Step It Up!
Poetry Contest
So, the topic is epic. Open, but make it astonishingly amazing to experience! Not exactly sure how that will manifest beneath your aching fingers but you're gonna' show us all if you choose to accept the challenge being set before you, you, not me, no stinking way, not yet anyway, sure someday, whooftah, but you, you will show us in a mind-blowing, world-changing, heart-driven, enormously impressive, 'did i just write that?!!!!' epic of no less than two, yep, two thousand words and no more than infinite, (well actually go ahead, I dare you to use more than infinite, shock stone,) in which you are to naturally disperse your creative faculties via poetry onto the spacetime continuum in such a manner as to outright command an audience, and this within one calendar year, of at least a billion readers through word of mouth alone, which will begin with your posting it here in this contest, should you choose that option as opposed to say, taking the idea to an island and writing it secretly anyway only to post it on another online writer's community cyber forum, sall good. If you win votes here on FS, you only half-win; to truly win this contest your epic has to be so good it brings FS to unprecedented levels of notariety, and launches you into stardom within a year, which ain't asking much since Poe obtained stardom overnight with the Raven, a poem which has been read by billions... what, did that sting? Deal with it. It's true...well, earth-true. If it didn't sting, then you get it, cool, so write yours!
Poetry is defined as so many fleas, you be the judge of what poetry-bes,
but like a slave fearing execution at dawn for any hint of tomfoolery or sass-back whatsoever, fear (or act like you fear, or at least act like you would act if you would otherwise not act like most people would act if they were afraid, for the time being at least, all right, sheesh...) disobeying the following mandates...indeed, implement, complete, and honor them with extreme efficacy and authority...
1 - Use, along with at least ten words of twelve or more letters, at least eleven eleven letter words, at least ten ten letter words, nine nine letter words, eight eight letter words and so on down to where you are required to use at least one one letter word...and of course more is welcome, as in if you want to write the whole thing in ten or more letter words, whoopty hooya, cuz sweet, but you don't have to so go ahead and scrape the edge of the bare minimum if you like and maybe roll the dice on whether or not voters will notice, whether or not you care, love whistles.
2 - No human characters whatsoever, or reference to humanity in general, or to the planet earth. So, animals on the moon works, moons on animals may be better, better on moons and animals may be better yet, or buttering better may cause herpes to erupt on fish that will be existing awfully soon, so go nuts or stay sane, as if you know the difference anyway, and write about lots of stuff or one thing or whatever so long as you don't disregard the other mandates or this one.
3 - Dangle a belt over your shoulders around your neck during the composing of the entire thing, no matter how many settings, and don't lose the belt because if you get a new belt you have to start a new poem or the conscience fairies will gnaw on your medulla, which means if you are one word away from that bare minimum two thousand word rubicon for success and a stiff breeze sent by way of a nearby chinook wind rolling down mountains larger than hundreds of millions of noses stuffed in a fake snake blows that sucker right off your shoulders, out the window, into the trunk of my car as I'm cruising by at four sixty on my way to way beyond where your sound waves can hope to catch me, you get to pick another belt out of the closet or wherever you people keep your belts or you'll get to go purchase another one, or make one, or wish one into existence or whatever, who cares, but you'll be requiring another one, after which you will rebegin your new two thousand word minimum plus other criteria having epic, and hopefully you'll learn to close your windows, or you'll just be fine with that as is because fun, and what a training session it was to appreciate and all that, and a few more things...
4 - Believe in yourself, believe you can do this, believe that you are beyond capable of this and tell yourself two thousand words is a warmup for that which will be flooding from your heart through your body by the time you leave it to decay's domain, and tell yourself it's worth the effort because somehow love wants and needs you write it, and love will benefit from it, because it does and it does and it will; and consider your schedule, pace yourself, take notes daily and at night in between stanzas, as thoughts crop up, don't be scared to edit, don't overedit, get it right, make mistakes, challenge every first instinct along the way, destroy old notions with brand new motions, and for the love of poetry, smile at least ten percent of the time you write it...
Challenge; optional...
Write another one, ten thousand words, because Spenser wrote The Faery Queen which was over a thousand pages, and Dante wrote the Divine Comedy, nuf said, Milton, Paradise Lost, Longfellow Hiawatha, The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Wilde, Coleridge and Wordsworth - The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Gunga Din - Kipling, The Eve of St. Agnes - Keats, the iambic pentameter plays written by Shake the Spear yo, etc, and when you have finished, burn, or somehow eradicate it without ever showing it to another human person, and without reading it more than once yourself when you have finished it, because poetry deserves a poem from you, as much as any number of people ever could. Write one for the Universe, for your God if you prefer, for yourself, for fun, for free. Write, write, write, write savagely. Bury it under the sea. Send it to Innisfree.
But first, email it to me ;)
I doubt I'm human you see :)
(PS - Consider checking out some of those poems I mentioned for an idea as to how ballads or epics go down, and then do your own thing, robbing that which rocks and abandoning that which summons yawning.)
It doesn't even have to be a story, or a tale, or a fable, though those would be just hunky dory, so long as humans aren't mentioned and the other aforementioneds are given the proper attentioneds, that is. Could be a stream of consciousness monologue from the perspective of a distant-near creature you will introduce us to, or even whatever, how bout that, eh, how 'bout whatever!?
*(for the technicalists, yes, humans are animals, so let's just say except for that animal, ugh, you exist so I have to type stuff is that it? And it does not mean that since the poem is not finished during the times you aren't working on it that you have to wear the belt constantly from the time you strike the first groove until you lay it to rest in your heart; it means that while you are typing or speak typing or writing or whatever you do to actually put the poem physically before us you have to wear the belt, and do something with yourself...even if you already have, are, and plan to! Anything works, but for sure, do it!)*
The contest winner will win half of the prize pool which is based on the number of entries. The second and third place winners will each share the remaining prize pool. The prize pool is currently 24.00 member dollars. There are 6 spots still open. If all open spots are used the prize pool will be 36.00 member dollars. In this contest at least 5 submissions must be made for the vote to begin.
Deadline: Contest is closed. Deadline was Wednesday, May 23, 2012.
