# February Challenge - "Looking to the Future"



## Chesters Daughter (Jan 30, 2013)

The theme for the February challenge, suggested by *Gumby*, is *"Looking to the Future".

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Remember that you may approach the subject in whatever way you wish, though of course site rules apply. If you are unsure of the challenge rules please read the 'stickies' at the top of the board; it is disheartening to disqualify people for things like a trivial edit, but the rules will be applied.




This challenge will close on the 13th February 2013.




Please make sure that your work is properly formatted before pressing the submit button. Work edited after posting may be excluded from the challenge.



Members posting in the *Workshop thread* to protect their first rights must copy their link in this thread, or else it will be discounted. 

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***Do not post comments in this thread. It would also be greatly appreciated if everyone would refrain from using the "like" function until the challenge is closed and the poll is opened. Any comments on submissions prior to the close of the challenge should be posted in the Bards' Bistro. Thank you for your cooperation.*****


An occasion for cheers *:champagne:

One of our lovely members, who has expressed a desire to skirt the spotlight, did some tallying and has informed us that this is our 50th Poetry Challenge. A hearty round of applause for all participants, past, present and future. In sharing the gift of your poetic prowess, you all ensure the success of our monthly challenges. Now kindly tip those virtual glasses, it'll be fifty months until next the celebration.:wink:


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## Leyline (Feb 2, 2013)

A Message To The Girl In The Future


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## toddm (Feb 3, 2013)

*I suppose*

I suppose that someday 
it will come to pass
that even sunlight 
will be considered crass.
"Because," they will moan, 
"it is much too bright
and we are rather
content with night."


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## Ethan (Feb 4, 2013)

Looking to the future’s just holding mirrors to the past,
where reflections of your yesterday return with vengeful blast.
All you’ve said and all you’ve done, at home at work or play,
‘what goes around will come around,’ my Mother used to say.

Looking to the future then, you’ll wish and hope and pray,
that no-one witnessed, heard nor knew, of things you did today.
Turn blind eyes toward the glass, face what tomorrow brings,
but look behind you, now and then, for the past’s a spiteful thing.


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## OLDSOUL (Feb 6, 2013)

*Reverie:*
Read in the tune of Johnny Cash - A boy named Sue.
____________________ 

One sprawling afternoon in May, 
I put down my book and marked the page.
Let my mind fall into a deep pool of reverie. 


For the world had not been so kind,
to a man so charitable with his heart and time,
and the old habits scratched from beyond the attic door.


For the longest while I drifted numb,
stupidly so, into the barrel of a gun,
for I let myself remember your infectious warmth.


It pulsed with my heart and caressed me there,
while I sat in my old mans leather arm chair
I felt those soft fingers again, sliding down my chest.


At this point the book fell down,
off my lap and onto the ground,
for the cold had put you irreparably on my mind.


The mere and dear thought of you alone,
took me from glassy eyed rut to heavens mighty throne,
For those fingers that once stroked my hair belonged to _her_.


You know very well the girl I mean;
the one that blesses and haunts every sleepers dreams.
The woman that will be the birth or the death of you.


Did you know that whenever I had pondered love,
as a child, you were there in my mind to sweep me up.
But now those soft spoken lips only kiss me behind my eyes.


It was there and then I fell down immutably deep,
into that reverie, lulled by my slowing heartbeat.
Because if I couldn't have you here, I'd see you somewhere else, someday.


I held my hands over the coals, 
of what was left of my dimming soul,
I smiled and hoped that wherever you were, you thought of me.


I hoped then and there that you'd check the time,
and know the seconds passing were the last of mine,
so I could know some small part of you was still here with me.


Oh, it feels close now, I must prepare.
My last thoughts will be the sparks, like roman candles in the air,
of my long gone love, who's off kissing the tongue of the road.


I just wrote this so that you could know,
I forgive you love, and love, I let you go,
but you took something of mine with you when you left me here.


Yes, I'm afraid you took most of me with you. 
Left my shell here to wait and rot and stew
in my burning love, thats leaking from my chest onto the floor.


Death's looming tall on my doorstep, babe.
I must go now, I have a deal with fate,
but I'll be here waiting for you if the cops don't find me first.


I'm afraid that's all I was ever good for.
So here I'll be, in the chair by the door,
if you ever come back for the last of the things you left here.


I guess there's not really all that much,
just a cassette player and a bike and some rust.
Oh, and an old tired man that vowed to love you till death did him part.


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## bearycool (Feb 7, 2013)

*Tenebrous Yellow*

I see reflections--
Yellow in all directions:
Glimpses in my periphery,
Long, old visages.

They kiss my ears
Caressing, oh so near...
A tickle of the void,
A whisper of the time.

We never Leave...
   They serenade to me.
Departure-- hah!
We are but you:
The manifest--
The Heart of Darkness--

--The horror
The horror--
_
Entre la potencia
Entre la violencia

_The palms that never touch_,
_And as such
The shadows cry
Weeping blood.

Some see their Further Road as light,
but turning a head I see just night;
But a vast tenebrous shroud
Vomiting out the color yellow.

I see nothing beyond--
The horror
The horror.

Nothing but a final serenade
Whispered by a past to me.
Nothing but an Epitaph
Whispering the final cry--
Sighing:
_--Black tidal waves cascading--
--Blank yellow visages--
And a life
That has no road
Ahead of it.
_​


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## Lewdog (Feb 7, 2013)

*"Our Responsibility"


*​Time flees like rats on a sinking ship.
Gone like the days of babes,
Photographs the only evidence that remains.


Change is the only constant we have.
No one knowing for sure what lies,
In this future and the world it contains.


Mass theories have been written,
With promises of prosperity and progress,
Along with the destruction and a dark seed.


There is only one thing that matters,
That we leave this place better,
For those that have no choice but follow our lead.


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## words (Feb 8, 2013)

*Fleeting*

All things pass fleeting, are gone in an instant.
Lost childhood illusions of safe lasting havens all
crumble as myths forged from need for purpose.

Distractions that sparkle and impostors fast fading
are foundations of sand that time washes away.
Promise and visions that decay to despair.

Yet one beckoning light seems constant and guiding.
Feint distant, seen only away from the bright lights,
Seek, hold to it fast, it is all that can be.

So treasure the moments don't cling to them passing.
Seek love only to journey together awhile, 
Attach to nothing lest it dazzles or slows.


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## shedpog329 (Feb 8, 2013)

The almanac’s throat exposes Heidegger,

connects philosophies grace, 

And then the metaphysics 

and then ours.

To exist one second from now,

has a classical way of not forgetting.

Only one universe isn’t put together without

stressing the gaps,

disclosing the adornment-

obliged at the mercy of influence

and opened into existence.


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## Chesters Daughter (Feb 8, 2013)

*Snow*

Once upon a time,
an army of angels adorned 
pristine blankets
the color of cumulus clouds
as they guarded forts
erected to protect
combatants during snowball wars.

Avenues, seeming victims 
of an avalanche,
remained unblemished
as far as my eyes could see.
Daddy trudged forward,
with a nose as red as Rudolph's,
his hands, dressed in cracked leather,
wrapped around the frayed rope
belonging to big brother's sled.
Passed down and all mine
for Flexible Flyers did not come 
equipped with breasts.

A booming voice belied
the tininess of my stature,
"Faster, Daddy!"
sent snowflakes scurrying
in a blast of breath.
He picked up pace
as if running a race.

My mittened hands hung 
onto the slats tight,
as giggling in glee,
I raised my face to watch
flakes fall in streetlamp's glow
with my tongue stuck out
to catch flurries that hurried
toward the cave of my mouth.

Snow remained virgin
for days back then,
untouched by sooty smudges
and free from corruption
by the pollution of progress.

These days, within hours,
purity absconds
leaving the landscape littered
with sullied angels
hued a garish gray
bespeckled by black
crystalline sludge.
Impeccability replaced 
by eyesore
with a few inexorable sweeps
of Father's hands.

Niveous drifts 
have fallen victim
to the filthy fist of humanity.

I fear for children's tongues
in generations to come,
when falls of ebony flurries
sear like sulfuric acid,
scorching both skin and lungs.
Not an angel will be born,
nor adorn,
smoldering blankets
the color of a warlock's heart,
toxic to all
save hell-spawned beasts.

Revenge to avenge
centuries of violation.

In time, 
Mother will weary 
of weathering
repeated rapes.


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## Fats Velvet (Feb 8, 2013)

http://www.writingforums.com/poetry...ary-challenge-looking-future.html#post1601799


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## Kevin (Feb 9, 2013)

http://www.writingforums.com/poetry...ary-challenge-looking-future.html#post1601845


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## PiP (Feb 12, 2013)

http://www.writingforums.com/poetry...ary-challenge-looking-future.html#post1602851


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## Hemlock (Feb 12, 2013)

http://www.writingforums.com/poetry...ary-challenge-looking-future.html#post1602905


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## Chesters Daughter (Feb 13, 2013)

This challenge is now closed.

Those who are so inclined may now use the "Like" function for this month's entries.


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