Monday, March 03, 2008
High School Poetry Contest Winners!
We had a number of fabulous entries in the angsty high school poetry contest. Our winner was from Jonathon Swanburg, for this horrifying scenario:
It's dark in here
The hooks of the locker press against my skin
The world outside laughs
Must be funny
I close my eyes and pretend I'm happy.
I pretend they think I'm funny
I pretend they are my friends
I pretend it doesn't hurt
I pretend they know my name
The door swings open
Reality rushes in
My pants are wet
I pissed myself
I close my eyes
Here was our runner-up, from the Spanish Medievalist:
I have ears like Dumbo,
that catch the wind
and give me lift,
my untamed, uncombed hair
curled wildly around the bow
of my bottle bottom glasses.
I looked funny, but funny
Strange, not ha-ha.
The girls never gave me
a second look because I was funny,
smart and strange.
Eating alone with
the other outcasts, we were
never invited to the parties
or went on dates.
Prom was a fiasco I don't
care to discuss.
Nothing happened. Nothing.
Loneliness has no cure when
You are surrounded by people
who don't care--in fact,
they prefer it that way.
Honorary mentions go to EBC4 and Celebrity Luvr, whose poetry was the stuff worthy of publication in the forthcoming Razor literary magazine, HeartRazor.
Comments:
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If those years of therapy had erased my years of deep seeded pain, I guess I wouldn't have won two consecutive teen angst poetry contests, right? If only I had a time machine. I could go back and tell my 14-year old self that it will all be worth it.
I taught creative writing classes to high schoolers and these aren't far from accurate. Although, I taught at a Christian school so every fifth poem was formatted in the shape of a cross. (I took points off for that, generally).
Does runner-up mean I just get a new coaster or something? Thanks for the award and the contest. By the way, and this is for all the entrants, some of that pain is a little real for comfort.
Next you'll have to have a contest for high school art angst. There's lots of good stuff in that genre, too. (Dan Buck's poetry in the shape of a cross made me think of it . . . I've seen so much dark drawing, skulls and scythes and stuff, over the years . . . and yes, not to forget the genuine pain that produced it, as Medievalist says.)
# posted by 
: 2:45 PM
: 2:45 PM
I always liked to draw chickens killing things. Something about a giant chicken biting the head off a duck, farting tear gas, stabbing a moose with a sharpened carrot, and smashing an entire little stick figure village to bits really warms my heart.
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