Weekly Contest Winners - July 30, 2018!

Hard to believe we're almost rolling into August! Two clear winners this week and the site then broke a tie for the third winner. A huge congratulations to our winners: Jessica, taking the front page with "Silence Must Break the Dawn", her breathtaking acrostic filled with hope and promise of an end to darkness..... then Rosy with "Burning Buildings" packed with emotion and memories and desires for closeness.... and then Dagmar's humbling and heart-reaching piece about the struggles with depression and isolation, how we can't get through it alone. Congratulations to you all and especially the HM's! Thank you to our judges and I hope you all have an enjoyable week :)

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WINNERS:

“Silence Must Break the Dawn (Acrostic)”
by: storming dance 10 + 4 + 4 = 18 points

“Burning Buildings”
by: Rosy Cheeks And Irony 10 + 7 = 17 points

“Nightshift”
by: Dagmar Wilson = 10 points

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COMMENTS:

“Silence Must Break the Dawn (Acrostic)” by: storming dance

“I am a sucker for a form, any form. I love how a simple acrostic can read so powerfully.
Each break in-between each stanza interrupts the flow and goes against the 'rule' of an acrostic poem. I love the imagery I feel like I am there and I love the fact that each stanza is almost a poem in its own right and that's why this poem gets my 10.” (10)

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“Writing an acrostic takes practice. The more you write them, the better they become. The reason I like this one is for a couple of reasons: I like the extended metaphor and the single words between the stanzas. I know adding extra words is not prescribed but veering off the template can be refreshing and I found that to be the case. A nice touch would have been to have made the extra words to spell out a related phrase, like “allow love to conquer” – just a thought.
I found the imagery and language captivating. I clearly saw the beach, heard the cathedrals in the shell. The battle between darkness and light fought out by the sea left me quite breathless. The last stanza “DAWN” will finish this comment nicely:

Darkness' final shadows
Announcing that love truly conquers
Weaving sunlight, radiating through
Newly birthed skies.” (4)

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“Another acrostic this week that deserves to be highlighted.
the breaking words within the message on the left hand side ats creativity and I do love it when poet's add a special touch to the form.

the word usage is breathtaking- "Nature's hushed rapture
Cathedrals within seashells
Enrapture my imaginary castle"

^^^^^ MERCY these lines are pretty!

really love this elegant and unique poem!” (4)

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“Burning Buildings” by: Rosy Cheeks And Irony

"I've come back several times to read this, and I find more emotion and almost a reaffirmation of anger and unresolved questions from the absence of your father. The image and comparison to jets, then wanting to hit the skyscraper resembling your father, makes me think of the chaos of emotions that were never properly tended to when dealing with loss. The loss of memories or the ever so present "what if he apologized". Probably my favorite line was "sometimes, I am left like a misheard messiah not quite worthy of worship,"

I feel not only frustration in this piece, but a yearning and digging into your soul wondering what direction to take. If your presence will mean something to someone who only cared about absence. If we can make others care and want to make amends. A personal, emotional write." (10)

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“This is such a strong piece with such real and unique imagery and descriptions that I couldn't stop even for a little bit to pause while I was reading it. With fields of unshielded apologies, misheard messiahs, wings made from stretched out arms on a person's back and teaching one's own father how to walk - the descriptions are really unique and vivid and bring about a high sense of sadness in its every word. The poet has beautifully blended soft and dark images to form this sad piece of poetry.” (7)

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“Nightshift” by: Dagmar Wilson

“The imagery is vivid and each sentence very strong; the descriptions are dark pulling in the reader to notice the sadness and darkness in each and every word written. The Nightshift brought to me a sense of hell in a different way too when it mentioned a long hall way and fingerprints on the wall (of a certain kind of monster perhaps). Although really sad, it is beautifully written and portrays a level of strength in the writer to me to have been able to bring out feelings from inside onto paper.” (10)

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HM’S:

“Black Beach” by: Scrittore = 10 points

“Ironic That You Made Me Laugh” by: Ben Pickard = 10 points

“A life lived eventful” by: Darren = 7 points

“Free as a bird (syntuit)” by: Mr Darcy = 7 points

“July Rain (acrostic)” by: Meena Krish = 7 points

"The Judge" by: Maple Tree = 7 points

“Answers?” by: IdTakeABulletForYou = 4 points

“Come get me lover boy” by: Em = 4 points

"I met a homophobe today" by: Fenrir = 4 points

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COMMENTS:

“Black Beach” by: Scrittore

“This is a beautifully crafted poem. Filled with powerful visuals and intense, metaphoric
messages. I do love having the background for the poem but as the reader this poem allowed me to take it beyond that. Very touching and powerful poem this week!” (10)

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“Ironic That You Made Me Laugh” by: Ben Pickard

“Ben, has a real talent for formed poetry. This week he showcases 16 lines of medieval delight: clowns, jesters, fools and a knave. He uses their mischief for making people laugh and others misfortune to good effect. Told from a spectator’s perspective, he tells the sad yet funny tale: A poor soul atop a donkey, stripped naked to add to his humiliation. As they laugh, he scans the faces and sees the two laughing most of all, his cheating wife with a royal knave. The last line cuts the deepest – a cruel consolation, perhaps…If nothing else, you made me laugh.” (10)

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“A life lived eventful” by: Darren

“I like a hidden message. This poem is an acrostic, it’s hidden word, is: ‘Joyce’ the name, I presume of Darren’s Nan. I found the poem to be happy tribute to a loving and loved lady. Like a lot of people of her generation, they experienced hardship that we can only imagine. The ‘tinge’ in her eyes would have always been there, despite the fun and laughter. In her day, they would have developed tough skins, pulled together, covering wounds with the laughter of friends and family. Sadly, time brings with it, ill health – dementia strips a person of their personality. Well, for Joyce, it may have stripped many of her memories, but it did not steal her ‘chuckle’. I felt I knew this lady, just a little bit once I reached the end of this wonderful eulogy.” (7)

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“Free as a bird (syntuit)” by: Mr Darcy

“Mr Darcy has taken a tiny poem and struck a chord through as all with a blunt axe. What a way to spin such a thing as awful as cancer. To suggest it will free you from addiction is a brave thing to write and post and also a clever spin on the situation. Reading the comments I can see that he can only take the credit for the former. This poem is tiny but huge in stature. It shows the power of words that are chosen and assembled carefully.” (7)

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“July Rain (acrostic)” by: Meena Krish

“Heart gripping acrostic by Meena this week. I truly love the acrostic form and Meena captured the message beautifully, with a very pretty flow while reading. The message is relate-able to many different sorrowful moments that the reader might be experiencing and that is what is so powerful with this poem.. Meena's heartfelt memory is captivating for the reader. Just beautiful.” (7)

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"The Judge" by: Maple Tree

"This poem is heart-wrenching in that, even in this day and age, people want to critique, analyze or feel they have some authority to speak about another person and what they are going through. Your voice is powerful yet heartbreaking in this piece, that unyielding plea of a mother and a cry for others to treat her daughter with dignity and love. I hate the reality that so often, people struggling with addiction are treated as less of a human being. She is your child and a beautiful light in this world. There certainly needs to be less stigma and judgment. The part about the fallen star was especially poignant, because we need to lift others up instead of hoping they fail and trying to crucify them based on their past. You have every right to your pain, and I can only imagine how that would hurt dealing with people who think they can comment or those who think they can say it's a blessing, when they're not the mothers watching over their bird. Sending love to you." (7)

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“Answers?” by: IdTakeABulletForYou

“The turmoils of having a lost love turn into a wildfire is harsh and the poet portrays those feelings in this poem in a sad, beautiful way which kept me hooked onto it until the very end. Beginning the poem with a million questions and stating that they lead to this person and ending the poem by stating that those answers don't exist shows the great dilemma in love - everything is and everything's isn't present at the very same time - and conquering it is what can keep us going on. Beautifully written.” (4)

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“Come get me lover boy” by: Em

“I loved this, the humour in this is brilliant. You can picture the scene as you read. You are wondering 'is she toying with him?' does she find the situation 'cute' or 'flattering'. I read this and chuckled. I think it deserves an HM at least.” (4)

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"I met a homophobe today" by: Fenrir

"I can't wait for the day when society realizes believing in God is not the "norm" and that it can be discriminatory to use one's religion to decipher a person's worth and value. We are all human beings with dignity. What's sad is the fact that some people truly believe we are less simply because of our sexuality. The same could be said of if we're a different gender or race. Let people exist without making a comment about "prayer" or "repentance", as if there is anything wrong with embracing who we are. A short piece that spoke volumes, and I liked the rhymes as well as the confident short lines that portray how you wish to simply live, be treated with dignity and respect, and not treated as a disease or plague." (4)

Congratulations to our front page winners, the HM's and the nominated ones.

Thanks to judges and moderators for all their support and love towards all of us.

Thanks to maryanne for hosting the contest this week.

Let's cheer up together for rosy, Dagmar and jessica on their perfect win.

Love you all!

A hearty congratulations to all those poems highlighted this week and a genuine thank you to the judges for their time and MA for hosting.

Ben

Congrats winners and HMs thanks MA and judges for your time.

Special thanks to the judge who awarded me an HM it means a lot

Congratulations everyone!

Thank you judges and Ma <3

and Judge, thank you and hugs you

Congrats to the Winners and HMs. Good work, judges. You are entering your final month!

Thanks, MA for hosting.

Well done one and all.

Hi all :)

Congratulations to the front pagers this week, and all HMs awarded. Some brilliant and thought-provoking writing.

Thank you to all the judges, this could not get any easier, only harder to choose poets and their poetry :)

Much love
M :)x

Congrats to all winners, HMs and nominees :-) x
=^.^=

Well done everyone your wins and HM's are totally deserved.

As always respect to the mods and judges.

Craig

Congrats everyone, thanks everyone, much love for pnq family.

S