Contest Winners

Congratulations to beneath-the-surface for winning the Contest Made of Glass! Honourable mentions also go out to Kelly-anne-17, ellierany, and ShadowedAcolyte for their wonderful and well-loved entries.

Finally, thank you to our members for coming through on voting for the entries. We really appreciate your support!

Contest Entries

_____________________________
Entrant #1 - rlkirkland

TIMED (acrostic)

The hourglass sands have fallen
Into times gone past
Maybe we will follow
Everything can’t last
Doubtless we have run our race, but my, it’s gone so fast!

Oil Lamp (mini ballad)

The crusted wick is flickering
it’s chimney glass you mark,
by smoke and fume of scented oil
doth struggle with the dark.

Reflections (palindrome)

Mirror’s glass revealed
Doors opened, beckoned here?
By and by, here beckoned opened doors.
Revealed?
Glass mirrors.

Bonk! (mini ballad)

Beer bottle broken,
oh, his head was sore.
Quickly he escaped then,
and headed out the door.

SHARD (acrostic)

Shimmering crystal
Holding light and bending
Aged chandelier..
Robbed of charm and broken
Dropped down to the floor

Grandchild (mini ballad)

Emma Lynn, that darling girl,
Shows pout for face, then runs
But eyes behind her glasses frame
Declares it all in fun

Forgotten (free verse)

The tiny glass figurine sits forgotten in a corner shelf
Unicorn of blue, sadness fills the viewer, remembering this
A treasure, now forsaken, of one new parted
Who held it dear and kept it there to stir that, now, forgotten

Felon (haiku)

Front room window sight
All flashes, noisy sirens
Cops have come for you

Stone Blind (monorhyme)

At first, I note with sidelong glance, his gaze did not seem right.  
More a stare than I would care to meet on darkened night
And then they gleamed, or so it seemed, it gave me such a fright
Just then I saw, I’ll say no more, his glass for eyes were bright
Through crystal clear, he could not peer, as they had no sight

Final Rest  (epitaph)

Not in the ground will he be found
Entombed beneath a somber mound
It’s in a vase he’s found his place
A cut glass fluted flower vase

_____________________________
Entrant #2 - Aruchel

Window

Most wondrous moments;
Lit by all that inspires us,
Seen through a window.

Heart

Hear the glass splinter,
The splitting of crystal hearts
As marriage is made.

Flower

Even coarsest sand
May be turned to a flower
From furnace's flames.

Flute

The greatest music
He never played, lived inside
A flute of old glass.

Sacrifice

Obsidian knives
Flash bright in the dawning day,
Turning to rubies.

Bottle

You make your promise
Of liquid forgetfulness.
I'll ignore you yet.

Mask

Sometimes masks of glass
Are all that we need to feel
Secured as ourselves.

Mirror

Would you ever tell
Of the faces reflected,
And the trust they gave?

Pen

This transparent tool,
Ink-dipped and pressed to paper,
Pouring out her lies.

Casket

Like Snow White before,
The apple still on her lips -
Encase me in glass.

_____________________________
Entrant #3 - marvintheparanoid

Glass Skies Pt. 1

All at once, the rain stopped falling,
And hung in the air.
Frozen yet not by cold
The sky became glass, one entity
Spread over a billion raindrops.

Glass Future

We seem to symbolise
The prospects of our destiny
With this glass bridge, in elevators
Looking out over glistening glass cityscapes.

Bloodstained Glass [Reprise]

War might break the windows,
Leave the once-sacred scattered
Over the mud-caked floor.
Yet, just as glass is swept away, these wars shall end.

Glassy Reality Broken

The stream of cloud across the moon
Is a searchlight for the perpetrators,
Those who have broken the fragile reality,
Left it in pieces
Which cannot be reconstructed.

Glass Bowed

You may indeed have an empire,
It is an empire of glass;
Taking only one bull of dissent, of love,
To destroy all that bows to you.

Fragile, Beautiful

I can see those tender glass parts
Of your body,
Their sublime delicacy, always on the brink.
Are we beautiful because we might so soon break apart?

Clockwork

Time told behind closed glass
With glass parts interlocked,
Glass hands pointing to glass-inscribed digits;
The glass pocketwatch dreams of being an hourglass.

Glass Blown

The most delicate of breaths
Might rarely change a furnace,
But the thread of passage, the way through,
Is sculpted gently amid the molten tumult.

Through Glass We Fell

Glass that doesn’t break, windows that reveal
All too much,
Leave us without time to lift our eyes alone.
We are meeting eyes through secret windows
We are falling with false boundaries between us.

Glass Skies Pt. 2

The people, too, turned to glass,
As gazing upwards at the sight,
The splashes of puddles were fixed forever
And their bemused tears ran still on their faces.

_____________________________
Entrant #4 - AlkalineTrioGirl

Vase

Vase
Fragile, Small
Holding, Watering, Being
In It, A Single Rose
Glass

Untitled

Hold a prism in your hand
You could make a rainbow
Drop the prism on the ground
The rainbow is no more

Untitled

Mirror, Mirror, On the wall
Who is coldest of us all?
You say me? Take that back!
No? Guards, give it a hack!

Untitled

There once was a key of glass
Who's owner was quite a young lass
But it never was broken,
For it was a token
Of true love being a pain in her ass

Untitled

A thousand glass shelves, all in a row
How they got there, no one knows
Each one has an item, both new and old
Some were pretty, some, were not
Why aren't they there now you ask?
No one dares to spare a thought

Careless

The people, Whom were chosen randomly
Were given glass eggs, only temporary
When those days were over and done
The number of eggs which came unbroken, Was none

Untitled

When it hails, it's raining glass
'cause the sky's so cold, the rain won't come back
When it snows, it's broken glass
So soft, so fine, cold as Ice

Untitled

My glasses, glasses of truth
Show what people think of you
Put the on, you always want to
Look through people like windows
Beautifully crafted lying windows

Untitled

Little glass man, Little glass man
Would you become human, little glass man?
Little glass man, little glass man
Can you become human, Little glass man

Window of Time

Staring through the window of the present
I stood on the side of the future,
Staring back at the past

_____________________________
Entrant #5 - shadowgeist

Glass Heart

Grab my heart and hold it gently,
for it is made of glass.

Please don't drop it, for it is fragile.
I want it to last.

Glass Paper

I wrote you a letter
on some glass paper
But I pressed too hard
and it shattered.

Glass Rain

Rain all over me
This rain of glass shall shatter
I'll step on the shards

Glass Eye

The old man's glass eye
Always scared me so badly
So I ripped it out

Glass Spider

Glass spider,
spinning its glass web
So fragile, so shiny
So easily crushed.

Glass Walls

These glass walls surround my heart.
I see those around me, they see me, too
But I can't break free.

Glass Trees

The glass trees in the glass forest
are a sight to see
Until a slight breeze picks up
and destroys everything.

Glass Candy

This glass candy
Looks so tempting
But one bite
Can be devastating

Glass Slipper

My Cinderella left me
with one reminder
Which I subsequently dropped.

Glass Bird

The bird, made of glass,
so nimble in the air.
Until it gets distracted,
crashing into my window.
They both are no more.

_____________________________
Entrant #6 - Sapient-Butterfly

Hit n Run

Forty was the deadly number,
Never even saw you come.

Was it your screen or my bones that cracked?
Just another hit and run!

Chandelier

Pear shaped glass, like raindrops,
Caught and harnessed on bits of wire.
Hung for beauty, refracting light
Across the tiles upon which
They long to shatter.

Formaldehyde

My perfection you wish to preserve,
As you screw my lid shut tight.
A ghost in this sea of formaldehyde,
New home in a jar of glass.

Cinderella Story

Where did you run to my little pumpkin?
Slipped away just like the sands of time.
Left me with nothing but this single glass slipper,
As the hour of midnight began to chime.

Lightbulb

A click and flash
Ignite the gas.
Filament shine
Bask in light, divine.

Hourglass

I can catch the sands of time,
Even as they slip away.
The seconds never truly are gone,
But stored to turn and time again.

Heart of Glass

Please take care of this fragile gift,
The heart I place into your hands.
It is ageing glass, worn too thin.
Don’t let it shatter within your grip.

Glass Eyes

I see visions of my inner self,
A reflection of my soul,
As I gaze into your glass eyes
Framed and hung upon this wall.

Lake of Glass

This water floods my lungs, to drown is such an awful death.
The surface looms above, to beat at it is wasted breath.
Vision fades with wordless gasps…
Trapped beneath this lake of glass.

Syringe

A flicker of flame and blast of heat
To ready that clouded essence.
Load the vessel of glass and steel,
A moment of pain, for
It’s poisonous release.

_____________________________
Entrant #7 - beneath-the-surface

I don’t wanna be in love

I am not strong,
I am fragile.
With broken wings
And a glass heart
Easily shattered.

I’ll live with your lies

let’s make cotton candy                     
and pretend it’s the clouds.
let’s feed each other
lies made of glass that sparkle in the sunlight
And hope they don’t break and cut

House of glass

ill make sure we whisper
and tip toe.
make no sudden movements my love,
lest our glass house come crashing down

Your Words are Your Only Weapon

each time you yell,
your words come at me like knives of glass.
sharp,
pointy,
and fatal.

And it hurts

I took my favorite moment of us,
And asked my fairy godmother to preserve it somehow.
With a whisk of her wand and a few choice words, it became glass.
The next day,
You just used it as another something to throw at me.

Darling, I believe I’ve lost my Sanity

I took everything you said,
Every “I love you baby”
and swallowed your words whole.
Though your praise felt like shards of glass going down,
atleast now I have little pieces of brilliance inside of me

CAUTION: handle with care

what if we lived in a world,
where everything was made of glass?
Love       dreams          minds      emotions?
…Maybe then we’d be more careful.

Atonement
  
If there is a god (and I’m pretty sure there isn’t),
I hope he’s got a crack in his glassy exterior,
For every single person he created,
And every single person he destroyed.

Black and white

Im water
Your fire
Im glass
Your iron

Watch out for Little Miss Glass

There’s this girl I know.
She’s been stepped on one too many times.
Like an old glass vase,
She’s got hairline cracks covering her body…
And she’s bound to break

_____________________________
Entrant #8 - Kelly-anne-17

Confinement

Sat in my cold prison- I light up another cigarette.
It is forbidden- but I don’t care.
These windows oppress- I steal gulps of air with my tiny rebellion.
They sometimes forget- I may be trapped, but I am not blind.

Mummy's Doll

As a child I would gaze longingly
Into its beautiful glass face.
My fingers itched to touch,
Yet I knew that nothing this beautiful
Could ever be allowed to break.

A Special Magnifying Glass

Standing far away,
You are magnified a thousand times.
Though you refuse to let me close,
And look into your heart,
I have my own ways of seeing.

Brittle Barriers

Eight years, we have been close,
And from time to time you forget,
That though you build these gigantic walls,
Not only can I see right through them,
But if needs be, I could melt them in seconds.

Be Strong

Don’t you dare let him break you,
This pain will come to pass.
Though I can see you are hurting,
Remember- you’re not made of glass.

Little Sister

As you cry and scream and rage
I calmly wonder why you feel the need
To shatter your own fragile heart again,
And brandish the broken glass,
Simply to try to cut me to pieces.

Forgiven

Your eyes have me locked in a dream-like trance,
Stealing my senses as you ask me to dance
Your deep glassy pools
So excitingly cruel
Make me long to give you just one more chance.

An Icy Risk

A film of glass sits before us;
You ask me to fly across it with you.
The chance to see right through,
What nobody dares to do,
Outweighs my fears of it breaking.

Terrified Temptress

My fingers seductively trace the rim;
I can see him staring, dumbstruck.
As I pour yet another glass of wine,
I smile inwardly.
He has no idea that I am as scared as he is.

A Cold Night...

Crystals are falling about me,
Glass crunches under my feet,
Diamonds hang in the pristine air,
As you’re standing with me in the street.

_____________________________
Entrant #9 - hawaiianhulagirl

Untitled

For Christmas,
You gave me a glass heart to put
All my memories and feelings inside.
Twenty-one days later, you took it
In your grip and watched it crumble in your hands.

Untitled

Enclosed,
In a glass trap,
Able to see time go by,
Yet moving nowhere.
Untouchable.

Untitled

Separated from the perfect life I see,
I place my fingertips on the glass surface,
Watching my breath fog up the image, and when
I wipe it away, the life I would never have
Is gone.

Untitled

Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Who is the happiest of them all?
I except to see a jubilant face,
But no, I see a distressed girl in her place.

Untitled

Glass so delicate and gorgeous.
Glass splintered into so many pieces when broken
Glass slices your hand, pain lancing up your arm,
A stream of crimson making its’ way down your arm.
Glass so dangerously beautiful.

Untitled

Water so clean and clear,
So smooth and translucent as glass,
You can see everything from the surface,
You can see the sky in it.
So pure.

Untitled

Replica seaweed stands stiffly erect,
Scattered colorful pebbles always still.
Drifting through the midst, a simple goldfish,
Illuminating the tank of glass
Bright against the dull background.

Untitled

He gave me a glass vase, to keep his love in,
I would always water those blooming flowers of his heart,
But one gloomy day they died and a letter came from the military—
Reading it, the vase slipped from my grip, and
Just like my love, splintered into pieces.

Untitled

Two oblong pieces of glass connected by wires,
A miracle invention helping the
Blind finally see how
Beautiful the world is.

Untitled

Lefty loosey,
Righty tighty,
Screw it in, a flick of the wrist,
Switch it on,
Watch it shine, the glass scorching.

_____________________________
Entrant #10 - ellierany

I.

Overwhelmed, the hourglass
swoons onto a desert dune.
Poised in its throat is a single
shard of sand.

II.

The roses died first.
Then the tulips, weeping bloody petals.
Then the lilies, deflowering themselves.
Soon all that was left was soggy, reeking stagnancy,
the murky glass vase.

III.

Shrunken babies’ heads, powdered heart and lung, rat bones,
planted in mulch; the hot air thick with
mauve fecundity; in the greenhouse
I grow a mutant mutiny.

IV.

Flee! Flee!
She’s using paperweights
as bombs again! The stubborn presence
of responsibility must
have angered her!

V.

I bought, for fourteen pounds ninety-nine,
one cafetiere, with insulated base and
heat-resistant handle, measuring spoon included,
just in case, you wanted, maybe, to have
coffee, (black, one sugar), with me....

VI.

Spectacles perched on animal faces
(horn-rimmed, steel-rimmed, plastic)
have the appearance of
ill-equipped alien spies.

VII.

Windows are like thick lenses
blurring the shadowed otherside’s soul so she
looks like she’s shaped by
your own shadow falling.

VIII.

Shakespeare drunk and Milton moping
(as usual), Keats on a stepladder,
helpless arms waggling;
how many poets does it take
to change a light bulb?

IX.

When I could no longer see me in the mirror
I knew I had drunk from too many of the
green bottles on the wall.

X.

The glass apple
dangles wildly
leaking sap opaque with significance
onto barren notebooks.

_____________________________
Entrant #11 - ShadowedAcolyte

To My Daughter

I wished at your birth to be as a prism,
throwing myself ahead of you, rendering
the harsh, commonplace world into
wondrous rainbows.

Later, I realized that you did exactly that for me.

Alchemy

weeping-willow strands of chandelier crystal
convert one orange light into golden cascades

Another One Was "All Of My Descendants Are Gifted, Though Some Haven't Opened The Packages Yet."

My grandmother, before she forgot them, thrived on catchprases.
My favorite, then: "Even water tastes better from a wineglass."

Seeing her now, disguised as alive by synthetic makeup
and playing Dress Up in her favorite gown,
I am inclined to disagree.

The Central Heat and Air-Conditioning Are Also To Blame

the gift and curse of window panes
to look and not smell,
to see and not hear,
to observe and not feel
the rains of spring

It Is Well Known That A Catholic Upbringing Is Inescapable, Even in Poetry

polygons are absurdly mathematic
unless tinted with repression, phobia,
and yellow guilt. Backlit, these become
religious art.

Sometimes, Inspiration Comes From The Clutter Of An Annoying Roomate

There was a glassblower from Bonne
and he blew his blown glass a bit long,
so he widened its waist
<so as not to make waste>
and from too-long glass blew a bong.

I Confess I Want To Do It Every Time

The red-letter siren with her tiny hammer
sings out seductively from the wall near the elevator.
I can barely resist her daily temptation:
"IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS."

Only Later Did She Come To This Same Revelation

she thought we were dancing on the ocean
footsteps creating islands in a volcanic chain--
we danced in truth on the rippling waters
of a slim, fragile sheet of volcanic glass.

Fragility

we cherish most
life's christmastree globes--
the delicate things--
not for their permanence

Another Kind Of Hourglass Figure

I plan to melt myself down, blow myself out round and curved
so that you can remain free-flowing, poured out into and through me
each time you wish to flip me over.

We do it, after all, to sand.

_____________________________
Entrant #12 - KamikazeGeisha

Untitled

Boredom sneaks up on me,
A cause to which the effect will be:
Bringing chaos to another’s realm.
Trail my finger ‘cross the looking glass,
Release my power― let the games begin.

Untitled

If I were doll,
Made of glass,
Would you handle my fragile body with care
Or be thoughtless
And allow me to crack?

Untitled

Crystal heart:
I see right through.
Glass veins,
pumping warmth into
my cold body― in need of love from you.

Untitled

No vision natural
In a world of prosthetic beings.
I have kept my physical hands,
Crafting wit my warmth and breath:
Glass pupils― to take my reality in.

Untitled

Slip into a perfect fit
Glass sandal-shoe―
Wrapped around my deformed limb
As though made of velvet.
I never felt so special, So normal. In all my life.

Untitled

Membrane Portal to: Underwater Realm
They swim as though floating on air, breathe water; living without work, worries…
Unaware of my world but for glass
They move without flippers to propel, coated with fur; living without nurture, predators
Membrane Portal to― Waterless Realm.

Untitled

Surrounded― see-through walls, hard as diamond when you’re only human.
Encased― glass burial, cushioned head but not comforted.
Can you see me as I lie in an unreal sleep, eyes open?
Can you hear my shallow breathing as I lie, without oxygen?
Or will I remain entombed: alive in my grave, without Knight to save my mortal frame?

Untitled

With the Bell jar
Suffocating my thoughts and lungs,
I have no more mind;
My purpose solely surrounds: the struggle to escape.

Untitled

The Hollow Men storm past.
I see through their glass bodies; never stuffed.
Wondering, who they were
Before
We let them become human no more.

Untitled

They said her flowers were made of paper
And the trees: hollow, hidden, glass.
Another world consisting of harmony and aria― purple skies.
Brought forth for Forty-eight minutes, Fifty seconds
Just to show me for a moment: heaven.


Contest Details

This contest is for all our members, Aficianados, Readers, and Writers alike, but there are two different ways to participate. Readers can participate in Version 1, Writers can participate in Version 2, and Aficianados can do both. This contest has prizes, not just bragging rights (but you get that too).

Version 1

This version is for the Readers and the Aficianados.

Here, we want you to browse DeviantArt for poems that use glass imagery. We want you to find 10 poems that have different glass objects in them. Simple shards of glass don't count, we want things made out of glass. In addition, you can't repeat objects or authors. So, by the time you're done browsing, you should have found 10 different glass objects in 10 different poems, by 10 different authors. Let's provide you with a couple of examples: =Miss-Deathwish wrote a poem called Glass Jars with, you guessed it, glass jars in it and `ATrue has a poem called He Gave Me A Rose that has a glass rose in it. You can't use these poems in your selections. When you've found your 10, post all ten links as a comment on this deviation, which a notation beside each indicating what object is contained within. Essentially, this is a race, so get browsing!

Version 2

This version is for the Writers and the Aficianados.

We're asking you to write 10 different poems using a different glass object image in each. These poems are to be short, 5 lines or less. You can make them all haikus, or they can be free verse, anything you want as long as you use strong images of glass in each. They also should all be different concepts, not the same idea in all 10 just replacing the glass object. You may want to do some browsing for inspiration, or you can just write from your own existing repetoire. When you're done, submit your ten poems to us in one note, including a title for each if you wish, but don't submit your poems as a deviation. All entries must remain anonymous until the voting process is done. This is not a race, so take your time writing high quality entries; the goal is to get the most votes after all entries have been submitted.

Contest Prizes

The winner of each Version will receive a 3 month subscription or a print of equal or lesser value from `ATrue. If an Aficianado wins both, they will receive both prizes.

As an added bonus, the Reader that wins Version 1 will get three votes which they can apply any way they choose to the entries for Version 2: all to one entry, or to three separate ones, or split the votes unevenly between two entries.

Contest Rules

1. You must be a member of PoetryPlease by the deadline of March 31, 2009 if you wish to submit to this contest.
2. Only Aficianados may submit for both versions, while Readers may only submit to Version 1 and Writers may only submit to Version 2.
3. For Version 2 entrants, your poems must not be submitted as a deviation. Send your entry in the body of a note with Glass Entry in the subject.
4. Your entry for either version must be received by 10pm EST on March 31, 2009. Version 1 entrants should have posted their comment and Version 2 entrants should have sent their notes by that time.
5. All Version 2 entries are to remain anonymous until the voting process is completed.
6. When voting begins, votes may be sent either by note with Contest Vote in the subject line, or left as a comment on this deviation. If a comment is left, only the number of the poem may be included otherwise the vote will be invalid.