I'd like to see some poems that discuss what you feel to be the meaning of life. I don't care if you make it personal or general, but please make it deep and not just fluff.
A few thoughts you can consider if you need a starting point:
If there is meaning to life, is it the same for all of humanity or is it subjective?
Does our existence inherently include purpose, or do we create purpose for ourselves?
If the existentialists are right and there is no meaning except the meaning we create for ourselves, HOW do we go about giving our life purpose?
Is religion/spirituality effective as a source for a purposeful life? Rather, is it worth it to believe in a higher power and follow the moral and religious dicta in order to give one's life a sense of purpose, regardless of whether these beliefs end up being true?
Rules:
1. No dirty pretty, txt tlk or StIcKy CaPs
2. I support proper grammar and spelling: if you want to win, you should try and use it.
3. I won't DQ if it's free verse but I really prefer rhyme.
4. Reasonable length, please: give me enough substance to convey and inspire actual thoughts.
I will be judging mainly on content, but that doesn't mean to throw everything else out the window. This is poetry, after all, and I'm not asking you to write a book about it.
Thank you! I hope you have fun with this one.
P.S. I'm putting a bunch of points up, but I am not opposed to adding more points, trophies, and HMs if the entries are worth it. Please impress me; you'll be glad if you do!
A few thoughts you can consider if you need a starting point:
If there is meaning to life, is it the same for all of humanity or is it subjective?
Does our existence inherently include purpose, or do we create purpose for ourselves?
If the existentialists are right and there is no meaning except the meaning we create for ourselves, HOW do we go about giving our life purpose?
Is religion/spirituality effective as a source for a purposeful life? Rather, is it worth it to believe in a higher power and follow the moral and religious dicta in order to give one's life a sense of purpose, regardless of whether these beliefs end up being true?
Rules:
1. No dirty pretty, txt tlk or StIcKy CaPs
2. I support proper grammar and spelling: if you want to win, you should try and use it.
3. I won't DQ if it's free verse but I really prefer rhyme.
4. Reasonable length, please: give me enough substance to convey and inspire actual thoughts.
I will be judging mainly on content, but that doesn't mean to throw everything else out the window. This is poetry, after all, and I'm not asking you to write a book about it.
Thank you! I hope you have fun with this one.
P.S. I'm putting a bunch of points up, but I am not opposed to adding more points, trophies, and HMs if the entries are worth it. Please impress me; you'll be glad if you do!
Contest is Over
- Contest was judged on August 16, 2008
- Rewards: Gold: 750, Silver: 500, Bronze: 250, Honorable mention: 2 people
- Final notes: Thanks so much for entering this contest! Only got a total of ten, but that made it easy to go through trying to give plenty of thought and consideration to evaluating, commenting, and judging these poems. I added more points and trophies, as promised, so I hope nobody's too disappointed. I would really recommend going through and looking at the other entries; not only is it polite but you will also enjoy seeing the different perspectives and styles represented here. Thanks again and take care!
Contest Winners
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Yellow haze of setting sun
Drifting summer days count down• Commented on by judge. [remove] -
Is reality only what I choose only to see?
What I create or what I allow myself to perceive?by kareneisenlord 16 lines, 21 comments, on Aug 13 1:14 AM 2008. In Contemporary, Contest, Life, Spiritual, Thoughts, Philosophy
Honorable mention
• Commented on by judge. [remove] - Error: Unable to find finalist item 4503367, it seems to have been deleted :( [remove]
Gold trophy winner
Silver trophy winner
Bronze trophy winner
Entries [7]
1 - 7 of 7
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the world may go round
but its not powered by loveby DaughterxXxofxXxNyx 29 lines, 1 comment, on Aug 15 9:17 PM 2008• Commented on by judge.
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Comments
1 - 9 of 9
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"everything we are, is a result of what we have thought" so i guess yes, we do creat our future in a way. if you are feeling philosophical, then you should read the book "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. its a good book, about the Law of Attraction. wishing you the best, and hope you check out the book,
Emma
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Thanks; sounds interesting. I'll be sure to take a look at that sometime
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I appreciate the honorable mention. Don't know if it really deserved it; but thanks. I will try to come back and read the others, because I love philosophy and the pursuit of truth. Am very interested in what others have to say and think on the subject. Blessings...
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Dang. I have a good poem to go for this...too bad its a prewrite. Ok, maybe its not that good...but does your age determine how good people think it is???
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Sorry; I decided to keep this to new writes at least to start. I may open it up to pre-writes at the end, but the last contest I held didn't get hardly any new ones and that's not as fun to judge. Keep checking back or see if you feel inspired to write anything new.
As for age, I know that there are sometimes contests geared towards younger and/or less experienced poets to allow opportunities to be judged in comparison with your peers. However, this isn't one of them, and I plan to judge it objectively with no bias regarding age or any other factor except the poetry itself. I know it can be discouraging to enter contests up against people who seem to have the advantage of experience, but I promise it's worth it: from what I understand, AP isn't about the trophies, it's about learning, sharing, and improving poetry. Try to think of it this way, and you'll realize everyone has an equal chance... to get better.
Good luck, if you choose to enter, and I hope my random rambling wasn't too pointless and/or annoying.
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I'm currently taking a philosophy class and have spent weeks researching and writing papers on the very questions you're asking. I cannot imagine writing poetry about these topics. Because of that, I can't wait to read the entries and I hope you get good entries. What an intriguing idea for a contest.
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I actually started this contest partially on a whim after discussing with a friend whether poetry is really capable of dealing with theoretical, abstract thoughts in depth, not just images or emotions. Like you, I think that fully addressing these questions would be hard within the confines of poetry, keeping it meaningful and philosophical but still poetic. Part of me also wanted to see how people looked at these issues not merely through a formal, academic perspective with citing sources and feeding off ideas of other philosophers, but looking inside themselves for what THEY think. I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to get any entries and I'm excited to see how different people approach this type of contest. Glad you came to take a look, and I'm sure that with your well-founded insight you will enjoy reading the entries.
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I may try to give it a go. I don't know that I can come up with something in 2 days, but even if it takes 2 months it might be interesting to try to rise to the challenge. There's a reason philosophers aren't poets, although I think some philosophy can be poetic. I can't seem to applaud this contest, so here's this instead.
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Aww haha, thank you.
Combining philosophy and poetry is, even theoretically, somewhat preposterous. The focus is very different for the most part. Philosophy is of course about the ideas, concepts, basically the content of and thought behind whatever it is you write or say. Words are chosen for precision to accurately explain your thoughts. Poetry does need some thought, but for the most part it's about HOW you're conveying whatever message you have. The message or thought is often somewhat secondary. There's also the whole thinking vs. feeling thing; poetry is usually more emotional than philosophical essays
As for the contest, I was going to have it be a longer contest because I wanted to give people time to think out their opinions before even starting to write, but I'm leaving for college next week and with moving in, getting used to everything, and classes, I didn't really want to take the chance that I couldn't judge the contest thoroughly and promptly.
I'm always of the opinion, though, that these contests on AP have to do much less with the trophies than with the inspiration that they can give, as well as a chance to read and learn from other poems. If you do write a poem that is in any way inspired by or written because of having seen this contest, even if it's two years from now, please show it to me and I will always be excited to read.
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