# December, "Universals" challenge



## Olly Buckle (Dec 10, 2010)

I have heard back promptly from our latest winner and current Laureate, Edgewise, with news of the subject for the next challenge, This is to be* "Universals"*.

You are, of course, still free to comment on the poems and congratulate the winner of the last challenge in that thread, entries for this round in this thread please.

All the usual rules apply, the poem should be original for the competition, please do not alter it after posting and please keep comments out of the thread until all the entries are in, the best of luck to everybody.

This thread is open for two weeks, which means it is due to close on *Christmas Eve*, whilst there is a possibility that the festivities might drag my attention away for a day or so do not count on it, *Entries before Christmas please.*


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## Baron (Dec 11, 2010)

*Global Epitaph*


Filtered music
on ethereal waves
flows into my room;
coloured shades of lacklustre.

Spent language echoes,
a voice no more,
offers no choices;
songs of protest cry
and feed a cult of self.

Pressing issues controlled
by men with no faces
in cloistered palaces,
where the un-elect rule.
Art silenced by mediocrity
and select sensationalism.

Maudlin movements,
material mayhem;
business conglomerates 
feed a fascist foundation,
pushing on to the final goal.

No sign of the promised feast...


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## Olly Buckle (Dec 15, 2010)

Universals.


  “Everybody does it.”
  Was the justification,
  “Ain’t that the way?”
  The resigned reply.

  “It is always the same”,
  Was global, limited experience
  “There is always one”,
  The eternal revelation.

  “That always happens”,
  Was the inaccurate observation,
  “No one really cares”,
  The negligent response.

  “Nothing changes” 
  Says doleful despair
  “No point trying”, 
  Says cynical sloth

  Hope, sympathy, empathy and compassion wait in the wings.


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## bearycool (Dec 15, 2010)

"it's all general!
every life will be sung,
every death will come.

All the same, we're
equally in every way!"

ha, I mock. How is this so?
I work the hardest, I do things
that I am told to do, and I am the same
as the one who does not a thing?

mockery, just plain here and out!

"calm now" he tells, "everyone feels
the same!"

May it be so, but the difference
comes when we talk in words.

"What do you mean?"

universally, how do you perceive?

"same, of course."

mockery of the word,
it's the word that brings one idea together
from many others.

So as you see, we may believe in equality,
but be it so, our actions are not to be the same!

"how can this be?"

fool, I just foretold! one idea,
but different ideals.

one human, different souls. We may
have the same genome, but you and
I are different.

for as you see in this fray of ideas
is the perfect example of the things 
just said.

"but you still say in one thing being to us all!"

indeed, but we tell of different ways of 
how we believe.

we may sing the song of life,
but each song is a reprise of the other.

an octave lower, an octave higher, with force,
with meager words. All the same words, but with
different appeals.

"I renounce this all..."

Go then and leave, but you have renounce
my ideal.

so you have renounce equality altogether...

so be it so, universally remember of course,
just let it be so...


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## Lady S (Dec 17, 2010)

*In My Head*

In my head, sounds, words -
questions.
My mind sings, screams, shouts -
vain suggestions
falling through thoughts that yell, “No!”
So how do I start to remove opposition,
when all that I see is the constant omission
of sentient thought?
I will not be caught
in this carnival of fools
who honour no rules -
but feed their fat faces
on others’ disgraces -
as one single finger
calls me to linger
and contemplate all that I see.

Search out the way to be free
and you know that the meanest 
opponent resides in your mind;
gloats at your failures, 
hinders your labours – 
says you can’t find
an answer that’s under your nose.
I’ll search no more, 
I suppose –
though the hunger within me still grows -
menstrual river saps strength as it flows
and demands that some agent will stifle the flood,
which drowns the whole world in the innocent blood
of the unborn, the forsworn, the forlorn -
the orphan who wishes he’d never been torn

from the womb.


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## Nick (Dec 17, 2010)

*The Affairs of Night*


She rode the blanket of waves,
her face like glowing marble.
My hand chased for her touch,
falling on a quick snap to reality.

She will return to me, I’m sure,
when the moon winks through clouds.
We could dance on glass fruit,
or she could pounce with lioness lust.

She can be the creatures of shadow;
The sharp teeth shining in the corner;
The crush of words haunting your courage.
Merciless in love and might, she stands.
Chemical imbalance in complex gears.

We are victims without trial, or regret,
for her kiss does guide the beating blood,
So when truth grips you, strips you of this affair,
you will still feel the thrill of Her
and the night you shared with your soul.


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## JBlanton (Dec 21, 2010)

Bond

Found within each single vessel
of our fallen human race
lies duality of nature - 
we don't live with just one face.

Though some part of us is ugly,
but yet still there's beauty there
('course we'd limit the proportions
and we'd more of beauty share).

As we live among our 'others'
and we seek to gain the best
so perhaps this knowledge helps to
love ourselves, and then the rest.


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## Edgewise (Dec 21, 2010)

Human Taxonomy

   We are only different
  by accident of geography.

  Some encourage
  otherness; _personhood_
_is a matter of taxonomy_.

  A slave *suckles* a litter,
  a noble *nurses* her child;
  history calibrates tradition
  to establish the semantics of birth.

  All children smile when they play.
  Laughter is a sign of pleasure.
  Irrespective of time or place, 
  all smiles appear the same.
_Similarity is just a word_
_and circumstance is so vague,_
_but my approval can make a human_
_if they are nurtured in the proper way._

  Dignity is not grey.
  Tongues can praise happiness 
  in any language,
  and are equally silenced 
  by its loss.
  Right cannot be earned, taken, 
  or bestowed as a gift;           
  nor born into through
  class, kingdom, order, domain
  (personhood framed by any other name).

  Taxonomists act like alchemists,
  conjure nonsense from archaic chemistry.
_The truth of power, even Darwin_
_spit on the sentiment of  equality. _

  Animals lack sentiment;
  lovers do not breed.
  Nature makes a species;
  sameness bridges our humanity.


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## Olly Buckle (Dec 25, 2010)

There was some talk in Bard's Bistro of extending the period of this round, however, as there was no real response and we have a reasonable entry I am closing the thread to entries as of now and starting a voting thread.

Happy Christmas to every one!


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