2016 ILX Poetry Competition

bump in the night (or late afternoon in this time zone)

deadline is JUNE 1st

!!!!!!

Feck I thought of a title but forgot it ah well

borrow one and 'repurpose' it. 'palimpsest' is always good for another go round.

That's about the palimpsest idea I ever heard

Lines wheezed on a seat, Grand Canal, Dublin

The day dawns with a sense of muscle pain
Penance of a run ran in the rain
If this the cost to reach the age of Christ
I must confess to find it overpriced

This running toward an ever-fixed mark,
A timed fool! Bent, sickened, come, pass, come.
I admit impediment, I'm set to park
My racing heart's last race is raced and done

This ageing man wants but a pastry thing
When one has final flung the final fling
To leave the young to flinging is no wrench
The only fancy fancied now is french

If truth indeed is beauty, beauty truth
If this be all we know and all we need
My once lithe body lies belying youth
I'll pass on passing on, and go to seed

^ high impact exercise

deadline is JUNE 1st

the anticipation builds

I'm going to do another one now, like right now, while stuffed with baklava and listening to Toenut

Buy me alcohol

it's ok you don't need to buy me alcohol
i've already got crystals full of ichor, stout kegs
guarding malted broths beyond compare,
cork-stoppered amphoras in the underloft

but on the off-chance you're down that way
it's spoken of an offie with golden tins
packed seven to a
~HEXAGON~
with one at centre, and these tins contain
a philtre laced with velvet booze, the very
softest alcohol upon which head was laid

if you buy me this alcohol, i'll be -
but no, there's no obligation. forget that.
no liquor truly might outmatch my hoard
for any practicable purpose. except there's one

of which is whispered little, a wooden gourd
in carriage with a stone, whose dipping is
essential. it's only sold in one major chain -
which one i do not know. finding it is hard,
buying it harder still, for what plea is this
but one whose scorning is a simple matter?

"i did not find your alcohol. but look, i brought
the 24-year islay. will this do?"
it'll have to.

very talented ppl on this thread. will assemble the poll tomorrow or over the weekend.

um hey little extension? if i get it in in like... 30 minutes?

Granted

eluviation

oh hey you’re crying
and we’ve only just met
making this a best performance that once
we’ve departed will be submitted
to a book of records where
names and dates and figures
outlive our crumbling bodies

i’ve told you about
our endless time when
minute hands walk backwards and
you’ve told me about frozen chambers
where flesh is made eternal
icy eyes that see visions
of digital carapaces carried on
glittered eyelashes of languid electric camels

it is just easier you said
to preserve your corpse for a low monthly rate
of just $29.99
than prepare your soul
but my hands are already deep in a basin
100% pure olive oil
to cleanse my sins

nor shall death brag
that in decay it discovered within my white bones
a heart you said i never had
embalm then unsex me
be not proud
caged in a frosted forever
that you will whisper psalms over my grave

as i am eaten by worms
just a vigilant statue overlooking
what is even now
barely a memory
and an empty blazed desert devoid of life
that looks back waiting waiting without end
to wake you up with soft
whispers carried across sand that echoes our poetry

I had to look up your title. that's one sweet word you've got there, sir.

ty

Treesh, since putting the poll together is more or less a straightforward copy-and-paste task, how about I do it for you? You are probably busier than I am.

That would be a big help honestly if you don't mind.

I definitely do not mind.. It's almost in the hopper, even as I write this.

POLL: 2016 ILX Poetry Competition Voting