Forums → Art, Music, and Writing → Periodic Poetry Contest - Theme: Touch of Truth (Page 390, due Jan. 28)

Is there a required number/limit of stanzas? Also, is there a required number/limit of lines per stanza?
Thanks!

No. The poems can be any length, they must follow the guidelines on the first page though.

Alas I feel somewhat bad for not giving you the merit

What was more beautiful than this
Not even my wife
LMAO!

Why? If its not good enough, than I don't deserve the merit. I will work harder.

My Private Shore

My private shore.
Far away in the distance,
an horizon separates:
Water, Earth and Air.

My private sea.
A soft breeze gently
let's the waves roll,
white-headed opals of the ocean.

My private land.
Here are peasants sweating,
tilling this soil,
to nourish their little families.

My private clouds.
Not one can touch me,
not even Malleus,
or so they say.

My private world,
All that is here is mine,
I can say. Hubris! Tell me:
what am I?

I am a god.

My Private Shore

My private shore:
Lay secret by the horizon.
A place to always adore,
A bliss never to wizen!

My private island,
A paradise in it's own;
A blessed highland
High above humanity's bemoan.

My private life,
Away from pain.
There is no strife;
Devil's attempt in vain.

My private ocean
Right in my backyard.
Protects my notion;
The Ocean, my vanguard!

My private breeze,
Soothing on my flesh.
Banishing humanity's sleaze,
Leaving my life afresh.

My private days,
The joy they bring.
Excitement they raise,
Keeping my mind keen.

My private nights,
The dark swallowing.
Cool, crisp air invites
You to my divine wallowing!

My private heaven;
My death to be refined.
A place to leaven
My tired mind.

Wow...we barely have enough entries. SUBMIT!

Wow...we barely have enough entries. SUBMIT!

Border of Tears

In my heart exists a place,
It's a place I seldom grace,
It's will is magnetic,
Its existence diametric.

There lies a sea of blood,
There lies an ocean of tears,
The spout from my eyes, a flood,
The spout from my life, my fears.

A million miles and twenty days,
I shall not ever arrive,
I walk upon the burning rays,
To get there I must strive.

I weep upon the sullen stones,
Amongst my fellow's bones,
Intrinsic is the will to live,
Beneath the clouds I writhe.

I have come to this place,
On a vacation;
To win my own race,
To survive my nation.

A world of bones of obsidian,
Crossing the ghastly meridian,
Four hundred miles and an inch,
Spinning my soul's winch.

The veins that run of molten gold,
Have turned into rotten mold,
My mind has wandered somewhere cold,
To be destroyed ten thousand fold.

On my land I watch the sea,
And finally I feel free;
I gaze into what is my soul,
And I see what was a hole.

-----------------------------------

Best poem I've ever written, ever . . . .

The cool wind whispers
Chilled songs in my ears
And the ocean's dark waves
Flood their way to the piers.

Along the winding coast lie
Pearly flecks in the sea.
Floating atop
The waves breaking free.

Rising and falling
With the silver moon's strain,
Kissing the shore;
The tides' only restraint.

The sky dims to purple,
Chasing gold from the air,
And the sun dips below
The skyline laid bare.

I view this treasure alone,
Pondering the meaning of it,
Then I realize that the meaning
Doesn't matter one bit.

My Tears Flow From Kokytos
Also entitled, The Old Man of Crete

Intro:

My tears flow from Kokytos;
Haides' river of lamentations.
My sorrows bequeth from Man's nature.
Eternal, I stand my vigil at the banks.

And through the march of and flow of time,
The cries of those who are cast here
Leap out and molest my ears,
Only adding to my sorrow that brings these tears.

Verse I: Caina

"Abel! It is I crouching at your door!
For am I not your Brother's keeper?
Alas, cursed to lie beneath the ground,
Enshrouded in my frost-white tomb."

"Your fury seven times have I come to know!
And yet, is it not true that I have done you no harm?
For cursed is the ground from which Cain worked,
Cold, hard, unforgiving; only misery sprouts here now."

Verse II: Antenora

"No respite shall you find at my people's house!
Nay, only a Panther Skin have they to offer the weary.
Only too willing am I to open the door to my enemies,
Despite the trouble they will pass on to my neighbor's house."

"For what is worth a moment's reprieve from this torment?
Not even a face that could launch Ten-Thousand Ships?
For even Ares would not save the d*mned whom the ice shackles,
Although the Shroud of Peace is absent from this hell."

Verse III: Ptolomea

"What amount of gold or silver could my freedom buy?
Better, how much does simple courage cost?
For what I perceived to be cunning and ingenuity,
Was only Eris, clad in a web of fine mist."

"How voluntarily I welcomed them into my home!
And voluntarily I slaughtered them as they dined!
Thus my betrayal is deemed a hundred-fold worse,
And I curse the day I came forth from my mother's womb!"

Verse IV: Judecca

"Frozen in my eyes lie my countless tears.
How I weep at my sin of my great betrayal!
For only I hold acclaim to the death of the Lord,
And have deserved this flaying from Satan's claws."

"For at the heart of Hell I dwell forever,
With Brutus and Cassius as my eternal friends.
And how Satan here will grind my bones,
His ears deaf to my cries, my pleas."

Coda:

And alone, I sit on my pedestal.
As eternity watches over them.
And Kokytos flows 9 times around,
Encircling this realm of Haides.

But who am I to ramble on?
As I dwell here on its icy shores.
And forever you shall find me here,
For my tears come from Kokytos.

And through the march and flow of time,

And Kokytos flows nine times around,

I would mind if it were a puddle of water
It's a place that I don't feel like a cannon fodder
I watch the waves lap the shore
This place gives me peace from its core

Misty mountains awake over yonder
I look at my haven, and I begin to ponder
Why can't others feel this surreal
But their lives are more shaky than a ships keel

I hear the cry of a blue heron
Without this place, my life would be baron
Here I can escape myself
Put the old me on a dusty shelf

I start to shuffle back to the wood
If I could start anew, I certainly should
But I can't leave my Forrest chums
From deer to fish, Daisies to mums

So that's why Im here where nature does subside
A new me is being born, the city me died
I love my private shore more than anything
I stand on the sand and begin to sing
Then my alarm clock begins to ring

Wow...we barely have enough entries. SUBMIT!

Rejoice, for I am back!
Just give me a day or two.