First, I will post the overall rules, and then I will post the specifics about this week.
Original rules, as stated by Ubertuna:
It must fit the week's theme. It must be submitted by the deadline. It cannot have inappropriate language in it. It cannot be stolen (if you plagiarize, we will find you).
Also:
The poem must be created for this contest A user cannot win two weeks in a row (though everyone is welcome to submit every week!) Only one submission per user will be accepted
As we all know, the winner will recieve a merit, and their poem will be featured on the _Poetry_ page.
OK, on to this week's topic...Again, we are having a style instead of a theme. Also, this week we are having TWO WEEKS to do it, instead of the usual one. Why? Because this will be an EPIC poem. Or, rather, a parody of an epic poem. Generally, epic poetry is very long, and tells the serious story of a heroic figure. Well, this week, the epic figure is YOU! Write a long poem (I'll leave the definition of 'long' up to you, but give it a good go) about the heroic story of you! It can be silly, serious, whatever... just have fun with it. You have two weeks, so have a great time!
"Hark!" the angels cry For the Lord is approaching near. A great war before us To the end of Time.
The Devil Lucifer His armies march across the clouded sky On his way to destroy The last piece of peace.
"To arms! To arms!" All the voices cry out at once, Blood rains down from the sky And the earth trembles.
A great roar As the two armies crash A noise so great the trumpets cannot be heard The lyres and harps cannot be strummed.
Is this what they promised me? The ones with crosses and stars. I was told this would be Heaven Not a battlefield of Hell.
For the clouds are crashing to bits And the Kingdom of God crumbling. Its very foundation, the faith of the masses Is being destroyed.
A great cry rings out through the land The Devil's pitchfork is stabbed through our Lord. He falls to His knees. The Devil has won.
This is not what I was promised. Not a cemetery of hate and destruction. Clouds, pastures, and angels. Is what they told me.
The Devil has taken over His followers march upwards. While we the righteous, Are buried below.
I refuse. I will not go below the earth. I pick up a shard of cloud, My throat is slit.
The feeling of the end Comes upon my body. All around demons are laughing. I am burning up.
This is the end. The battle is finished. All of the Good Lord's followers smitten. This hurts like Heaven.
A truly fantastic piee of writing. It does lose a lot of its flow throughout the poem but I enjoyed how you turned the battle of good and evil into a dark parody.
2nd Place: nichodemus
Hopeless Romantic
My heart quivers in your soft hands, Fluttering; it beats a an uneven staccato, I was dwelling in a distant fairyland, When you squeezed out its last echo.
You played with my gullible soul, As a cat toys with a ball of string, Cunning thief, my innocent mind you stole, Into my ears sweet tunes you did sing.
I hate myself with a dark brooding, When I recall all your hollow words, That a spider spun, who were you deluding? Yet to hold a bitter grudge; that's absurd.
Because love's web still ensnares me, Forever angelic in my blind eyes, The manipulative Devil I refuse to see, This pain I'll blame on poker-face lies.
Shut out all my friends' simple advise, Every one of your critics is my enemy, Unrequited love is my one incurable vice, As my affection stews paradoxically.
I'm in Hell but my imagination conceals, Hypocritically I clutch at the irony, As your knowing smile cruelly kills, All you've spared is the gripe of misery.
Sobering thoughts of a hopeless romantic, You left me hurting like its Heaven, My love for you defies rational logic, Throbbing anguish of passions overdriven.
1st Place and Merit: FallenSky
It skims dainty like milky clouds My fingertips on your snowflake skin Along with the bland morning ether Shone through the windows with force
And as I slip ever lower on you With feints as if to gladly trouble Your flimsy thread of quaint sleep You toss and turn as I grin over
Until you finaly wake up, hesitating Upon what you should give in to The envy of pleasing your needing senses Or the ire of being secretly desired
Or both?
It pervades through the days and days The consuming in your little cage Bequeath to me that sprouting doubt In a passionate and regretful embrace
And as I possess you like many a time before Wondering if it's reasonnable The surge comes like rippling water Reminding me of those times together
Reflecting on the ephemeral pleasure While you clean the shame off yourself in the shower It was never as good as when we were together An addendum that hurts like heaven
This is perhaps one of the best pieces you've written, at least from what I've seen. The enitre thing is provocative and that aids it in its depth and sensuality. Honestly, I don't have much more to say, this is just purely excelent work.
Nicho's poem was well crafted and I enjoyed the dark selfreflection of the speaker. It can reach me on a very personal level and was a close first place. I had a hell of a time with the judging for this round to be sure.
As for the theme: Paradise Lost and the deadline is the 22.
Sorry for that guys I'm still working on papers for school.
Paradise Lost is the 12 book epic about the fall of man written by John Milton. I'm reading it in English right now so that's why it's the theme. Be creative and don't just stick to religious imagery PLEASE.
I am one of the few here who hasn't read/isn't reading it, but to add to the coincidences, on the night of the 12th, I was researching the origins of the term Lucifer for a discussion in WEPR. One of the illustrations Wiki used was from PL, which sidetracked me to reading about it, by which time MageGrayWolf already explained the point I was going to make, so I went to AMW and noticed the new contest theme.
