2014 ILX Poetry Contest: The Captain Lorax Prize (Submissions Thread)

Deadline is October 1, please submit no more than 2 poemz

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, September 2, 2014

model of concision

here's one more why not

Darling We Are Aging

darling we are aging in mornings
wrapped around each other at dawn
like a car embracing a tree trunk.
we wander through the forests of our
barking dreams, walking off whiskey
and thirsting in our sleep as the
day bleeds in through the incense window.
an owl cries out and i open my eyes.

you immaculate lit by the stereo glow,
eyes closed and searching, searching.
the needle stuck in a loop on the
record player. the songs have
ended and now there is only your
breathing and a click, click, click.

Not really an official entry, so much as a momentary self-amusement, inspired by a thread title:

The Poetry of ILX

The poetry of ILX reviles mayonaise,
and flings its zings cornucopiously,
wears warts, sings, jigs, exhales a fetid haze,
advances ever onward, seldom flees.

The poetry of ILX honors the fire,
finds chickenbears where before none were,
seeks some sad solace in glimming The Wire,
and all around projects a sharp-edged blur.

The poetry of ILX would eulogize dead slebs,
or castigate them just as much as you might please;
it oft rejects the quiddities of debs
and cheerfully wallows in ironic sleeze.

So doth our ILX bestride this silly world
a daddy-long-legs of collosal thoughts.
But if the truth were truthfully unfurled,
it was much more poetic in The Aughts.

hey darraghmac that was great

thanks!

September 24, 2014

it is 2014 and i am in philadelphia.
but in a more profound sense i am on the internet
with you, and it is 2009, because i am not with you,
and can't be, because i lack inner resources.

wise men know when to let go,
their poems are not this frantic and enjambed.
their minds are like still reflective ponds and not
like herds of sentimental elephants, contradicting and
trampling all over what's important. but wait

i want to share something with you. it's
very stupid. it's about love. and time is a palimpsest
but it's me who's fading

into you like the song or else
i'm the one who's here.

time's a wasting. 30 days hath September and all that jazz.

HOoS I sent u an ilxmail

oh that prob didn't work tbh its an old mail

send me a fb msg?

k

HAD WE BUT WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME

October 1 in what part of the world? Darn. I have something but I'm couch-surfing until tomorrow.

Just toss it on the pile when you have a chance. At least you can be sure it will get read.

STOP ALL THE CLOCKS

lol I forgot this

yall have the stage

huh, don't we still have until the end of the day on October 1? that's the way deadlines usually work.

oh i didn't mean ~i'm unilaterally stopping the contest now~ i'm just pointing out today's the day

gonna have to bank mine for next year's since it's not quite done and i have approx 20 hrs of work to do today

xpost: ok, gotcha

no pressure now

before i sleep i'm going to type something up directly into this box and submit it (well, if i think it has a prayer against dmac's, otherwise nah)

dmac set a damned high bar, but I say he needs us as foils, so it would only be polite to oblige him by setting his stuff next to our lesser stuff that sets his off to best advantage.

Against Complete Withdrawal

negotiation phase

on soft sunny fading days
and through people
cling on, sour godhead

but in frantic aspiration
and to these events
feign lively boredom

for the mill-ground teeth
of conversations declined
frame instability a corrective

crisis phase

categorical suicide
zones and their gerundive
'must be withdrawn from'

however hover kneebent
for dysphoric relapse:
fire wilts at the joint

thrown down in
my own ash
unwoven loving

renegotiation phase

a little further back
from corneal immediacy
spaceless ambitions

recover absent breath
leave sensors responsive
heart sceneries dead slow

i am here but
there are conditions
and a terminal door

I like that

XP i pity the foil

pity the foil is ace

ok bluds in the next day or so i will put all of these into a new thread with voting opciones

.

?

deems did you miss the voting thread or something?

yeah srsly

grats on 2nd place tho

I've been on a rock with no internet it was magnificent tbh hi btw

Bummer contendo couldnt have caught this year's bus

hi! that's no way to talk about new york xp

8080 rock

hi guys sorry for my tardiness, busy weekend--can work on this shortly!

remember when we used to do these

bring that beat back imo

we useta write things in this country.

now everyones got his hand in the other guys pocketbook.

i'm already running a poll atm. someone else should start a thread!

I'm away from home rn, but when I get back I may launch a 2019 Poetry Contest, if no one has done so already.

^do it! It's National Poetry Day in the UK...

TS: Simon Armitage vs Rupi Kaur

Who pens the trvest poëtree?

always wisest to remember
though rough winds doth shake the darling buds of may
soon comes november
and dont no-one give a fuck about national poetry day

i'm game...!

OK. I did it.

2019 ILX Poetry Competition: Open Division