Mermaidvampire's Poetry Reading Contest

Great day, Steemheads!

The ides is here and time for le mermaidvampire to host a contest. This is my fourth major contest and I am loving it, I am contemplating of making major contests twice a month so I can do more and give more.

Image Credits: Pixabay

Mermaidvampire's Poetry Reading Contest

Who May Join:

Steemians anywhere and everywhere

Deadline:

(7 days) from now until the deadline on midnight of Wednesday, May 23, 2018 (Philippine Time) UTC+8

How to Join:

• Choose between the two poems provided by the host here or read a poem of your choice.
• I will only be accepting English poems only.
• It can be all voice or you can have a background music, as long as it does not overpower your voice.
• You may choose to have it all audio or you can include a video of you doing the reading.
• Feel free to add captions or subtitles but this is not required, but just feel free to do extra for aesthetics.
• You can upload it in condensers like DTube(with video) or Dsound(audio) and DLive. No Youtube or Vimeo or anywhere else.

Contest Rules:

• This is a poem reading contest, so you simply read a poem as great as you can as possible, give it life.
• I have provided 2 of my favorite poems below to help you but if you have a good pick in mind or you have your own, feel free to use it.
• This is a no obligation contest, no pressure to upvote and resteem the post (because requiring this is against Steemit SPAM Policies, FYI) but it would greatly help in the success of this contest and to be able to fund more contests in the future so feel free to do so. I really hope you will and thanks!
• Refer people that would be interested in poetry reading or joining a contest and mention them in your post. The more the merrier.
• Leave the link to your post as a comment to this post so we will know you have an entry.
• Use "poetryreading" as the first tag for your post.
• Still, NO ONE LOSES in this contest because we always have enough to share to everyone no matter how small the payout is.

Prizes:

• 1st prize = 25% of the total SBD Payout of this post, 1 steembasicincome share and 10sp delegation for 15 days from the host.
• 2nd prize = 15% of the total SBD Payout of this post, 1 steembasicincome share and 5sp delegation for 15 days from the host.
• 3rd prize = 10% of the total SBD Payout of this post, 1 steembasicincome share and 5sp delegation for 15 days from the host.
• 50% of the total SBP Payout of the post will be shared by all other contestants who will join. (Consolation Prize)

The Judge:

The judge will be le @mermaidvampire, herself.

Criteria for Judging:

• The above instructions should be followed - 10%
• Clarity -30%
• Delivery and Emotions - 50%
• Aesthetics- 10%

Declaration of Winners:

This will be left open and might take a week after the deadline because it will depend on the number of entries. The judge has to listen to all of the entries, thus, it will take time. But surely, it will not be longer than a week after the deadline.

Contest Rationale:

This contest is to promote other condensers like DTube, DSound and DLive, for Steemians to discover them and realize their wonders. We need to explore the beauty of Steemit because it has so much beauty. Be playful, if you have joined my contests in the past, you know I always leave too much room for freedom to the contestant with regards to aesthetics as long as you follow the basic needs of the contest outlined above. This is also a reflection of how I love poetry reading, spoken poetry and poetry in general. Poetry as an art should be deeply appreciated by many so I want to promote this culture of loving it and doing it. Lastly, I want to be of help to my fellow red fishes and minnows and this is the best way I know how I can directly do that.

If at any point, you need help with fixing audio and other technical issues as you make your piece for this contest or as you upload it, let me know by sending me a memo in the wallet or contacting me directly in Discord: mermaidvampire#4421, I'd be glad to give you tweaks and suggestions to make it work.

The Two Poem Suggestions:

I have 2 of my favorite poems below and you may want to read them if you don't have a piece of your choice.

The first one is my favorite poem as a mommy or as a parent. This is a summary of the parenting principles I live by in raising my one and only daughter. It is a poem by Khalil Gibran. This is one of his poems within his book, "The Prophet," which was a worldwide best seller.

On Children
by Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

The second one is a poem I recite when I am heatbroken. HAHAHA! It's a poem by Pablo Neruda. I like it because of the line: "Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido," which in English means, "Loving is so short, forgetting is so long." The poem was originally made in Spanish. Neruda is also a world renowned poet and has been awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Tonight I Can Write The Saddest Lines
By Pablo Neruda

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voide. Her bright body. Her inifinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my sould is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

Explore poetry reading. Be creative as you can, have fun and win!

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Image Credits: Pixabay

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