a lyrics contest for you...

LAST WEEK TO ENTER: officially ends on 12/24, hopefully i'll have them judged by the next day or at least the new year.

Welcome to my first contest.

It's pretty straightforward. I've got a list of lyric selections from two of my favorite bands, Kill Hannah and Shiny Toy Guns. You choose one of them as inspiration (you do not have to use the actual lyrics in your poem), list your selection's number in your author comments (please don't forget this!), and then I judge the entries. :] HM's to be added later

Kill Hannah and Shiny Toy Guns' music is fantastic and hopefully this contest will persuade you to check out some of the songs by these two not-so-well-known bands.

Just a few notes and rules..

For the most part, I like free verse, but if you can write rhyme that doesn't sound forced, that's fabulous.
[NoNe] of tHis: I feel it takes away from the poetry itself if you need extraneous punctuation to improve it.
Spell check: it takes only a few seconds and would certainly be to your advantage to do so, as many misspellings are likely to annoy me
Please keep swearing to a minimum. There could be situations in which it is necessary, but generally, don’t curse in your submissions.
Religion is all well and good. In its place. I just don’t feel that this is it, so please refrain from submitting anything of a religious nature.
Minimal, if any, adult/erotica sort of writing. It’s just not really what I’m looking for in my contest and I’ll DQ if I think there’s too much of it in a piece for this.
Backgrounds: just don’t make it too difficult to read, choose colors and backgrounds that won’t distract much from your work.

and really, please, list the lyric selection's number in your author notes so i can judge how your piece related to those specific lyrics.

Lyric Options:

From songs by Kill Hannah

1. “It looked like the perfect day
In photos we were smiling
But something was wrong in you
Inside you were suffering” – Black Poison Blood

2. “She wants to go fast
And never come back
And never collapse
And he's a real animal
Gone out of control
Who'd rather die young than get old” – Boys & Girls

3. “She's in designer jeans
On amphetamines
And wants you badly
And he's a real cannibal
And suicidal
Erratic on heavy metal” – Boys & Girls

4. “We were under the skyline
Through the sirens and flashing lights
Told me, "It's no use to try anymore,
Does it mean that much to you?"” – Believer

5. “and she made such an entrance
yeah one blink explode the cinder blocks
what a smart bomb, she sighed and said
"I hope I'm not forgettable"
and when you kiss ice
sometimes it sticks to your lips
sometimes i see battleships ” – Kill Hannah

6. “and time goes by
and history's dead
and all the magic show
is all inside her head
oh maybe I’m too much in love
yeah maybe I’m too much in love,
but maybe I’m too much insane” – Kill Hannah

7. “What's there to wake up to?
When no one dreams anyway
No one thinks anyway
And they live and they die in bed” – No One Dreams Anyway

8. “Love: my angel on silver lines;
So young and so terrified...
Somehow we realized,
Only the strong survive” – Race the Dream

9. “Somehow i feel that it's my destiny to fail
Get dried and hung upon a gallery wall
Holding on by just a thread to my heart” – Scream

10. “Sometimes it hurts so bad i don't want to know what to say
Enacting Sybil Vane in some tragic way
So afraid that i can't ever explain
So now i
Scream
And hope it's a dream” – Scream

11. “It's hard just to breathe
When you say goodbye
I wanna sleep but there are nightmares when i try
The birds are circling
I know the reasons why
Maybe a sad song some time
will make you remember me” – Scream

12. “Soon you'll forget but i just can't
I remember
I remember everything
All the times when no one ever came to get me
All the nights when i was scared
And when it got too weird
It was the song that saved me” – Songs That Saved My Life

13. “It's just one of those days where nothing sounds right
It's just one of those days where nothing looks right
It's just one of those days where nothing feels right
And all these things go on and on and on and
On and on until tonight” – The Collapse

14. “I'm never going home
I walk among the ghosts
Of all my former loves
And all my future selves” – The Collapse

15. “So this is how it feels to be insane
The world looks like a movie always playing
But how can hearts so young feel so much pain?
They can't save us now
'Cause we're far away from home
And there's no where else to go
They can't ever save us now
Will they ever understand we don't want to be like them?” – They Can’t Save Us Now

16. “Drive" you said
With tears down your face
I've got to restart
Is that so hard?
Secrets that day
I'll take to the grave
Yeah, no one can catch us now...
You can pray all you want
We're not coming back oh...
We're the feelings above the flame...” – The Chase




From songs by Shiny Toy Guns

1. “What took you so far away?
Lost for tonight again
That’s what you wanted
Your arms to your side again” – Chemistry of a Car Crash

2. “We're gonna ride the race cars
We're gonna dance on fire
We're the girls Le Disko
Supersonic overdrive” – Le Disko

3. “Say goodnight to gravity.
Hold on to me
Look past these stars
Light the way
The future's here today with you and me tonight
Leave it all behind” – Rocketship

4. “Didn’t notice it right away
Didn’t notice it until it was too late
I’m gonna change my desire
For your all consuming fire
Didn’t wanna cry out at night
Didn’t wanna stop at mid flight
I didn't plan for the fall
When I was running from it all...” – Shaken

5. “Color coated sweetness
Swords beneath my clean dress
I'm making sense of shattered dreams
Because I want you to be proud of me” – We Are Pilots

6. “Hello mother,
Some news for you
I’m really not that crazy.
Hello father,
I'm curious?
Why you think there's something wrong with me.” – We Are Pilots

7. “Set the signal
Raining fire from the angels
Through the eye of a needle
Making moves making stars
Falling faster than the start
Of the end of the world” – Weather Girl