Word Wizard Competition
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This is a monthly writing exercise to get the poetic juices flowing. It used to be very a popular writing activity first with
Shadow Poetry's online writing group and then with the subscribers to its former magazine, the SP Quill. It has now been reformulated
for all Shadow Poetry visitors. Are you up to the word wizard challenge?
Challenge: To write a poem of 8 to 40 lines, in any form, using all fifteen words from the list below. You may use any form of the words given such as
“excite" can be changed to “excited” or “exciting” Entry is free. (All of the words have been added to the Magnet Word Poetry board for further writing assistance.)
Poems must be typed with poet’s name and mailing address in the top left-hand corner.
The Word Wizard Competition words must be underlined within the poem for easy reference.
If submitting more than one poem, each poem must be typed on a separate sheet. A #10 (business size) SASE required. Entries will be returned.
Limit of three poems per poet per month.
Prize: One winner to receive a Word Wizard Competition ribbon and the winning entry will be featured on Shadow Poetry.
Deadline: December 31, 2013 (in hand, not postmarked)
Sorry, entries cannot be accepted electronically. Mail poem entries to:
Shadow Poetry
ATTN: Word Challenge Competition
1209 Milwaukee Street
Excelsior Springs, MO 64024 USA
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November 2013 Word List: No Word List
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No Winner for November 2013 - No Running Competition or Word List
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October 2013 Word List: haunted, October, pumpkin, trick, treat, witch, ghouls, costumes, spider, night, ghost, moon, Halloween, skeleton, candy
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No Winner for October 2013 - No Entries
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September 2013 Word List: pushing, crippled, control, nothing, inside, dying, breathless, stricken, heal, abyss, spirit, hurricane, forsaken, resurrect, plague
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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Rattled Mind
Stifled within, are my cried,
A hollowed heart beats inside.
Crippled and stricken by her demise,
For the healing to begin, I bide.
Plagued by sorrows of my loss,
Regrets and guilt pushed me to abyss,
Forsaken, and forlorn, I felt like dross,
While everything around seemed remiss.
A hurricane of events then followed,
Consumed and breathless, I was left.
In this home of hers, hallowed,
I stood, in spirit — broken and bereft.
Nothing could have been controlled,
Beyond me were the incidents.
Into my own thoughts, I got holed,
And my soul when bared was in rents.
Dying words were subtly pointed out,
That grave burden was for me to carry,
I shall resurrect her now departed clout,
And my own grief, deep down I shall bury.
Anya Padyam
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August 2013 Word List: mourning, summer, whimsical, bloom, green, unlock, treasure, behold, weep, frost, journal, fever, justice, magic, freedom
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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Summers Is Not Lost
Autumn's here! my lilies bloom;
though frost is forecast news.
Gorgeous flowers face their doom,
I mourn the garden blues.
Weep with me for dawn brings death
of treasured white and green.
Wait! behold, can baby's breath
warm up this chilly scene?
Journal pictures show a glimpse -
what magic buds unlocked.
Freedom's drop in autumn temps
is foiled by fever's shock.
Whimsi-cal la lily thrives,
while justice comes to frost.
Precious baby's breath survives
so summer is not lost.
Reason A. Poteet
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July 2013 Word List: peeling, lamplight, antique, dirty, loft, torched, paint, crunch, crime, switch, gallery, decay, empty, chips, wallpaper
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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Amnesiac
The gallery of my mind is empty.
Portraits faded and aged beyond recognition,
Crumbled and crunched away in the loft of my memory.
Is it a crime to long again for their splendor?
I switch off the light, beckoning sleep.
There, I pray the colors will flow to life again,
Illuminating forgotten faces until they are no longer strangers.
But it's then I realize...
The antique lamplight has torched the wallpaper of my thoughts;
Peeling back the dirty paint,
Fragile chips of plaster that once held me together.
In dreams I see the reality.
The canvases were painted with noting but decay.
Dorian J. Harper
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June 2013 Word List: wondrous, anew, travel, ancient, country, perched, gleaming, sanctuary, crude, history, homestead, weeds, gnaw, patches, eager
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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Forget Me Not
Ancient thoughts gnaw at my soul
With eagerness anew
Memories of my homestead
Gleaming sharp and crude.
I long for wondrous travels.
But, my country's history fades.
Spilth weeds replace the memory cells.
Profound Lethe invades.
The patches of my memory
Like dreams that fade away,
Are plagued with holes and grayness
As I cling to yesterday.
I still exist. Although my thoughts
Are scattered un-voluntarily
Perched in a prison with no bars nor walls...
My self-made sanctuary.
Joyce J. Schuler
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May 2013 Word List: umbrella, breezy, humor, peaceful, sandals, cascade, seashells, glance, waves, dolphin, bottle, calm, glass, silver
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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Dolphin Bodies
A tenuous line flickers, silver and
Unsteady, between the semantic realms
Of humourous wit and horrifying
Hollowness. I sometimes try tiptoeing
That line, careful, mindful of being watched,
As my sandals skim the foamy waves.
But not so unline Jesus' calm triumph
Over physics, my quiet feat of wrestling
Words loose from language - their wriggly forms set
Cascading forth past throngs of glassy eyes --
So trickles into anonymity.
Slippery and pearlescent, freed from their
Nets of fabrications and assumptions,
These effusive, sparkling syllables
Shine like seashells in a breezy, sun-lit
Mist; their dolphin bodies slide peacefully
Beneath the surface, uncomprehended.
Swimming beyond the ancient influence
Of the Proto-Indo-European
Umbrella's tyranny over human vision,
At what cost have the words, indeed, escaped?
We float in a bottle of repression,
Embracing phantoms within the same glance
In which we disparage passion and substance.
When confused, we nod with self-assurance;
When certain, we guard ourselves with caution.
Ever buoyant, we yet shun true laughter
To save ourselves from incredulous tears.
Stephanie Harper
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April 2013 Word List: invisible, park, flame, dark, stone, dance, meditate, evening, damp, reveal, mask, downpour, tunnel, mysterious, young
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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Only a Moment
a young flame
dances through
an evening
in the park
a mysterious tunnel
of excitement
keeps the fire alive
in the dark
an invisible
stone wall
causes spirits
to meditate
dampness turns
to a downpour
stripping masks
to reveal fate
Karen O'Leary
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March 2013 Word List: wildflowers, whispers, gladly, serene, forest, starlight, misted, map, future, fireplace, resume, trail, tumbling, reason, butterfly
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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Travel by Starlight
Though the map has led me to a future
That reason could never have presumed,
And I have embraced this trail's unfolding
Story, like an old forest embraces
The most tender, quivering, new creatures
Engenered in its fertile underbrush,
Gathering chaste courage to reach above,
In the starlight of dreams I would gladly
Resume that serene drive past misted fields
Of wildflowers bending their heads dimly
Toward immature roots as they settle
Into the sun-warmed peat beneath, their hues
Muted by the dusk tumbling softly
From the sky like a swarm of butterflies.
As I recall keeping pace with vast hay
Bales rolling themselves into great carpets,
Lining themselves up along the roadside
Just so, my heart flutters with nostalgia
For the summer thunderstorms, the midnight
Whispers between crickets and cicadas
and ancient oaks' songs that once defined me.
I've turned the map on its head, made east west
And west east, while searching out and finding
The Northern Lights flickering above me;
However majestic and surreal these
Wraths' dances may remain, their hold on me
Is fleeting. My dreamy reverie is
No more solemn - nor gratuitous - than
The gas fireplace crackle that has roused me.
Stephanie Harper
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Feburary 2013 Word List: flap, dreamy, duty, pondered, shrug, strip, valley, obscure, spectacle, scrumptious, harvest, wax, blot, know, questions
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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The Decision
I ponder what lies
ahead in the strip
of valley called home.
With Dad's recent heart
problems, the harvest
blots out all else.
As my tires spin on
the obscure gravel road,
my mind rolls too.
Despite shrugs from staff,
I know my duty as son
far outweights being editor.
The rooster crows and flaps
his white wings. I laugh
at the spectacle he makes.
Mom and Dad are waving
and smiling on the porch.
Love is in their embrace.
We share a scrumptious
meal in peace as wax
slides down the candles.
Questions wait for dawn.
I slip into a dreamy fog
so glad to be home.
Karen O'Leary
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January 2013 Word List: doubt, frost, gray, size, tight, drizzle, crowded, pause, hue, research, foreshadow, lifeless, overheard, swirl, honey
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Word Wizard Competition Winner
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Grief's Grip
Research foreshadows
a pause for sadness.
What do they know!
Crowds of honey-coated
cliches swirl, overheard
they send frost up my spine.
My husband, my love, lies
lifeless with a gray hue as
tears drizzle down my face.
The size of the hole in
my life cannot be filled
by empty words and smiles.
What can be worse! My
chest feels tight as doubt
encases my icy soul.
Karen O'Leary
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