untitled

Give me strange loops-

Like Bach or Escher.

Give me wonder

Give me Piranesi-

Imaginary prisons that feel more real than anything else!

Give me a ground that pitches and ripples

A world written in a language I do not speak.

Give me alienation-

Pure unresolvable alienation!

Give me quiet boats on a quieter sea

A world that is mostly smooth waves

Mostly silence

Mostly empty

GIVE ME LIGHTING!

please!

Give me neon and noise

Give me rollercoasters-

Give me dizziness, shallow breaths, pain

Give me everything all at once, impossible to hold!

Every story, every triumph, every tragedy!

Let it destroy me-

an ant staring down a flash flood

Let me look upon divinity-

Pure undilutable divinity-

Let me look upon divinity and be burned!

April 2022 Prize Winner!

This poem won the Poetry Prompt Prize for March 2022. It is inspired by George Elliott Clarke's writing prompt "Stick to things”.

 

Poetry Editor Therese Estacion writes about "untitled" by Arden Howard: In her untitled poem, Arden Howard does not expose a hidden long, but demands to be given what one is due, even if it is destruction.

 

Arden Howard

Arden Howard

Grade: 12 / CEGEP I
Burnaby Mountain Secondary School
Burnaby, BC

“My poem was influenced by a combination of the prompt “stick to things” and something that visiting poet Elee Kraljii Gardiner talked about when visiting: writing a poem from a perspective of defiance/saying no, but in a positive way. My poem is about being scared of how the world feels very confusing and scary and overwhelming, but embracing it, because I am stuck here in this existence. Rather than give up, I take a somewhat absurdist perspective and learn to accept the harmless but scary aspects of life. It is also about exploring a part of myself that I don't necessarily like but that is still a part of me.”

Start here: