Since Moat still hasn't shown up, I'm taking on an emergency judging for him. Am I authorized to do so? I think so: I've emergency judged for Moat before, it has been a long time since judging was due, I was a former judge for a while, and I am unable to win since I won last time's poetry contest. So, without further ado, let's take a look at our runner-ups! Since the theme is humanity, instead of taking home metallic medals you'll be taking home some famous figures...move over Oscar!
EnterOrion--William Blake
Humanizing flow is where it begins,
Shortly after failing it starts to spin.
Yellow eyes and demon tongues,
Politicians kill each other without the guns.
Mastering spite and killing love,
Over the edge we continue to shove.
Hacking with axes and smashing with death,
We continue to choke our final breath.
The beginnings of hate are always there,
Grinning with pity it will always stare.
Listing the ways which we shall die,
Death lets out a condemning sigh.
Creating our dooms, we shall live,
Life of death, we will give.
Smashing our lies, filling with truth,
All who will die are humanity's youth.
All is lost, or so it seems,
But love and caring beings to gleam.
A final ray of hope not lost,
We will live through, but at what cost?
The roots are there, we must care,
We must work together, for life we spare.
The showings are here, formed of insanity,
Showing through is our humanity.
I couldn't help but think of the Blake mythos as I was reading this poem, which chronicled the scope of the internal conflict of humanity. It was very much like him, I think, to start pessimistically and work up to the last glimmers of hope. To call it a pessimistic start would be an understatement. The world is shrouded by hues of black and yellow and red that humanity has brought, colors of death in every level, from the physical to the moral to the spiritual. Yet it is a point that in the center of this maelstrom of death that life still clings on tenaciously. It is sheer insanity, but considerably less insane than the faults of humanity that surround it.
thisisnotanalt--Pelagius
oh, the drama, oh the fuss
what shall we throw, under the bus?
pretentious lamentation refuses to fit
what whiny emotion shall we choose to transmit?
mixing the messages you choose to send,
don't bother, MOM, I'm just playing pretend!
the sad thing is, so many aren't seeing
how wonderful it is to be a human being
Some darkness here and there does a soul good
but it's not like it makes you misunderstood
invented tortures await through each stanza
sadness like Bosco to George Costanza
to leave behind what makes us great
a hunger for knowledge to satiate
a vive we don't lose till the Pearly Gates
constant belief there's something to await
but drink too much from the fountain of youth
will do nothing besides blind you from the truth
to sour a life is so uncouth
to say humanity's bad is a gross untruth
Pelagius was a theologian in the days of the early Roman church who was chiefly known for his view that humans did not suffer from original sin, but were capable of exercising an untainted free will from every spectrum. You've written a binding, rhythmic spell of a poem, and I do not believe I fully understand all the allusions. But from what I can tell, the sentiment is similar. Humans have the power of choice, and while this means that humans are not all rotten, the big kicker is that we have the power to delude ourselves either into blind adherence (the Fountain of Youth) or into paranoia (as illustrated by Bosco and Costanza). (As it happens, that episode was the only Seinfeld I ever watched, and not even in its entirety, so I'm glad I was able to get that) But, as the poem points out, we should not let this fear of self-delusion replace our original sin as a way to live our lives as humans and exercise our freedom of choice.
JereN--Sigmund Freud
Fly away
Magicians hat stands alone,
wonder how it appeared in my home.
Something weird starting to emerge
a pink mist where I will myself submerge.
The mist starts to take shape,
what is that, maybe an ape?
But finally, it has a shape of a cloud,
I scream of joy to the world, out loud.
I hop on the cloud and fly through the window,
souring in high above with my sweet fluffy pillow.
But suddenly the cloud bursts like a ball,
and down down down...down I fall
This poem addressed a very important facet of humanity that I felt was not as prevalently addressed: the power of imagination and, connecting with the previous theme, of dreams. Although we know that other species undergo REM, and other species are capable of handling paints, there remains the distinct possibility that the latter is really what our own imaginations do to give the impression that the creatures apart from us can be anthropomorphized.
And in a way JereN's poem is much like this struggle. The magician's hat, the symbol of creative force, is capable of conjuring images that may or may not be parts of our tangible world to the point of affecting the reality of humanity. And in the final line, where we plunge through the cloud, the central conflict emerges: the continuous battle between our reality and our imaginations as humans. Very excellent job.
And the merit winner...
Teeheegirl--Carolus Linnaeus
If humans weren't humans,
Then what would we be now?
A Pig, ostrich,
Koala or cow?
If we were all cats,
In what trouble we'd be!
We'd eat all the scaly skinned
fish in the sea!
We'd be in a pickle
If we were all dogs,
No comfortable beds
We'd all sleep on logs!
If we were all pidgeons
We wouldn't be smart
We'd smash into windows,
like fast flying darts!
If we were all trees
Our lives would be long,
But we'd get knocked over
By winds oh so strong.
If I were a hippo,
I sure would be hopin'
That my monstrous mouth
Won't get stuck while it's open!
So we are humans.
Humans, we are
Each one is unique
Each one is a star.
This poem was so charming in its rhymes, its diction, and its meter that I couldn't resist. It took the idea of humanity to a much more literal version and transformed it into a poem that points out the strengths of the human race that we never seem to acknowledge until we see someone who suffers from a lack or an excess of it. A very fine job to you, Teeheegirl! Please contact a moderator for your merit.
So it's been a long time since we've had some kind of contest theme based on culinary delights, and I'm feeling hungry. But, of course, I acknowledge that my tastes may be quite different from those of other people. So, for this week, you've got two choices to choose from! Your themes to choose from are:
Italian food or
Chinese food. The deadline is
April 9, next Friday. Buon appetito, man man chi!
