Poetry contest submissions for your review

Chris Corrigan corcom at interchange.ubc.ca
Mon May 1 15:58:43 PDT 2000


Greetings one and all:

Attached you will find all of the entrants to the 2nd Biannual OSLIST
Restricted Form Poetry Contest for you review.  As usual, the poems have
been numbered so that blind judging can proceed.  You will note that a
couple of the poems don't meet the proscribed form.  Nothing like
predetermining an outcome to ruin things, so I included them here.
Whatever happens...

The process is simple.  Vote for your favourite one by sending me an
email message (offlist to reduce bandwidth) stating the number of your
choice.  You have until Friday May 5 at 11:59 PST (Canada) (that's 6 May
0800 UTC) to ruminate upon the offerings and provide your vote to me.
You can only vote once.

I was thinking of using MultiVote for this, but decided that the cost
would have exceeded the Contest's budget by $200 or so.

Thanks to all who submitted entries.  The winner will receive a copy of
the Tao of Pooh, the right to refer to oneself as the OSLIST Poet
Laureate for the next six months and the responsibility of launching the
3rd Biannual OSLIST Restricted Form Poetry Contest in October.

Get ready...here they come!


#1
TRANSFERENCE

I ring the bells,
I talk.... I walk...
around a circle pregnant
with skepticism and fear

Open Space, open mind
open spirit and let
the process of osmosis,
deeply permeate your soul.

Sparkling chandeliers reflect the
silent emotions onto ceilings,
while bare, unpainted walls
anticipate the tape invasion.

Now engaged, the circle
animates the Space, assumes
control, assaults the walls -
and silently I pray.
------------------------------------------------
#2

will it work again?
look at them gathered.
I did not sleep
a wink, as usual.

except for a dream:
grandma Shoshanna beckons me
to walk beside her -
narrow Carpathian shtetl path.

begin the circle walk.
slowly speak familiar words,
and beneath them, hers:
I love you - you -

come, have some soup,
tell us your story!
rooms alive with conversation
time for a nap.
---------------------------------------------
#3

Metamorphosis

You enter the circle
with eyebrow cocked slightly -
the self-assured look saying ...
"Show me, show me..."

You meet my gaze,
curious, as I walk
the circle and open
our space for being...

You smile at the
Law and the Principles
and jump first, artfully
introducing your passionate topic.

You say your truth.
You listen to others.
You initiate action teams.
You leave saying "wow"...
------------------------------------------------
#4

My being stretches open
I allow your witnessing,
Offering an invitation and
You come - your way

I am out here
With you - sweet acceptance!
You are in me
I am in you

We dancing souls move,
Undulating together and apart
Flowing in, then out
Separate yet still one

I hold the space
You orchestrate the dance
Believing in the invisible
That believes in us
----------------------------------------
#5

Yearning, churning, burning, learning
Starts the grand adventure;
Opening, widening, rounding, bounding
Spirit in the circle.

Working, lurking, harking, sparking,
People moving and connecting;
The butterflies and bumblebees
Buzzing, humming and intersecting.

Nearing ending, clearing heads,
Ideas and new connections;
Verging, converging, mounting, counting
We forge new directions.
-------------------------------------------------------
#6

CHOICE!
-------------------------------------------------------
#7

Run On Open Space


I may enter now
Time as we are
And want to be
So join me please

Take our chance here
It's no more than
You dare every day
Or have we forgotten

The choice before us
Brings us home again
It carries us down
Through blood and up

Toward dreams we have
Already today's fresh breath
Caught us moving on
A journey most sweet
----------------------------------------
#8

''How does OS work?'
'Beats me!' smiles facilitator,
'but what I can
tell you is this:

Whenever people gather to
treat each other well,
something quite magical happens
as fire souls emerge.'

'That's a stirring image!
What does it mean?'
'People whose dancing eyes
express readiness to converse.

Experiencing this has changed
our people and organization
forever, and we now
connect with unbridled joy.'
-------------------------------------------
#9

OPEN SPACE

You have arrived here
before, burning for air,
surfacing in a circle
of early spring lakewater

with loons around you.
Did even the ones
who love you understand
why you stepped off

the dock into black
water?  The beckoning voice
was so soft: consider
the lilies.  We carve

that first time into
a monument of birdsong
and hand eachother deeper
trust, easily, like sandwiches.
--------------------------------------------------
#10





--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683.3036

(GO LEAFS GO!)



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