Poetry Contest
Contest Winners 2011
These Foolish Things
Poetry Contest Winner
- Photo contest winner and runner up
Contemplations
by Malo de Barneville
I am drifting
Under a dead tree
Hostage of my own thoughts
Where liberty has never felt so great and so absurd.
The water flows under me
Should I drop my watch? Just to see
Or must I sit on this ship
And let it sink
Into my reflection, dissolving
Slowly.
Elements aggregate and the sea
That once surrounded me
Has turned into an unstable monolith.
A meaningless engine made of fake plastic rock
That I cannot bypass...
I feel omitted.
A stranger.
To myself also.
And I would fall to the ground if it weren’t
For the strings holding me.
It all seems so fabricated
Wrong.
My mind plays tricks on me.
Shows me what I shouldn’t be considering.
Tries to lose me in its maze...
Better flee than be eaten by it.
Flee from this foolishness.
This vertiginous black hole
That tries to drag me into its depth...
But the more I think.
The more I seek.
The worse it gets.
It is a one way fall I am kept on.
There are no ladders to climb back up
And if I did get to the top
The walls encircling me would still be there...
Sanity’s sake gives me no choice.
Fascination for what one cannot conceive
Can shatter the unprepared.
And I’d rather walk on a floor shaped with lies
Than risk myself through the empty frame.
If forgetting is not possible.
Then.
I guess I’ll just get dumb.
And live on.
Honorable Mention
A Whisper in my Heart
by Marie-Armance Renaud
These foolish things we used to say
When nothing else would dare come out,
When our minds tangled in confusion,
Lost and unable to escape,
When our hearts spoke truthfully
And lovers could confide.
These foolish games we used to play
When darkness came; we lingered late
Hiding and seeking till dawn broke out,
So light and perfect yet so faint
When we were free to do whatever,
When we still had the time.
These foolish dreams we had sometimes
Of following the paths that lead us there
To magical illusions we wish we held
Forever and ever and after,
For ourselves and no other,
For our hopes to soon come true.
These foolish days would still go by
And we would waste them one by one.
Unaware, we did not care
It did not seem to matter,
When consequences were so distant,
And we could still escape them.
These foolish thoughts we once feared,
Thought too quickly and regretted,
So sudden, yet so sweet
Some would stare and wonder why,
Why we thought these things
And confident we would reply we still had the time.
These foolish things we felt fading,
Slipping through our fingers and
Slowly dying.
We did not notice at the time,
We thought bliss would last forever
But it seems we had been fooled.
These foolish things have been consumed
And what we had is out of reach,
Covered by ice’s thin coat,
Covered with the rotting of leaves,
Only blurry in my mind,
Still a whisper in my heart.
Collège Poetry Contest Winner
by Sarah Bourdin (troisième)
All my life I have been taught to behave
I have been told to act my best
I have been told to work hard
All my life I have not really lived
I was like a bird in a cage
Not able to fly
I was like a lion tied down
Not able to roar
I would watch from my window,
As the other kids played,
As the other kids laughed,
As the other kids were free
I used to be called the dork,
The nerd
The one who had no fun
But I dreamed of being free
I used to remember the cold rainy days
I heard the cries and the laughs of the happy children
And inside it hurt,
Inside my caged lion moaned to be free
I remember once having been able to touch freedom,
I remember the joy and the happiness it had brought me
I had once tried to run away,
That was the day I knew I would never glimpse at freedom again
But it was worth it
Not able to touch feedom
That is my biggest regret,
My biggest mistake
Collège Poetry Contest Honorable Mention
by Thaïs Cardon (cinquième)
When I was small
I used to dream of foolish things
That my bed was a ship
And I’d go on a trip
I’d light up the moon
And switch on the stars
The night was all mine
It was my turn to shine.
I’d climb the statue of liberty,
Go up the Eiffel tower
Listen to silence in Sydney Opera
Or just admire the tower of Pisa.
Now my nights are dreamless
And the mornings are too long
The moon is too blindingly bright
And the stars have flown out of my sight.
But I won’t stop trying
To make these dreams come true
These foolish things like dreaming
Are much to fun to do.
Dernière modification le 08-11-11 par
