z

Young Writers Society


April Madness 2019



User avatar
1227 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 147270
Reviews: 1227
Tue Apr 16, 2019 1:35 am
View Likes
alliyah says...



Here is my entry!

Spoiler! :


Image
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return
  





User avatar
51 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 67
Reviews: 51
Tue Apr 16, 2019 1:47 am
View Likes
ellasnotebook says...



I didn’t really have time to perfect anything but I like this one so here we go!

Spoiler! :

nothing short of wonderful
this life I have created
snow and dough and mistletoe and
hot anticipation

in this in between I see that
I am just too fast for me
so sit a while and study child
the grass is always green

one day it will be wonderful
I can already feel it
no more woe or moving slow or
rhymes that almost fit

it will be pure joy
no need to cover up the quiet with white noise
it will be nothing short of wonderful you'll see
just wait on me.
  





User avatar
696 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 5533
Reviews: 696
Tue Apr 16, 2019 1:55 am
View Likes
Audy says...



Spoiler! :



one in every six Americans
is born to a hospital in California-
but how many of them wear
feathered-stuffed-fedoras in rural Georgia?

I think it's the psychology-
growing up, just a girl stuffed into crowds,
just a frizzy head among a bevy of
ladies in spin class, reading clubs,
tea parties and youth circles-
the yap-yapping is background noise to you,
and they're ask-asking, and you're
mostly contemplating the meaning of the white
specks beneath unpainted nails
could they resemble clouds, fly away
my dreams, my signposts

you're one of four siblings, then
shipped off a ways to new york public
schooling- what does that do to a girl-
the uptight frenzy bustle of a minute,
subway angst, free-falling side of gamble
I think there's just a million sunny pieces
of me now-look here's one I give to you to hold

that time we played the saxophone-
I remember that moment-
stood atop the table
heaving up asthmatic, brassy gut-songs
I hope you treasure that piece I just gave you.

I am here mostly to nurse and lick the wounds,
contemplate the meaning of these ridges
and whorls on my thumb,
if the girl is not in her thoughts, where is she?
she looks and sees them each spark-spark-
strike-and-ignite inside the head, something
like flamed moths these thoughts
or who then, is the girl if not her body-
don't get me started about the wrinkle
cellulite bagged eyes thigh-butt-pits
and so much love
in that tight squeeze,
love of color
-full of wine.

oh love, how i love the way the morning rises-
the way the thoughts fog,
and the body hums away her breaths, rattling
what it is to be living and stirring and
falling out of bed, because

as we've just ventured, she's not in the thoughts
and she's not in the body, and we're still looking

the girl one in a six hundred million on this side
of the atlantic,
closed, clam-shut, self-censorship
and a lot of crossed arms squeezing for grips,
and boundaries, like I'm trying to hold on to this fragile rope-
and afraid there's nobody but me who sees the bottom

so, tell me,
what it would mean
if we were
to let her go.
  





User avatar
806 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 1883
Reviews: 806
Tue Apr 16, 2019 2:13 am
View Likes
Aley says...



Spoiler! :
She broke down north of 62,
and the sky was clear, a bright blue
so I ventured out, daring the phones,
I could feel the rain in my bones

Night one, I built a quick shelter
Goldie? I had to re-belt her.
she couldn't roll, so out came cones
I could feel the rain in my bones

Morning, no cars, just me and her
I packed and pulled on car seat fur.
By noon, I found a road of homes
I could feel the rain in my bones
  





User avatar
1227 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 147270
Reviews: 1227
Sat Apr 20, 2019 3:07 pm
View Likes
alliyah says...



And the scores for Round 2 are out! Keep in mind that some of these last eliminations were within tenths of points so there were some really close match-ups. Those with names in bold are the winners and will be moving on to Round 3.

Group 1
@Querencia vs @fraey vs @Aley vs @tgirly

Group 2
@Ventomology vs. @paperforest vs. @TheSilverFox vs @Meshugenah

And from our Redemption Brackets we'll have two people total moving on for Round 3 - these had some other very close-calls.

Group 3
@GigiNicole17 vs @DEA vs @fishsashimi vs @ellasnotebook vs @Audy

Group 4
@Liberty500 vs @niteowl vs @Magestorrow vs @alliyah vs @PenguinAttack


Congratulations winners, and thank you to everyone for your entries! Here's the pairings for those moving on to Round 3

ROUND THREE
(1 person will advance from each of these groups to go to the FINAL)

Group 1

@Querencia vs. @fraey vs. @Audy

Group 2

@Ventomology vs. @paperforest vs. @alliyah


Good luck!

Entries for Round 3 are due

here's the bracket picture

Spoiler! :

Image
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return
  





User avatar
453 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 925
Reviews: 453
Sat Apr 20, 2019 8:10 pm
View Likes
Lib says...



Does that mean I'm not supposed to enter a poem since I didn't win?
*insert quirky signature here*
  





User avatar
1227 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 147270
Reviews: 1227
Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:07 pm
View Likes
alliyah says...



Correct @Liberty500! You can still be in the cheering squad as we wait for the final two who will make it to the finals. :)
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return
  





User avatar
453 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 925
Reviews: 453
Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:18 pm
View Likes
Lib says...



Oo-la-la! Okay! ;)
*insert quirky signature here*
  





User avatar
453 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 925
Reviews: 453
Sat Apr 20, 2019 10:23 pm
View Likes
Lib says...



Go, @Querencia! Go, @fraey! Go, @Ventomology! Go, @paperforest! Go, @Audy! Go, @alliyah!

GO, EVERYONE!!!
*insert quirky signature here*
  





User avatar
414 Reviews



Gender: None specified
Points: 31420
Reviews: 414
Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:52 am
View Likes
keystrings says...



Alright, good luck to everyone, and here I go again XD

Spoiler! :
do you remember that night, when you
handed me carnations bright like the sun?

i dubbed thee orange, as the sunrise or sunset,
gracing your lips with a tangerine-tinged touch
before the flavor got too sweet and your back

molars stung and you clenched down to flee,
then you said goodbye in light pink shades
of sweetpea and cyclamen on my gray pillow.

you left butterfly weeds, bright ginger-based,
to fester in root-laden, dried up front yard,
as a cursed farewell and a reminder of you.

silly plant-dreamer me, since yellow carnations
declared your love dead long before you ran.
name: key/string/perks
pronouns: she/her/hers and they/them/theirs


novel: the clocktower (camp nano apr 24)
poetry: the beauty of the untold (napo 2024)
  





User avatar
1227 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 147270
Reviews: 1227
Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:58 pm
View Likes
alliyah says...



@querencia @Ventomology @paperforest @Audy @alliyah

Reminder to get those poems in tonight for Round 3! :)
you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return
  





User avatar
557 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 33593
Reviews: 557
Tue Apr 23, 2019 1:10 am
View Likes
Ventomology says...



Hmm.

20. Self-absorption

The mirror whispers in my ear,
murmurs sweet nothings like a quiet flute arpeggio,
and blows a soft stream of air over my neck.
It pays me compliments composed of color,
writes a backward symphony of light
inspired by the hills and shadows of my face.

I stretch in the dance studio,
and the mirror reflects back elegant lines
smooth as a saxophone in a ballad.
I lean forward with a black pen of eyeliner
poised to pull operas out of my irises
with the temptation of daring black lines.

Oh, vanity!
in my heart and my bathroom,
who taught you to sing so strongly?
"I've got dreams like you--no really!--just much less, touchy-feeley.
They mainly happen somewhere warm and sunny
on an island that I own, tanned and rested and alone
surrounded by enormous piles of money." -Flynn Rider, Tangled
  





User avatar
1227 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 147270
Reviews: 1227
Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:11 am
View Likes
alliyah says...



here's my entry!

Spoiler! :


Image

you should know i am a time traveler &
there is no season as achingly temporary as now
but i have promised to return
  





User avatar
498 Reviews



Gender: Female
Points: 5916
Reviews: 498
Tue Apr 23, 2019 2:48 am
View Likes
Que says...



Congrats to everyone so far! I love all of your stuff. :) <3

Spoiler! :
in April,
all of my hollow places
fill with water--
and like hospital patients
who drown
in the fluid in their lungs,
I drown inside of myself
grâce à paper-thin skin
and self-doubt.

this April,
someone ignited a
lantern, and
that tiny fire is hope.
it burns, just a bit,
in my paper-bag lungs;
but at least the waters look
inviting
as my tiny raft
of a heart
struggles to stay afloat.
Est-ce que vous parlez français?
  





User avatar
696 Reviews

Supporter


Gender: Female
Points: 5533
Reviews: 696
Tue Apr 23, 2019 3:23 am
View Likes
Audy says...



*pokes this thing*

Spoiler! :

Quiet, the therapist is on to me now,
and the baby crying and the climate's
a lion's maw, thundering humidity.

The roar echoes the jungle, the people
hustling to sell you something, religion,
the circus, let's talk about their stories,
experiences, humanity, let's chat about the
sports news, my favorite dines,
your children, mine, clash of the cymbals,
let us lecture ideas, let us sing!
have a beer, scream, talk just to talk
about noise, insanity --

but, when it comes to me, about me--
is what the therapist gets paid to know
and it all empties down a black hole.

...There's a lot of grief tucked inside
the bones, the pain, and no wonder they
creak and they ache,

when "Quiet" becomes a refrain.
All the people, mothers, friends,
lovers, begging for you to explain.
"Don't be so quiet."
"Why so quiet?"

The word in their mouths,
I never liked it - so menacing
a lion's maw as the roar begins,
the cold in the throat,
judgment as the teeth snaps
shut, q,u,i,e,t
on their lips synonymous
with the empty, silence
of not even mattering.

Nothing for them to react to,
so they assume nothing inside.

But I can sit upon a clearing
in the jungle and listen to the earth's quiet,
and never notice it spinning thousands miles fast.
Never notice the quakes killing millions in Mexico.
Quiet before it struck.
And the lion's maw stretches a child's height
in the quiet trenches between teeth and tongue.

Quiet is a dictator. It likes to listen before it pounces.
because Quiet has been their worst self.
Quiet likes to see itself in them who boast,
in them who insist in mattering.
Quiet likes to become what they are showing.
Quiet has been their failure.
Quiet likes to swallow whole their words
freed from their mouths, and trapped inside
a mind, a belly, or ribs of cages. Quiet is not picky.

Quiet is a heavy duty control of breath.
It is like nothing and holds in it everything.
And when quiet loses itself, the world spills
the lion's roar thunders across the valley now and you hear it,
and it trembles inside your heart now and you fear it,
death is calling for you and you know it-
earthquakes all across the expanse of the earth.

I give the therapist my name-
I speak to her something to say about myself.
  








Chickens are honestly little dinosaurs. And they know it.
— ChieRynn