'Another Creation Myth'
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Deciding on a theme for Hour of Writes is a tricky business. It must be precise enough to inspire writers to create pieces with clear connections to the theme, but broad enough that each entry will be unique. Of all things Attack And Receive could have been inspired by, it came from a playing card in the franchise that dominated my childhood: Yu-Gi-Oh. With such an aggressive phrase, I was hoping for war, embittered couples, and intrigue. I was delighted to find all this, alongside some whimsy.
I was immediately drawn to Entry 3155, which explores a situation too many of us will be familiar with. It reminds us that those who suffer from violence often turn to violence, that this cycle is not easily broken. Entry 3155 also shows that there can be a lot of power in simple language.
Entry 3160, Red Poppy Boy (gets what’s coming to him), has a lovely rhythm that drives the reader through a story of addiction and consequence. This can be seen especially in the second stanza, with: ‘an A1 stealer / all state receiver / a total syringe believer’. Successfully employing rhythm always makes a poem more compelling.
With Entry 3163, we see a regular structure and rhythm used to great effect. The images were very vivid, essential for communicating a story with such a degree of movement and as many changes in scene. I particularly enjoyed the shift in scale in:
‘Zipping through the midges and the dragonflies / We crest the spikes and fall into a murderous scrum’,
making the poem more dynamic and cinematic.
For me, Entry 3159 was the obvious winner. Gentle and concise, the piece takes us ‘inch by inch’ through a race. The poem is dense with imagery, and it is a credit to the author that they evoked such a strength of feeling in me with so few lines. I keep returning to:
‘The last water gone / Like legs / with nothing left / except blisters, cramp, / tiredness beyond enduring’,
drawn by its subtlety of rhythm and simplicity of language.
Thank you to everyone who entered. Judging this competition was a wonderful excuse to sit down, have a cup of tea, and immerse myself in varied poetry and prose. You each responded to the prompt differently, making this process an absolute pleasure. I hope you all continue to write great work for Hour of Writes, and for yourselves.
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About The Judge
Jack Cooper works at the University of Oxford, in a laboratory that uses the sexual courtship of fruitflies as a model to understand core features of development and behaviour. His poetry has been longlisted for the National Poetry Competition, and shortlisted for The New Poets Prize and Segora Poetry Competition amongst others. Stephen King, Final Fantasy, and K-Pop are the great loves of his life.
m
me
mmm
hum
me humming
me hearing
Sound
me
me seeing
Light
me
feel
me feeling
Touch
me
me tasting
Taste
sweet sour bitter
I am
I know
I float weightless... in what?
I grow
I have no end
I am light I am sound I am matter
What else is there?
There is nothing
I am alone
Empty space surrounds me
I need
I need something
Energy strums through me
It leaves me in flashes of light and matter
These fly from me
I will call them stars
They are myriad
They move together, gather, explode, implode
Become solid
Each one a giant burning mass
Around it lumps of matter
They circle it
They become spheres
They spin
They are rock
They are air
They are water
Elements form
Amino acids, proteins
Forming cells
They divide
They form organisms
These live, grow, change, die
They come from seeds, from spores
They settle
Other creatures come
They live, they move, they eat what is there
The creatures make more in their own likeness
They are myriad like the stars
Some live in earth, some in water, some in air
They are huge, they are large, they are small, they are tiny
They are diverse
Some come from eggs
Some hide their flesh within a shell
Some have bone within and flesh outside
These make more creatures within themselves
The new creatures eat what is there
They grow, reproduce and die
Their bodies return to earth and nourish it
Eons pass
More creatures emerge, change, grow and die
More eons pass
The creatures start to act with purpose
They know each other
They speak to each other
They wonder at the world around them
Together they change the world
They look for meaning
Imagine a being who created them
They imagine me
Now I know who I am
I am god