Best Competed Poems
I walked in darkness along the shore
seeking only solitude and nothing more
Thunder drummed from somewhere far away
like foreboding timpani as clouds began to play
They competed with the roar of bally waves
crashing to the beach in rhythmic laves
Everything was out of reach for me
the moon, the stars, the depth of the sea
Echoes of a nocturne were swirling in my head
Lyrics left unsung, but spoken instead
My soprano continued; the falsetto stopped
Too weak to stand, on my knees I dropped
My footprints had been erased by an ebbing tide
No longer able to run. I chose not to hide
Blind in the darkness, my loneliness daunting
a flash of lightning, then another more taunting
I lifted my eyes to the sky, to the falling rain
its sting delivered in a medley, staccatos of pain
On the edge of the sea, I waited for the end of me
My tears an ensemble, an elegy in requiem plea
I ignored the orchestra when I heard the ocean call
louder than kettle drums or the storm's howling squall
No encore would this night be able to reprise
When the flowing tide encroached, I closed weary eyes
A chorus of waves crashed like cymbals in concerto
stealing the baton from the hand of the Maestro
The moon and stars were out of reach for me
I wept as I was swept into the depth of the sea
August 28, 2022
2022 Marathon Mile 13 Contest
Sponsored by Mark Toney
Categories:
competed, beach, emotions,
Form:
Elegy
Who is my enemy?
Do I really know? Those
who are waging a war to amass
lands or wealth, or those who
are depriving the downtrodden
of food and shelter, which are
the rights for every individual!
From childhood, I was
encompassed by love,
and kindness, that was
my blessings...in a humble
surrounding!
Father’s love,
Mother’s affection,
showered on me,
kindness from
neighbours! Sibling-
rivalry? No, that didn’t
hurt or destroy my life!
Who are my
enemies? Those who
competed for excellence in school?
Or who never
congratulated me on my
success! Negative thoughts,
despair, jealousy - are those our
enemies! Enmity couldn't
crush my determination to
reach a destination.
Sometimes I blame the war-torn
situation, which caused my parents
to suffer miserably! But my mother,
who embodied kindness
and empathy, taught me
to hate the hatred, imbibe
the inner peace she
exemplified!
So on this day, even
when being crushed by
disharmony and discord...
war, hunger, poverty, racism in the
world, I feel truly peaceful and
embrace acceptance about
my own hopes, successes and
failures. I wish happiness
for whoever loved me,
appreciated me, or who did not…
I wish them peace,
the way I have been blessed!
I pray for absolute
Harmony on the planet,
Our own Earth! Pray
for a serene dawn when sun
rises to wipe out all darkness.
Categories:
competed, inspirational,
Form:
Free verse
Long long ago in a land far away
Was this slave girl named Gedophamee
Worked as a prostitute to earn some dough
Name was pronounced “Get-offa-me!”
At an athletic festival in Roman times
Male athletes performed in the buff
Preventing arousal while they competed
They imbibed and downed other stuff
At the opening gala ceremonial parade
One lady exclaimed “Oh! Limp Dicks!”
Ever since that momentous occasion
It has morphed into the “Olympics”
© Jack Ellison 2013
Categories:
competed, humorous,
Form:
Quatrain
B.C., seven hundred seventy-six
was the date of the first Olympic picks.
They held (these sportsmanship pioneers)
Olympiads ev'ry four years
The first Olympic race was for sprinters -
Corubus, a chef, was named the winner.
Running one hundred ninety-two meters
he took the lead without any sneakers.
There were no medals; first place got a wreath
worn on his head, twisted from olive leaf.
Second and third place got only glory -
plus bragging rights in telling their story.
Men competed in the nude at the start;
women were invited "not" to take part.
These games were stopped by Roman signature:
“Way too pagan,” declared the emperor.
Make no mistake; it’s not a mystery
exclusive to Athens’ sports history.
What we still call the “modern” Olympics -
were revived back in eighteen ninety-six.
Nineteen-o-four, here in my own country,
my grandmother traveled to St. Louis.
The Games were held as part of the World’s Fair;
Granny Emma and three sisters worked there.
written August 13, 2016
for Janis Thompson's Olympic Mania contest
Categories:
competed, adventure, history, humor, sports,
Form:
Quatrain
It was his younger years in being a competitive Bodybuilder
He competed in numerous Bodybuilding Contests and won
It was his sheer dedication in not being out done
It was other sports just for fun
The Old Man saw a challenge in what sacrifice that came with Bodybuilding
The weights were the Old Man’s determination from lifting back then
But his career with the weights didn’t have to end
It was encouragement from another to continue to train on
Train the Old Man did and it was hours long
The weights became the desire with the fire
This has always been the Old Man’s regime in being the principle
It’s just that simple
Age may have accelerated on
The Old Man was inspired to continue to be strong
His muscles greeted the weights with every given lift
As an Old Man, you don’t have to be Stift
Intensity was in the Old Man’s eyes
Yet he has acquired wisdom and experience of wise
Train until
Bodybuilder still
The mind for training in will
Old Age won’t stop
My young days in being a Bodybuilding champion in dedication in what put me at the top
There is no reason for the Old Man to stop
Train, Lift and Construct
The Old Man’s theory, “I lived to be, my Bodybuilding muscles from before all to see, and all my desire in what my training should be”
An after training Flex, and image still, but with a determined will.
Categories:
competed, adventure, appreciation, art, body,
Form:
Concrete
If really, you are an angel
I do not understand !
Why an angel should murder -
Another blessed Angel
I don't know why you had to abort
Because to abort is to kill
You are a murderer
Shed no tears- lest it be miscible
With the Innocent blood you shed
You killed your own son, before birth
what greater sin have heaven harboured ?
You called him a mistake
To have competed amidst a million for earthly path
The one you harboured and murdered
The innocent one, you stole to lose
From heaven, beyond
Categories:
competed, abuse, birth,
Form:
Free verse
Stef, born in New Zealand’s fine country,
Moved to Canada aged 4 with her parents,
Where she had a boating accident aged 9,
Which amputated her right foot for her life.
She’s married to fellow Paralympian fast,
Canadian wheelchair racer Brent Lakatos,
And they both train at Loughborough Uni,
Where there’s a plethora of sports facilities.
Stef graduated from good Queens University,
In Biochemistry with honours and at times,
Is a professional speaker, a fashion model,
And lay preacher of the gospel and the way.
Before the accident Stephanie played rugby,
But afterwards she could not do this because,
Her prosthetic was at risk of detaching itself,
Mid-game and injuring near placed players.
So she went into track and field athletics,
Practised until she became sick and tired,
Which saw her make the 2008 Paralympics,
In Beijing when she won gold for the sprint.
She graced the podium often at small meets,
In Manchester and in London. Christchurch
Saw her flourish when she won two bronzes:
One for the long jump and one for the 200m.
In Swansea at the European games in 2014,
Stef took home for the T44 long jump a gold,
And in the London Paras which introduced,
So many to disability sport, she won a silver.
In Rio she won another silver, on the mark
For TeamGB. She hasn’t always represented,
Britain because when she was much younger,
She competed for Canada’s rocky territory.
Categories:
competed, sports, strength,
Form:
Blank verse
Remember when fat boy Chris Farley
Competed against Patrick Swayze
On Saturday Night Live
Judges couldn’t decide
Picking one dancer made them crazy
In the end it’s Swayze who prevailed
Farley’s dancing career was curtailed
When he danced, his belly
Shook like tubs of jelly
As an erotic dancer he failed
After a great deal of strong debate
The judges gave it to Farley straight
“You’re not as good looking,
It’s Patrick we’re booking,
He dances best and you’re no lightweight.”
There was an old episode of Saturday Night Live where Chris Farley and Patrick
Swayze competed to see if they could make an all-male dance team. It was
hilarious watching Farley trying to dance.
Entry for Miranda Lambert’s “burlesque” contest
Categories:
competed, funnynight, night,
Form:
Limerick
Straight, direct meaning,
No ambiguity or question,
Of relationship or hearing,
Only malicious attestation.
Seventy-five thousand,
Killed by the 15 kiloton bomb,
In one there was no pasture land,
For the innocent overthrown.
Red fluid permeated,
Scolded the lungs of the fit,
No reactions competed,
With that rupture that lit.
Never again should war,
Take the lives of so many,
Because lifted is the bar,
On freedom and autonomy.
Categories:
competed, death, history, peace, planet,
Form:
Quatrain
Faye was working as a gym instructor,
When a colleague asked her to set up,
A triathlon event, and she was a runner,
In the contest, so desired to join up.
She competed in her first triathlon 2009,
And is now a four time World Champion;
She came 4th in Rio, just missed top line,
And trains at the Loughborough pavilion.
In 2013 at the ITU Para-triathlon Worlds,
She won the gold: that was in London,
And in 2014 at the Edmonton ITU Worlds,
She took the silver slot with conviction.
Then in 2015 Faye won another silver,
In the ETU European Geneva Champs,
And in 2016, Lisbon, Faye gave tether,
To another stellar silver for her lamps.
In the French Besançon World Para Event,
Claire captured the gold. A physiotherapist,
Who was born without any left hand rent,
Born in Eastbourne as a Nov. 1979 guest.
Categories:
competed, sports, strength,
Form:
Quatrain
As I travelled across the night sky
by means of an arrowhead-shaped ship
that used free energy; present across every
moon and star,
I noticed that there was no other soul
in the crew’s deck and pilot’s cockpit
‘‘Can I be in a gigantic kind of drone
of some sort?’’ I asked myself as the vehicle
increased its speed to almost that of lightning;
faster than a bullet from a stun gun.
At the right corner of the ship,
I could see different types of strange-
looking alien life from other solar
systems and distant galaxies in glass enclosing,
which looked well cared for, though there
was no sign of soul doing these things
Though I couldn’t see any signs of fans
or ventilators, oxygen was in good supply
all around me, with a slight sensation
of mint in my respiratory system ,
which quickly took my flu away
strangely enough!
The floor looked like glass mixed with silver
and a hard, glossy material that might take a while
to be discovered
While inside the spaceship,
you could see the external environment
clearly, though the people outside
would only see a silvery craft,
just like I did before telepathic voices
instructed me to get inside where I was then
The external environment I could see at the moment
was out-of-place experience where palace-like dwellings
levitated in midair, strange humanoids flew around using
their wings, flower gardens floated in the air, and five moons
of different colors competed to glow in unique beauty
………still I was waiting to hear about my special mission
on Earth, our mother planet, from beings of the fifth dimension,
who had instructed the ship to search for me (why me?!!)
Categories:
competed, adventure, fantasy, imagination, science
Form:
Free verse
All an illusion
It's all an illusion.
No matter where I am, I am alway just,
sitting there. Unaware, with a blank stare messy hair
and probably the same clothes that I always wear.
Wrangler jeans, and a button up, sleeved. (period)
Because, I hate T-shirts.
Hate them!
In fact, I'd be fine if they all just disappeared!
Into thin air. I'm serious.
the plague, wasting, predators, or aliens came to take em!
They'd say.
Or they inbred too much,
and their lineage diminished
intelligence forsook em.
Gene pool plummeted
they became disoriented, wrangled and out-competed
and just sort of drifted away,
They'd say,
it was probably believing everything they see on the news.
That led to their doom.
That, and marrying too young, having litters,
of far more than they could possibly support on their wage!
Stupid T-Shirts
And later, when documentaries are made on why their society caved.
they'd say in five languages: “Stupid T-shirts”
You'll see em today, at the Walmart or on display in friendly glass cases,
With nothing but idiotic slogans, and quotes from bad movies
“That's what she said”
Or some sort of shark-cat reaching with fangs and claws up at
a bikini wearin slice of pizza...
They call it “Paws”
Myself, I'd rather be shirtless in a game of seven card stud.
I'd rather be seen strung up dangling by my hair parasailing through Canadian Territory,
and mistaken for a chipmunk. Covered in varmints blood, Or spend my weekend servin sweet tea to
Donald Judd.
Than even be seen wearing one.
No dignity in em,
Just picture Grant, Lee or even Sam Houston
Wearing a shirt with an arrow
That reads:
“I'm with Stupid”
Categories:
competed, education, funny, humor,
Form:
Cowboy Poetry
I held your hands, you did not pray
Your silence withered me like a wreath
I smiled at you inscrutable like a new day
And waited on time for soon defeat
When love has lost its voice it has no will
For nothing sings inside a desolate heart
The eyes are drooping limbs in winter’s chill
The bodies like ships so slowly drift apart
You are enticed by gardens with more gold
My neighbor’s once watered dying grass
Where artificial flowers bloomed in the cold
Undiscerning I competed, I spent and lost
Resisting winter to boast my unfading rose
Foolish in love then, and phony you the more
Love is all we should be, nothing that we pose
We make the gift alone who knew what freedom was before.
Categories:
competed, love,
Form:
Free verse
I’d never heard those words before;
Their meanings were elusive.
To those upon the stage, such facts
Were merely inconclusive.
Derivations made it clear
Which letter groups were needed.
Concentration ruled – distractions
Vanished or receded.
Finalists competed with
Such fierce determination,
Anything but winning
Was a sorry consolation.
Yet gamely each one proved to be
Supportive and connected;
Though rivals, they could empathize
When someone was ejected.
I stayed up past eleven
‘Til the battle was concluded,
Delighting in the quiet joy
The champion exuded.
How wonderful that in this hi-tech
World where we are dwelling,
We still admire those rare souls
Who so excel at spelling!
Ilene Bauer (http://primetimerhyme.blogspot.com)
Categories:
competed, life
Form:
Rhyme
speech and debate team members
competed every week
new schools, new judges, input sought
national finals at Niagara University
eleven hundred contestants
vying for trophies worth their weight in gold
mix up the meter, don't stress the rhyme
select a "poem" that would be unique
then give it your own tweak
casting Longfellow and Whitman aside
I emulated Walter Brennan’s voice
reading “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss
in finals judging was stiff
but I gave them a laugh or two
nabbing a fourth place
first time Monmouth ever had a winner
riding home, we cheered and laughed
Old Lorax’s environmental message won favor
*Entry for Joe’s “Contest Contest”
True story
Categories:
competed, school,
Form:
Free verse