"Lost-ish" Unofficial Poetry Challenge

Reflect with me on moments of melancholy - and more.

By Gabriel HuizengaPublished 12 months ago • Updated 11 months ago • 6 min read

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Hello friends!

I'll get right into it: for quite some time now, I've wanted to host a little unofficial challenge. I have so appreciated the creativity and interest that so many other creators have shown on here when coming up with inspiration for these sorts of things! But to be frank, I have not been nearly as present nor participatory as I would like to have been on Vocal in recent months. I have promised myself that I would catch up on the creative projects of dear friends on here, but have found myself falling behind on that oath again and again. While I still hope to catch up on reading a number of wonderful stories and poems adrift a ways back on the Vocal seas, I also wanted to see if I could get a few friendly folks to write some new works that I can be absolutely certain I will read - namely, because I am promising to judge them all in an unofficial contest!

THE CHALLENGE:

The challenge is to write a poem which captures or expresses the feeling of being "lost-ish": a strange, quiet, melancholy, but not entirely unpleasant sensation that sneaks up on you in the stillness in between moments. If you already have a picture or association forming from this description, then feel free to run with that and start writing! If you're still a little confused, that's quite alright: the feeling of "lost-ish" is, by nature, very difficult to define. If it helps, I find the feeling often emerges on late, solitary evenings, when hearing a brand new song that somehow already feels nostalgic, or following farewells with acquaintances whom you realize you might have been good friends with, given more time. If you're still feeling lost(ish)...then you're in the right place. ;) Keep wandering, poets!

Your poem can describe a setting or encounter which cultivates lost-ish-ness, or it could exist as a more abstract, internal reflection which attempts to directly describe the relevant feelings; I am not much of a stickler as to how you interpret the prompt! If you are questioning whether something 'counts' here, it almost certainly does (in my book).

TO QUALIFY:

Your poem can be just about any form or length - from a full length multi-stanza piece to a haiku. I will try to judge without prejudice regarding length! But I must begrudgingly admit that I often find myself biased towards slightly longer, exploratory, reflective pieces...that being said, I believe that if you choose the right words, a concise seventeen syllables can pack as much depth and poetic brilliance as the longest epic! So all lengths and styles are totally welcome. :)

Submissions will be open through February 7th at midnight. I know that's a fairly long submission period- but I want there to be some time for folks to reflect on the prompt, if necessary, before sending something in! I find some of my favorite seeds of inspiration have only bloomed when watered with many pensive hours...then again, if you're ready to submit something within an hour of reading this, then don't let my verbose philosophizing hold you back!!

Winners will be announced on February 15th. I so look forward to sitting in a cafe (likely the same one which I currently inhabit while writing up this challenge) and typing up a post to celebrate your creativity!

I will request that all entries have something about "Lost-ish Challenge" somewhere in their subtitles, just so folks reading your piece can be made aware of the contest and join in the fun! In that same spirit, please embed the link to this article somewhere in your post - beginning or end works, whatever you prefer format-wise is great. Folks won't be disqualified if they don't or can't do this - I've had some trouble with format and embedded links, depending on the device I'm working from - so don't worry if you forget or aren't able to link this article in your piece. But if you are able to, I would appreciate the increased ease with which folks will be able to find this challenge!

As a final note regarding qualifying - please put the links to your submissions in the comments of this article, so that I and all other interested parties can find your brilliant works!! You may submit as many entries as you would like - but no more than one entry from a given individual will end up on the podium.

WINNINGS:

I have no idea how this will go; having not been terribly active on this site of late, I'm not sure how many folks will find this strange contest. But if you DO see this and you are at all interested, I would be so honored and grateful if you find the time to take part! I have devised a plan for various amounts of winnings, depending on how many people end up participating:

If there are FEWER than TEN total entries:

1st place will receive $15, 2nd will receive $10, and 3rd will receive $5. Even if this doesn't take off, I want to be able to give something back to the folks who are gracious enough to share their creativity and deign to find inspiration by this unconventional little challenge.

If there are MORE than TEN total entries:

1st place will receive $25, 2nd will receive $15, and 3rd will receive $10. All winnings will be distributed through the tip system built into Vocal. :)

JUDGING:

I will be the sole (and hopefully pretty benevolent) arbiter, picking my personal favorites. I will strive to remain as impartial a judge as possible - though I hope we all can acknowledge that all forms of ranking will almost always involve some measure of subjectivity!! I will strive to remain open to the brilliance of as diverse a spread of interpretations and styles as possible, though; but remember that if you don't place, it doesn't speak anything against the quality and inherent genius of your own pieces- it just means some random 23-year-old wasting away in a cafe didn't have the brains see it.

Alrighty, that is QUITE enough waffling from me!! I am so excited to see what any and all friends on Vocal come up with for this strange little challenge - thank you in advance, whether you are participating, reading someone else's submission, or just have done the generous work of reading this whole piece! I wish you all the best, friends. :)

A final note: I will embed the links to each submission here, at the end of this article, so that folks can more readily discover each of the pieces entered. I will update it as frequently as I can over the duration of the submission period. Cheers, all!

SUBMISSIONS:

"This Disgusting Beach" by D.J. Reddall

"Lost-ish, Am I?" by Andrea Corwin

"mithridatism" by Alexandria Stanwyck

"Lost-ish in what it isn't" by Savannah K. Wilson

"On the Edge" by Alyssa Nicole

"In the Cellar" by Alyssa Nicole

"What About Us?" by J. Delaney Howe

"Who is the Pensive Poet" by Oneg in the Arctic

"That One Forest at the Back of That One House" by Oneg in the Arctic

"Adultish" by Mike Singleton 💜 Mikeydred

"Vert Sub" by Paul Stewart