Of social chess: to play a flawless game
against opponents who have always won,
our human values strategists will claim
we must repress; integrity is one.
Thin words must not reveal ulterior aim
and morals must collapse to build our fun:
integrity is one we must repress
to play a flawless game of social chess.
To maximise our score, we need to cheat
against opponents whom we think might win.
Our victories will never be complete
if rich yet poor. A sorry state we're in,
that in our futile, fruitless quest to beat
our so-called friends, we must resort to sin.
A sorry state we're in, if rich yet poor,
we need to cheat to maximise our score.
The things we know are right we need to do
in order to establish harmony;
the words we say must be sincere and true
to cure this blight. The way that we must be
allows for us to take a kinder view
of people with whom we can be most free.
The way that we must be to cure this blight:
we need to do the things we know are right.
To win, and lose our souls? We must not play
half-hearted games that end in our disgrace,
or go for worthless gold as if we lay
our blame on the controls. We must not place
too high upon life's scoreboard, yet we may
be counted with the champions of the race.
We must not place our blame on the controls.
We must not play to win and lose our souls.
Author notes
A double swap octet, and my first Ottava Rima.
A contest entry
- Swap Poems by Mercury Rising.
850 points, ended June 24, 15 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think?
Comments
1 - 12 of 12
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Some lines really stick with me: "half-hearted games that end in our disgrace" and "We must not play to win and lose our souls" are two of them. Thought provoking.
Best of luck in the contest!
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I moved that entire verse from 3rd to last because it seemed more powerful than the previous one. Glad you enjoyed reading
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'strategists' - that word didn't fit well for me.
' champions of the race' - I have to knock one of the three syllables I'd usually stick in champions.
Very darn lovely. Nice and coherent, and all that. It is raining Very heavily at the moment. I didn't want it to.
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"strategists" seems fine to me (obviously).
Ever heard the lyric, "Weeeee are the champions... my friends"? I've always said it with two syllables, but thanks for pointing it out.
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Hm. Oh. Maybe you say it like 'stratUHgist', where I say it 'stratEEgist', or something along those lines.
I've always pronounce champions with three, tis another one of those words. -
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STRAT-uh-gist, for me. Merriam-Webster agrees, not that I'm beating you down with the power of dictionary or anything.
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Beat me with what you want, pal, you know as well as I do that no pronounciation deserves to be called correct!
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I met a traveller from a Poets' land
Who said: Two long and stupid words of stone
Stand out from your piece. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a dictionary lies, whose frown
And wrinkled page and sneer of cold command
Tell that its maker was not too well-read
because our accent's a subjective thing;
our voices mock words with the way they're said.
And on the author page these words appear:
"My name is DesolatELifE, pet shop king:
Look on my works, ye Readers, and compare!"
Nothing beside remains. Past the decay
Of burning, flaming coals, boundless and bare,
The man behind the seen lies far away.
(parody of Ozymandias)
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What I like about that is the education you have gathered. Pet shop king. 'behind the seen'.. research.. very handy. I think I would be a better man if I knew what 'parody of Ozymandias' as. Ozymandias. Another unfamiliar name. Hm.
If I wasn't about to move a fridge and then leave, I'd hit you back in this sort of tone:
Discovered when Discoveria wrote
A mighty choice of words that choke the throat
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Ozymandias is a sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley. One of the few actual poems in literature that I have read.
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So true. Peripatetic writes in a Texan accent, and I always trip up on some word that doesn't rhyme or fit here but does over there
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A very inventive and innovative poem that splendidly blends the Double Swap Octet with the Ottava Rima. Very clever and intricate construction, and a wonderful poem that was a pleasure to read. Best of luck in my contest, and thanks for entering.
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