Isle of Write Poetry Curation Week 4 Roundup

Message in a bottle #20
Origin: Isle of Write
Sender: @authorofthings
Recipients: Steemit Creatives

Apologies for this post being a day late. We might have imbibed a bit too much of that ever-free-flowing rum over the weekend and so here we are. If you are new to our poetry curation posts, here is a bit of info you’ll want to read first:

To help build the community, we are planning on doing 8 weeks of curation, where we
-feature new and old poetry posts over the next eight weeks that are excellent and adding to steemit as a platform
-extend an invitation to the author to be part of the printed Steemit Poetry anthology
-reward poets 5 SBD for writing great work
Qualification Requirements:
If the poem employs a meter or rhyme scheme, that rule must be consistently followed.
If the poem employs a form, that form must be consistently followed.
Haiku / Tanka must employ a caesura between two complementary or contrasting images.
Effective use of concrete imagery.
No cliches.
Must be first published to steemit.
Author must be willing to go through a review and editing process with Isle of Write editors in preparation for publication.
English Language only.
See our first week's announcement here.
Many of the posts we choose may be more than 7 days old, so upvotes won't benefit the authors, but feel free to check out their latest work and offer them a congratulations for being chosen! And we’re yet to meet a writer who’d say ‘no’ to thoughtful commentary on their work.

So, without further ado, here are the poems that we’d love to see featured in our poetry anthology:

These are listed in no particular order, and we sincerely hope you pay a visit to each and every one of these authors.

Ozymandias by @whoshim

At twenty, he stared
into the eyes of a tiger,
old and tired. Uncaring,
he hung it in his hunting hall.

Read the entirety of this very short poem that packs a life story into just five stanzas here: Ozymandias

Do You See by @mindfreak

Are your half cut sentences
questions you're afraid to ask
or are they answers you evade?

Another short but punchy meditation on love, of course. Read the entire poem here: Do You See
sons of kwaZulu by @trumanity

from there, near the edge,
young morning eyes barely made the rusty roof
and quiet black kitchen chimney stack,
i stood as statues do before they're cast
in grey fast-setting mud,
swirling thick pool, grabbing the crevices of soft skin,
seeping under small nails, between toes

This poem will take you on an a journey the way good fiction does.
Read it here: sons of kwaZulu

frozen by @torico

have you ever heard late at night
in another room outside the eye
a faraway life beyond your ken
just next door and then

This poem reads like it is spoken to you, in a rush, breathlessly. Read it here: frozen

Lullaby by @introvertfl

I did not address this to anyone
because it was meant for everyone
and no one at all.
There is a time when it is neither day or night.
It just is.
As we are. Forever. Everything
and nothing at all.

One could argue that this poem is more prose than poetry. We think it’s both. Read it here: Lullaby

I was never a writer by @carmalain7

I only ever stop to listen at night:
two a.m. train rides, staring at fields as they pass my window,
touching the glass to make sure it's real – half hoping to fall through
before being tapped on the shoulder and woken up.
All the while, Summer is slipping away.
no, is gone.

There is a lot packed into this poem. Unpack it here: I was never a writer

Should you find a poem in your Steemit travels that strikes you as publication worthy, drop us a note on our discord that you can find easily by clicking a treasure map below. We’d be eternally grateful.

Until next time,
The Isle Sea Gnomes

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Every one of these poets is worth reading, upvoting, following, publishing. The Isle of Write is thrilled they have accepted our invitation to be a part of this endeavor. Thank you to all of our readers: without your upvotes, resteems, and follows, none of this would have been possible! If you want to support our efforts to bring the best of Steemit writing to a broader audience, you can help by upvoting the Isle of Write posts and spreading the word. And of course if you're feeling especially generous, we'll never say 'no' to a donation of some SBD or a delegation of SP. Thank you for reading!

If you'd like to wash up on our shore,
a click of the map brings you straight to our door!

art and flair courtesy of @PegasusPhysics