico Garcia Lorca is clearly a representation of his flamboyant use of symbolism recurring throughout his short-lived career, as well as your signature poetic forms.
SPECIAL RECOGNITION to eswaller for her Body Love Letter tribute to Rupi Kaur, who herself would be proud of this message.
PoetsRevenge, as soon as Webmiss is available, she will award you the special trophy designed for the QUEEN of the CLASSIC CORNER CHAMPIONSHIPS, 2019! Congratulations on a well-earned crown!
A massive round of applause to everyone else who braved the Championships! And a special thank you to butters for stepping in as our third judge!
Congratulations to everyone for quality entries; thank you again for honoring the classics. We hope to see you in next year's Classic Corner Champion challenges beginning in January to honor Langston Hughes and Louise Gluck – both winners of the latest CCC poll.
I am so honored to win, and I congratulate the other winners, Kathy and Jade Pandora, your entries were both excellent and showcased your study of the poets you emulated really well as well as your own styles.
Congrats also to Eswaller for your honorable mention, and thank you to Butters for helping with judging, that couldn't have been easy..
In writing my winning poem, I pictured myself standing in the same spot that Anne Sexton described in ' Just Once', which I believed to be a certain bridge between Boston and Cambridge which I know of quite well, and i also envisioned walking the streets of Boston as she described in '45 Mercy Street' . Because I had my own memories of my own real experiences connected to the poems, I was able to weave my own story into hers to create one emulating hers that was compelling and I hope, relatable. It was, perhaps, something of an extra ingredient. This is the beautiful kinship I feel toward the classic poets, that they were or are ordinary people, just like us and we can step into their shoes by writing about them and honoring them at the same time.
It makes me happy that we can collaborate on a project like the classic comps while creating themes for them that readers can find easily. I really appreciate the Webmistress for incorporating these themes into her ongoing improvements and upgrades to the site, it truly is an innovation that allows for new creative vision to thrive..
I would like to thank, most of all Ahavati and Johnny for hosting the Classic Corner series and championship, and for the encouragement to participants. You support of mine and many others work has been really enthusiastic and I really appreciate it. Its rewarding to write for an audience that enjoys your work, that makes it worthwhile and empowering, and most importantly, leads to improvement in writing skills, which is priceless. I have really enjoyed your Classic Corner series and I look forward to the upcoming ones, I hope to see everyone there
!
Congrats also to Eswaller for your honorable mention, and thank you to Butters for helping with judging, that couldn't have been easy..
In writing my winning poem, I pictured myself standing in the same spot that Anne Sexton described in ' Just Once', which I believed to be a certain bridge between Boston and Cambridge which I know of quite well, and i also envisioned walking the streets of Boston as she described in '45 Mercy Street' . Because I had my own memories of my own real experiences connected to the poems, I was able to weave my own story into hers to create one emulating hers that was compelling and I hope, relatable. It was, perhaps, something of an extra ingredient. This is the beautiful kinship I feel toward the classic poets, that they were or are ordinary people, just like us and we can step into their shoes by writing about them and honoring them at the same time.
It makes me happy that we can collaborate on a project like the classic comps while creating themes for them that readers can find easily. I really appreciate the Webmistress for incorporating these themes into her ongoing improvements and upgrades to the site, it truly is an innovation that allows for new creative vision to thrive..
I would like to thank, most of all Ahavati and Johnny for hosting the Classic Corner series and championship, and for the encouragement to participants. You support of mine and many others work has been really enthusiastic and I really appreciate it. Its rewarding to write for an audience that enjoys your work, that makes it worthwhile and empowering, and most importantly, leads to improvement in writing skills, which is priceless. I have really enjoyed your Classic Corner series and I look forward to the upcoming ones, I hope to see everyone there
! 
Thank you for the honorable mention. I have enjoyed reading everyone’s work. Rupi Kaur and her work have a special place in my heart. Congratulations to Poetsrevenge, Jade and Kathy. And thank you (as always) to Ahavati and Johnny for hosting. Looking forward to the next one.
With my thanks to our diligent supporters of the Arts, co-hosts Ahavati and JohnnyBlaze ( to which the hallmark likes of the Classic Corner series would not exists on this site ), I am honored to be part of the outcome... humbled as I am for the honor to be of our new Classic Corners’ Queen PoetsRevenge’s Court along with Kathy! I congratulate you both for always contributing entries that sets the bar at a high level !
Thus appreciating what it’s like to judge these challenges by both co-hosts and guest host our ms butters!
I thank you once again!🙏🏻
Jade ( of CCC Queen’s Court ‘19 )
Thus appreciating what it’s like to judge these challenges by both co-hosts and guest host our ms butters!
I thank you once again!🙏🏻
Jade ( of CCC Queen’s Court ‘19 )
Woot! Woot!
Winners have been posted on our site!
http://www.poeticmedics.com/classic_corner_champion_female_division.html
http://www.poeticmedics.com/classic_corner_champion_male_division.html
Avatars link directly to the winning entries!
< Ahavati & Johnny
Winners have been posted on our site!
http://www.poeticmedics.com/classic_corner_champion_female_division.html
http://www.poeticmedics.com/classic_corner_champion_male_division.html
Avatars link directly to the winning entries!
< Ahavati & JohnnyThere's no way I hoped to place in this, the first annual championship of the Classic Corners; I went on and immersed myself wholly in the very moment in my entries. My tribute to Mary Oliver was a joy for me. It took me with it, and I took the spirit of Mary by the hand as together we followed.
I'm so very honored to be sharing the podium with our first Queen of the Classics, PoetsRevenge, and with my court sister Jade - I'm surrounded by wonderful talent and abilities. And I congratulate them for what they've earned through hard work and devotion.
To hosts Ahavati and JohnnyBlaze: I've been learning so much through the CC's, I can't imagine the competitions not including them! I can't say enough, so I hope the poetry I make helps show the evidence, some of the time.
The results from everyone who entered shows how difficult it surely must be when it comes to judging. I wish to extend a thanks to the new member, butters, who helped with the championship judging. I imagine you ( Jan ) made a helpful difference.
I need to go sit down after this - I'm still dreaming. Oh, wait - I'm already sitting. So I'll see everyone again come January. Happy Holidays to you ALL till then.
Blessed and blessings,
Kathy
I'm so very honored to be sharing the podium with our first Queen of the Classics, PoetsRevenge, and with my court sister Jade - I'm surrounded by wonderful talent and abilities. And I congratulate them for what they've earned through hard work and devotion.
To hosts Ahavati and JohnnyBlaze: I've been learning so much through the CC's, I can't imagine the competitions not including them! I can't say enough, so I hope the poetry I make helps show the evidence, some of the time.
The results from everyone who entered shows how difficult it surely must be when it comes to judging. I wish to extend a thanks to the new member, butters, who helped with the championship judging. I imagine you ( Jan ) made a helpful difference.
I need to go sit down after this - I'm still dreaming. Oh, wait - I'm already sitting. So I'll see everyone again come January. Happy Holidays to you ALL till then.
Blessed and blessings,
Kathy
Heaven_sent_Kathy said:There's no way I hoped to place in this, the first annual championship of the Classic Corners; I went on and immersed myself wholly in the very moment in my entries. My tribute to Mary Oliver was a joy for me. It took me with it, and I took the spirit of Mary by the hand as together we followed.
I'm so very honored to be sharing the podium with our first Queen of the Classics, PoetsRevenge, and with my court sister Jade - I'm surrounded by wonderful talent and abilities. And I congratulate them for what they've earned through hard work and devotion.
To hosts Ahavati and JohnnyBlaze: I've been learning so much through the CC's, I can't imagine the competitions not including them! I can't say enough, so I hope the poetry I make helps show the evidence, some of the time.
The results from everyone who entered shows how difficult it surely must be when it comes to judging. I wish to extend a thanks to the new member, butters, who helped with the championship judging. I imagine you ( Jan ) made a helpful difference.
I need to go sit down after this - I'm still dreaming. Oh, wait - I'm already sitting. So I'll see everyone again come January. Happy Holidays to you ALL till then.
Blessed and blessings,
Kathyaw, i didn't do much at all, really, just offered a few opinions. but thankyou, and congrats once more :D
I'm so very honored to be sharing the podium with our first Queen of the Classics, PoetsRevenge, and with my court sister Jade - I'm surrounded by wonderful talent and abilities. And I congratulate them for what they've earned through hard work and devotion.
To hosts Ahavati and JohnnyBlaze: I've been learning so much through the CC's, I can't imagine the competitions not including them! I can't say enough, so I hope the poetry I make helps show the evidence, some of the time.
The results from everyone who entered shows how difficult it surely must be when it comes to judging. I wish to extend a thanks to the new member, butters, who helped with the championship judging. I imagine you ( Jan ) made a helpful difference.
I need to go sit down after this - I'm still dreaming. Oh, wait - I'm already sitting. So I'll see everyone again come January. Happy Holidays to you ALL till then.
Blessed and blessings,
Kathyaw, i didn't do much at all, really, just offered a few opinions. but thankyou, and congrats once more :D
