Summer Contest- Round 1

Welcome all you fun people out there who joined my contest/game :)

Remember, the whole theme of this contest is camping..every round will be related to camping in some way or another, but as always, feel free to use creative ideas in your pieces.

Round 1 is all about your neighbors!!!! If you've ever camped in a legit campground, there are tents or campers all around you with people from all over :)

How this round works...

I will be PMing all of you with a prompt. Your prompt will be about your neighbor..

For example, it may say: The annoying neighbor that thinks howling like a wolf will bring wolfs to the campground

Your poem is going to be about your neighbor.. Describe your prompt in any way you want.

Also, you'll be receiving three clues about your neighbor...all clues will be about ONE of the 10 of you that signed up.

All clues will be directly from members profiles...could be your profile pic, could be your age, what you say in your profile, the amount of awards you have, etc...

Not only do you have to write about the prompt given to you, but you must include TWO of three clues in your poem....these clues dont have to be word for word, but somehow fit them in...

Heres why...

Bonus points are available in 2 ways.

5 bonus points if you guess who you are writing about
2 bonus points if you can guess who wrote about you (obviously not received until after I post all the poems)

To sum this all up, what I want....

-A poem (any style or form) written about your campsite neighbor according to the prompt I send you.

-two of three clues mentioned in your poem about your neighbor.

- 5 points if you PM me your guess of who your person is... (one guess each) Note** You can turn in your poem and guess your person 3 days later, it does not have to be the same day...take your time and think about the clues...

You'll have 5 days to write these....there may be a 2 day extension if asked, but a 7 day MAXIMUM time limit for these poems to be turned in.

Poems due Friday July 5th (July 7th if need be)

Have fun :) Can't wait to read about your neighbors!!

Let the stalking begin!

^^ This sounds odd lol

Way to go Chelsey, a really creative contest.

EDIT: If we guess the person but turns out we guess incorrectly, are we going to know right away? or until the results are given?

I will tell you right away :)

Glad you guys are enjoying...2 people have correctly guessed.

3 poems in! glad you guys found your humorous side :)

Awwwh I missed the sign up :(

Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Thats because you dont pay attention Jen lmao

How's this comin', Chels? Are you extending?

Was just about to post and say looks like I'll be extending til the 7th since I only have half in :)

And how's this contest going?

I wanna see the poooems.

Me too!!

#1 Cumberland Camp at Night
Prompt: The neighbor who doesn't watch her 2 dogs that keep roaming and pooping in your campsite.

Distant lightning outlines clouds
as glowing bugs delight;
warm glow of log fire
illumines tents and faces
more drawn to leaping flames
and wood spirits released
than darker apparitions
beyond the ring of light.

Shadows separate from the woods
snuffling around our site -
dogs from the next spot over,
who run for the roses
to relieve their guts
under the thorns
behind our tents.

Poor Richard does not notice
and I wonder if he will
stumble into canine land mines
when he heads out to answer
nature's night time call.

Hounds return to their base camp,
for now at least,
and our fire radiates warmth
like a franklin stove
centered in this audience
of mesmerized youth.

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

#2 Where the Dusk meets the Dawn
Prompt: Constantly screaming neighbor who bickers with their family...keeping the whole campground annoyed.

Oh saintly night,
you, where the moon strolls by,
and the stars palpitate
with the blinks of the sky,
tell her, tell her her chirps
aren't songs made of light
that she ought to fly high
right where her lashes
meet the eye.

Oh holy night,
you, where the dusk meets the dawn,
and the owls screech from her cries,
tell her, tell her
she ought to embrace her eyelids tight
right before the dusk meets the dawn,
that she bickers caw instead of chants.
please just tell her,
she ought to embrace her eyelids tight
right before the dusk meets the dawn.

Oh Godly night,
You, where the silence awakes
and the peace in our sleep is found,
tell her, just tell her,
she is like a woodpecker in an oak pine
that she constantly pecks in my ear
and in my heart.

Oh worldly night
You, where the tent of my vision now lies
and where my sleep takes me to meet the sky,
tell her that she is finally legal to take a fly
that she can conquer the world
with just her smile,
but please just tell her
that first she ought to embrace her eyelids tight
right before the dusk meets the dawn.
------------

#3 Superior Advice
Prompt: annoying neighbor who keeps giving advice on how to build your tent, how to build your fire, how to grill your meat

One day, my love
surprised me with
a handmade ticket
to enter a whimsical
fort called our backyard,
he had all the camping
gear on the porch,
ready for a night
out under the stars.

Sigh...
romance at last.

As I marinated steaks
and chopped fruit for
a breezy summer salad,
he prepared our lover's den
and s'more toasting haven.

---

Without even five minutes
passing, we heard shuffling
of hedges and a croaking
"Howdy neighbors" through
the cracks of our privacy fence;
internal groans stir but with
a friendly smile.

Greetings turned into hours of
making sure the tent was properly
secured and that the zipper worked
flawlessly, so no tarantulas could waltz
their way into our cozy sleeping bags;

suggestions on which wood burns
the longest and the exact temperature
to cook steaks and which spices
made the best rub,
of course ours was the wrong kind.

The lightning bugs stirred and he
finally said he was going to hit
the mattress -

within the drifting thoughts
of staring into a cloudy night,
my love turned to me said
"maybe we should have hung
our hat in Tennessee."
-------------------------

#4 Timid
Prompt: The neighbor who keeps inviting themselves to your campground to hang out

I scratch the early mosquitoes from my calves
as I push myself forward to breathe in another
day of hiking and finding temporary
leisure.

Next to me strides a pigtailed girl
who sings her mother's favorite poetry
when blue birds perk up
and a woodpecker's echo sneaks through
our eardrums.

A need for fellowship keeps her legs
constantly moving to make room inside
my tiny shelter of safe memories.
Her house keys cling to her chest,
leaving an imprint of remembrance
as well as necessity,
and I follow her toes as they beat in tune
to a song I've never heard before,
praying someone will carry her home
soon...
so soon.

For she is like a ship that has never sailed,
prompting pilgrims to stroke her burgundy
hair, and never untie her heart from the dock.
I try to sleep on the muggy summer ground,
but I must retreat to other places for she speaks
as if we live in the nineteenth century and
should be constructing compasses
instead of campfires.

Every midnight she creeps past, hoping to steal
my dignity, watching as I braid my
thoughts together and sleep
'neath a dreamcatcher you can
hold in the palm of your hand.

But she has no dreams to hold,
so she waits until my eyes close
then zips down my tent

and steps inside,
seeking to have no more nightmares
of a home no longer in existence.
------------
#5 32
Prompt: The mom whose 4 screaming kids wake up the campground up at 5 a.m

10:00
Bedding up for the night
Head aching from the previous day
Still feeling sick after the car journey
But after sleep, I'm sure everything will be okay!

1:16
Wake up, still sick, stagger into the fresh air
Puke up my guts, kneeling on the barren ground
Acid vomit covers my clothes and hands;
I'm glad no one's around!

1:17
"'Ello, poppet" in my ear,
I turn to see who spoke
Just my luck, the campsite weirdo
Who's just standing by watching me choke

1:21
I ran away and got myself cleaned up
Now I'm back safe in my tent
Drifting quickly off to sleep again
(Now I really do feel spent!)

3:52
My eyes snap open wide,
Again I see that number
It's been hovering in my mind all day
And now disturbs my slumber

3:58
I realise now where I first saw
That number '32'
It was jotted in my poem journal
And I don't know what to do

5:00
I hear a siren! No, what is that sound?
I give a tortured sigh
Is the world intent on ruining my sleep?
I feel like I'm going to cry!

5:37
All four wailing children are finally quiet
I think they've all gone to sleep
But I'm so wide awake by this point
I resort to counting sheep

9:00
I wake, bleary eyed, feeling like I haven't slept
I crawl out of my sleeping bag and tent
Today I'm going hill climbing
And I'm beginning my ascent

9:24
That number again, that blasted '32'
In this campsite, the number matches the space
I suddenly remember, and as it so happened;
Me and my neighbour switched place!

9:25
The woman with the screaming kids
It is SHE who's in space 32
The tent that cost me most of my sleep
And was haunting my dreams too
-----------------

#6 Clanging At 2am
Prompt: The party animal who keeps the campground awake til 2 a.m

It's night time, and I feel the air
whispering upon my neck. It's crisp,
but my sleeping bag holds my dreams
and shivers snugly. Drifting,
as drifters do, I'm suddenly awaken
by a clanging voice, right outside my tent!

Ahh, twenty-one miseries piled
into one finally-legal glass.
Our party animal has decided
he prefers his whiskey on the rocks,
and his voice on a level so high
scientists would be intrigued.

So I shuffle, snuggle, and wiggle
deeper into my sleeping fortress
and pray that the liquor takes hold
of his larynx. Ahhh, the quiet at
barely 2am.
-------------

#7 Untitled
Prompt: The neighbor whose radio blasts all day and all night long

In the silence and stillness, my soul expands.
It's evening sunset, and the world around me is peach
and smells like pine.
The wind sways thr-LET ME SEE THAT BOOTY ROCK

Oh, the infinite noise begins.
This is the music that the wolves cry about,
and it's played 10 clicks too loudly.
A nearby camping resident,
whom I would love to hurl a rotten tomato at,
howls off key,
and is hopefully irritating a hungry bear -
so that a silence will be inevitable. Judge is looking over them now :) only 8 of 10 of you turned them in :)

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

#8 Untitled

The billabong booms with the kind of
blokes and bush rangers that rest bundy
on their bellies and sleep on swags with their
stoked sheilas. I have met a lot of Bogans
camping in my time, watched as they chased
wombats in their sheep skin ugg boots and
laughed at sun bleached blondes boogie boardin'
with stubbies held tightly in their
way-too-tanned hands.

I had never met pirate before but my new
neighbour calls me matey, borrowed my tiny
tinny and set sail on what he thinks is the Great
"fishface" sea. I'm not sure if he knows this but
he has split personality disorder. Yesterday he
was a poet from Canada, borrowed a pen
and paper, oh and a claw hammer,

a fishing reel... some barbecued snapper...
and today he stole my treasured makeup
so I thought he was into glamour, that was
until I saw his Pirates of the Caribbean face

sail away.

--

Prompt:
Your neighbor: The neighbor who keeps having to borrow your tools, food, extension cords, etc

I finally found the time to read ALL of these and I have to say...I'm soooo impressed. I thought some of these prompts would throw off your poetic styles but you guys pretty much nailed this....

Can anyone else spot which one is Mels?? I cant help but read the whole thing with an Australian accent lmaoooo

loved these all.

You ALL got 5 bonus points because you guessed which person your individual clues were about (which I did not list here)...

Now for an EXTRA 2 bonus points....if you can figure out which person wrote about you let me know...there are clues in these poems...it will be tougher than guessing your person!

These are literally breath-taking! Thank you Chels for everything so far and this is the hardest part..... trying to figure out which person wrote about us. I've seriously been staring at them all for ten minutes, it sure is tricky, but I'm trying to read between the lines so to speak!

Do we have to guess which poem is written about us (or with our clues..) or do we have to guess which person wrote about us? lol

Okay I am dying at the Aus poem, lmaoo.

You know what I just realized.....wow. I'm irritated now.
Since 2 people didnt write their poems, there are gonna be two people who dont have poems about them in this ....therefore its unfair to let the rest of you guess...

Maryanne sent me a guess and I was like "nope the person who wrote about you is....oh wait, they didnt turn it in"..

Ugh sorry guys. Good thing is you all got bonus points this round. lets see who it helps :)

I can tell you all what your clues were if you want though??

I'd like the see them :)

Ok..I dont have them saved, I'll go through my pm's and arrange them and post in a bit. :)

You're fine... I was looking this over and saw eight instead of ten so I see what you mean. At least everyone got the 5 bonus, that's great!

^ that is not great...I made it way too easy hahahha

I think the final two lines of # 7 are actually your own:

"Judge is looking over them now :) only 8 of 10 of you turned them in :)"

Holy crap, howd that happen lmao