POETRY - SUPER POWER

This month's competition theme was SUPER POWER, as set by our guest speaker Paul Eccentric. We decided that for this month, writers can submit a Flash Fiction entry as well as a Poetry entry - either one of each or two of the same kind. Below are the Poetry entries. For the Flash Fiction entries, please click here.

Results were announced at our meeting on 22nd August.

FLASH FICTION:

1st Place - Mike Lansdown For I Have Sinned
2nd Place - Sumi Watters The Invisible People
3rd Place - Helen Nicell Bottling The Sunshine
4th Place - Ian Welland All Shapes and Guises

POETRY:

1st Place - Liz Shaw Alpha and Omega
2nd Place - Mike Lansdown Knave
3rd Place - Andrea Neidle A Super Powerful Thank You
4th Place - Louise Welland X Ray Specs

ENTRY 1

ASTRONAUTS by Jan Rees

High among the diamond stars

A great ship is moving across the heavens

To my untutored eye its shape and purpose do not easily relate

And yet it is – a laboratory

a life-support system

a home

It gives shelter to men who are – scientists, explorers

and pioneers

As they float along its corridors in their weightless dance

They measure and monitor

They record and relay

They prepare and predict

What they discover may benefit generations to come

What they are doing inspires us today

As I watch them from this small planet questions come

Do they still wonder at the beauty of the earth

As they gaze upon it by day and by night?

Do they miss its colour and light in their dark and silent surroundings?

Do they wonder if they will breathe sweet earthly air again?

And which is the greater – their knowledge or their courage?

For both are key to their success

Their very survival depends on their work as a team

A lesson for us, if we would only learn.

ENTRY 2

ONCE UPON A TIME by Louise Welland

As a child I had a dream
To which I remained true
To meet a rich and handsome prince
And hear him say 'I do'

I'd float so gracefully down the aisle
I'd hear those church bells chime
I knew he would love only me

Until the end of time

At sweet 16 the prince appeared

And I could not resist
He looked me over, checked my past
Then … checked his shopping list

I was watched, groomed, and tested
Like the princess and the pea
And when they were quite satisfied
They hand-picked little me

My dream had come to life it seemed
But then appeared some cracks
The dream became a nightmare

But there was no turning back

I was like the sleeping beauty
Who awoke one day to find
That the man I was now married to
Could be rather unkind

Not even quite as handsome

As he had looked or seemed
And I was sadly wakened from

My fairy princess dream

The prince was clearly so in love
But not to whom he chose
His love was for a thorny stem
Not his hand-picked English rose

My power to make my dreams come true
Had sadly waned and left
And I was named the lonely one

Heartbroken and bereft

My happy ever after dream
Was my innocent, only crime
And what remains is sadness

For the land, for all of time

ENTRY 3

KNAVE by Mike Lansdown

I’d had that dream many times before:

Where I spread my arms, and I leave the floor

And then unseen by others’ eyes

Quietly take to the open skies…

...and thus, I rise above the crowds

A distant speck beyond the clouds

To soar

Then swoop

Amongst the people

As they move

Like ants

‘Neath tower and steeple.

When a fleeting shadow blocks the sun

My knavish journey has just begun

I’m Arial

Puck

Will o’ the Wisp

I come then melt like the morning mist

And their perplexion only makes me bolder

To pluck at hair and tap on shoulder

And then on bough, or shelf, or sill

I’ll sit and watch and laugh until

I bore of their brutish, childish, ways

And I spread my arms and slowly raise

My eyes once more to the skies above

To join the kestrels, swifts, and doves.

My eyelids flutter

The dawn is nigh

Today’s dawn chorus

Fills the sky

And on my pillow

A timeless treasure

A freshly plucked

Kestrel’s feather.

ENTRY 5

X RAY SPECS by Louise Welland

I see right through you
I know who you are
Your fake smile
Nose in the air
Thinking that you are

Better than
Smarter than
Prettier than

I hear your thoughts
Like you, they are wrong
So very wrong

And whilst everyone else falls beneath your spell
I see you contemplating why
I hold a frozen smirk upon my lips

You try, oh so hard, to break through my frosty exterior
To convince me of how charming and compassionate you are

I squirm as I watch you seduce the vulnerable

with your magnetic, manipulative charm

I see the puzzled look that flits across your face
As you hold your head at that charismatic jaunty angle

And I "hear" your thought
"What do I have to do to? What will it take to win her over?"

Yet I carry on smiling
For I know who you really are
I know what you are trying to achieve

I may not be superwoman
I don't need to be
I see right through you

ENTRY 6

ALPHA AND OMEGA by Liz Shaw

Where there is power, I am already there

Ready to twist and corrupt

I am there when firestorms come to your door

I am there when volcanoes erupt

I ride the tsunami, I scream in the wind

I thrive in famine and war

I am there in miasma, filth and disease,

In the blood on the torturer’s floor

Four horsemen swear allegiance to me

As they gallop wild-eyed through the land

I am used as a tool for tyrants to rule

I was there on the cross when the nail pierced His hand

Born of ignorance, the mother of hate

I am the worm in jealousy’s ear

I am there at the start in your new-born’s first cry

I am in at the death as you draw your last breath

I am fear

ENTRY 7

A SUPER POWERFUL THANK YOU by Andrea Neidle

Who’s the super power

In your everyday life?

Is it your husband, your partner

Your wife?

Is it your mother

With never a moan

Who looks after the kids

When you’re not at home?

Is it the cleaner

Who takes care of the chores

Who does all the ironng

And cleans all your floors?

Is it the teacher

Who was patient with you

Prepared you for exams

And helped you get through?

Is it your neighbour

Who puts out the bin

Keeps an eye on the house

When you are not in?

Is it the doctor

Who looks after you

Who came to your home once

When you had the flu?

Super powers come

In all shapes and sizes

They’re ordinary people

And not in disguises

They quietly get on

With the jobs that they do

Without them you’d be lost

And I would be too.

ENTRY 8

I AM SPECIAL by Ann Crago

I am very special

I feel special

I have a secret superpower

I have been gifted this but it was never wrapped

It is a privilege not afforded to everyone

I am not unique. It is shared by many

I look the same as all the others, but we all wear different skins

You cannot see my superpower just by looking

You cannot hear it or smell it

You cannot buy it but you might borrow it

It may never touch your life

You won’t ever need to call on my superpower

You may have the same

You might not

No one can tell from looking at you

It’s a power than can change lives and cause immense pain

It’s a power many crave, often unknowing it’s strength

I can mend hearts and minds but I am not a surgeon.

I can influence and develop but I am not a teacher

I can dry tears and shed them myself

It is a quiet power with no need to shout.

My superpower?

I am a mum.

ENTRY 9

SAVING GRANNIES by Helen Nicell

I wish I could fly through the sky

Or maybe have x-ray vision

Climb up the side of a building

Rescuing grannies would be my mission

Swim underwater, for hours and hours

Hear something miles away

Anyone of these super powers

If only for a day?

But heroes don’t have to wear capes

We can go to different lengths

You might be someone to give advice

We all have different strengths

Maybe you can just sit and listen

Be a good friend and true

Turn up with a cooked meal

When you feel it’s the right thing to do

Offer to do someone’s shopping

Be willing to go the extra mile

Surely the best Super Power

Is to make someone smile

So wear your pants over your tights

Your heart outside your vest

When wishing for super heroes

You really could be the best

ENTRY 10

THE SAD STORY OF LITTLE JOHNNY WHO THOUGHT HE COULD FLY by Andrea Neidle

Little Johnny whiled away the hours

Reading about the super powers.

He told his sisters and his brothers

He had the power of healing others.

When his mum was busy cooking

He crept up on her when she wasn’t looking.

“I know what is!” He’d say with a yell

“Because I have the power of enhanced smell!”

He told his friends he could see in the dark.

“Trying it out would be such a lark!

Who needs to watch the television?

Life’s much more fun when you have night vision.”

“Better still,” he announced one night

“I’m going to try the power of flight.

It works for my heroes so why not for me?

I’ll test it out just wait and see!”

“I’ll wait till everyone’s in bed

That way will be easier,” he said.

His friends cried that he’d surely die.

But he thought he had the power to fly.

The moral of this little story

Is don’t look for super power and glory.

Jonny was still such a very young lad

And the ending of his life so sad.