Hello!!!! In anticipation of Neil Gaiman's newest collection of short stories and other yummy things, Fragile Things, we are having a contest! We will be giving away three (3) books in which certan short stories from Fragile Things were originally published.

These prizes are :

*Legends II edited by Robert Silverberg (isbn 0345456440), with the short story Monarch of the Glen

*Noisy Outlaws (etc) the McSweeney's book with the short story Sunbird

*Mammoth book of new comic fantasy (three pages slightly damaged) with the short story Faceless Slaves.

But don't just think we're giving them away for nothing. Uh oh. Dweller in Darkness and I want something. No, no, not your souls. No worries. We just want you to write us a poem about a (1) fragile thing. Nothing fancy. Doesn't even have to rhyme. It can be worse than Vogon poetry. Really. Quality doesn't matter. Much like a 4 year old's finger painting, it's the thought that counts.

It DOES need to be yours. We will not accept any admissions that were written by someone other than yourself. Even if yer granny wrote it and she gave you permission. That's not good enough for us. We want something that's yours and yours alone.

Here's the nitty gritty :

Intent:
To celebrate the publication of Neil Gaiman’s latest collection of short stories, “Fragile Things.”

How to play:

• Write a poem about a fragile thing. Doesn’t have to be good. Doesn’t have to rhyme. But it does have to be a poem about a fragile thing. It also has to be written by you. Plagiarists will be automatically disqualified.
  
• Send a Private Message to Dweller in Darkness and myself (aitapata) with the following items :
  -Your handle/ID on the message board
  -your poem
  -A list of which prizes you don't own
  -Your mailing address

Rules:
The same as last year: What Dweller and I says goes.
Sorry, but it solves any contradictions or complaints from the get-go. We’re not professional rules writer. Now go check out the guidelines.

Guidelines:

• Contest is open to Neil Gaiman message board posters who posted on the board prior to September 12, 2006 who aren't banned or currently suspended.
  
• The contest will run from September 12th until September 26th , 2006. Prize winners will be posted on September 27th (Eternals #4 Day!) .
  
• Max of one prize per poster. Max of one entry, even if the poster has multiple handles.
  
• If you don't want any of the prizes or you don't want to supply me with a mailing address to send a prize to, you can still play, because it’s fun. Just indicate on your entry that you don’t want to win anything.
  
• You may only win prizes you don't already have (Therefore, if you own all the prizes, you can't win anything. But then, if you're then only person who doesn't have a prize, that'd be an automatic win!)
  
• The prizes are duplicates from GMZoe’s collection. Many are not mint. We consider this a reading-copy contest.
  
• If Harpers, Authors on the Web or Mr.Gaiman asks us to take this down, no prizes will be awarded. This contest has no affiliation to any of them.
  
• Names will be drawn from a hat (or a purse) (or a large bowl) (or a small bowl) (or some other sort of containment unit). THIS IS NOT A MERIT BASED CONTEST. We are not judging your poem. We are merely putting your name into a hat. The poem is just to make it interesting for Dweller and I
  
• Dweller and I know lots of people here. We have many good friends on this board. ANYONE who meets the above criteria can enter. This includes roommates and wives. We are fair and honest people. We do not cheat and we do not play favorites (when it comes to prizes, at least....). If TheatreGeek Amy should win a prize, it's because her name got pulled out of a hat completely by chance, not because she's my roommate. Got it? If you don't like that, you don't have to play.

....well, that's all we can think of... Good luck!

If you have any questions, please post them here. Do not post your poems here! We'll do that for you AFTER the winners have been announced.

Also, I'm going to try to post pics of the prizes tomorrow.

(Jim, feel free to edit this post as you see fit.)

[Dweller: Changed my real name into my more commonly known posting name, just for consistency - although that you think of my real name when you think of friends says much, Amymod, and all good.]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dweller in Darrkness,

Question #1 :

quote:

[01:11] Anonymous Poster: aren't you worried about PM buildup?
[01:11] Anonymous Poster: it's like plaque
[01:11] Anonymous Poster: nasty.
[01:11] aitapata: nah. we're going to delete them when it's over

quote:

Originally posted by aitapata:
Question #1 :

quote:

[01:11] Anonymous Poster: aren't you worried about PM buildup?
[01:11] Anonymous Poster: it's like plaque
[01:11] Anonymous Poster: nasty.
[01:11] aitapata: nah. we're going to delete them when it's over

The style seems familiar.

ooh. i can write a bad poem. i can write a bad poem in a HEARTBEAT. wicked.

I've written LOTS of bad poetry! The only thing is, I don't particularly want anyone to read it!

sweet. I'll try to come up with something.

out of curiousity, do we have to write the poem for the contest, or can we use a poem we already have that happens to be about a fragile thing?

You may use a poem that you have written in the past that just so happens to be about a fragile thing. That's totally fine.

Sounds fun.
I'll give it a go, too.

D

I picked up my copy of FRAGILE THINGS and is it a beautiful book. I've not read Neil's short fiction before and I am really enjoying it. Run don't walk to get your copy.

Sooty

WINNERS!!!!!! of the contest :


* Matt Cable
* Silly Vagabond Punk
* St Boudicca


All participants, please feel free to post your poems now! There were some really really great ones out there!

quote:

Originally posted by aitapata:
WINNERS!!!!!! of the contest :


* Matt Cable
* Silly Vagabond Punk
* St Boudicca

Congratulations to the winners!

D

*Faints some more*



Thank you very much!

Here be my poem:

Bendy bendy bendy ruller.
Oh shatter resistant and made in England.
Bendy bendy bendy.
*snap*
Ye is not bendy, oh fragile ruler.
Bum.
That's what I get for buying cheap stationery.
I now only measure up to 13.4cm, or from 8".

Congrats to the winners, I'm not bitter, just brimful of jealous rage.

Here is my poem, entitled "If Samuel Coleridge Taylor was alive today, he'd turn in his grave"

ahem...


In Xanadu did Kublai Khan,
Decree a great big Pottery Barn,
Be built and filled (with greatest care)
With all kinds of fabulous earthenware

The riches of Cresus were made to a mockery
Compared to the jewel-studded, gold-plated crockery
That came from all corners of India and China,
In matters of taste there was simply none finer.

But of all these treasures in Kubalai’s hoard
T’was not the richest that he most adored
But a crudely hand painted mass-produced plate
Made for the great Khan on his first ever date

(All nervous he went with his young bride-to-be
To a place where you paint your own potter-ee
He drew a pink heart on a dish, by her name,
She wrote on her plate “dude, this is SO lame”)

Pity then the poor lad on his first day of work,
Who caused the great Khan to go straight berserk
Dusting too rashly, a fault common in teens,
He fumbled, it tumbled and was smithereens

“Here is the lesson, too late were you taught it”
Quoth Khan in his fury “you broke it, you bought it”
And unto the cleaner was rendered great harm
He broke a few plates and bought the whole farm

This tale has no moral, I can ill afford ‘em
Like Coleridge I wrote it whilst strung out on laudnam
Great art dwells in silence, the message unspoken
(And men’s pates, like plates, are easily broken)

Well done!

D

Woohoo!

Here's mine:

This is a true story. My suitemate was...entertaining.

Ode to my college suitemate:

Sleepy Pat woke up groggy.
He stumbled into a wall with morning wood
And was sure he broke his Johnny.

Here's mine...

I've changed the title six times--being the anal retentive person that I am. Okay...

Sanity

Lucidity is a vial of glass
Upon a weathered mast—
For some it fell and burst apart
Dashed in tempest past.

The storms will come
To roar and blast—
Caring not
Whose flagon’s smash’d.

One may boast
Of stalwart stay—
To glean their phial
In splinters lay.

Brace the spar
Against the gale!—
One endures
Another fails.

Cherished flask upon the mast
I love thee above all—
Oh! Be not undone in raging blast
And spurn me in the fall.


D

Hope

a harsh word and
it breaks
an unthinking glance and
it is lost
unattainable faith
no substitute
where can you look for reassurance
for belief
for anything other than despair

not here
not here

bask in my uber lameness!!

snowflake poem

falling from the sky
falling miles and miles
from up on high

drifting, swirling by
whipping and weaving
from up on high

downward on the fly
finally touching down
from up on high

it is there to lie
a second, a year
from up on high

a random passer by
kills the snowflake
from up on high

there it was to die
like many snowflakes
from up on high

congratulations, poetry winners!