I need some help thinking of another poem topic for this years poem competition

Cafe Society
1

I have done the Iowa speech completion for two years now and last year I made it to state. I will list the poem I did last year but I need some help picking a topic for my new poem. I guess you could say i’m having a bit of writers block. The poem comp is on February 29. I am open to all opinions and help anybody wants to give.

This is the poem I spoke last year:

5 years

Year one

Court cases

New houses

Rude families

No friends

Stealing

Lying

Police

Fines

Runaway

Go home

No home

Not yet

New state

Same dad

No mom

Your brothers mad

New school

New friends

A new mom

A new house

Grandparents

You get out of the truck

Met with two big brown eyes

Thick black and brown fur

Hesitation

Two friends meeting awkwardly for the first time

Year two

Laughter

Fun

Every weekend

A bond built stronger

Christmas and birthdays

Smiles and love

We spend every friday together

Every holiday

Every walk

She’s strong

She’s fast

She’s my best friend

Year three

Bullies

Losing friends

Narcissists

Boyfriends

Exes

Fridays

best friends

She! listens when ur hurt

She! listens when ur mad

Your tears

And your fears

You won’t let her completely in

She’s just another dog

Just another pet

Year 3

Monsters

A new style

Failing class

Hating life

New friends

No

Why

Don’t you have one?

No not really

But she has been there

But you won’t let anyone in

Year 4

Acceptance

Love

Throw the ball

Play chase

Run with her

She’s your best friend

Parades and holidays

Everything you do is with her

Everything you want to do is with her

She’s everything to you

She listens to your problems

When you started vaping

And got caught with drugs

Your anxiety and depression

Dissipates when she around

You have no friends when you enter highschool

All you have is that dog you finally let in

You tell her everything

Your date turned you down a week before homecoming

You said you wanted to take her

The school fought against you

She’s too big

She’s vicious

Their scared

But you don’t understand why

She’s only been nice

She’s only shown love and care

So why is everyone so scared

Year 5

She’s getting old

No more long runs

No more throwing ball

She’s seen your 16th birthday

She’s seen you pass 10th grade

And enter 11th

She was there for halloween

Thanksgiving and christmas

New presents

She’s sick

But getting better

She’s supposed to see you turn 17

She’s supposed to see you go to prom

But she won’t

One late night phone call

30 minutes before new years

Those fateful words filled the air

Tears

Hurt

You’re missing her

You can’t stop crying

It’s snowing

She loved the snow

Why did she have to go

Your hurt turns to hate

As you remember everything

What would you have done

If you would have known this was the outcome?

Would you let her in?

Would you resent her?

Would you tell her all your secrets?

Would you be her best friend?

You’ve lost a lot

But no loss has ever hurt this bad

No loss has ever made you regret 5 years of your life

Something in you changes when you lose a friend

But it’ll be ok

You will make it through

New years

New days

New hours

Everythings changed

Her memory lingers

But in a good way

You will never forget when you met her that day

5 years

Of memories you will

Celebrate

You will cherish

You will love

You will remember

Never forget the years of your life she made so great

Those years

Those 5 years

2

If you will forgive a bit of hopefully constructive criticism from a songwriter, that reads more like a stream-of-consciousness passage in a novel, rather than a poem as such.

You might want to try for something with a little more formal structure.

Not necessarily a sonnet or villanelle, but perhaps longer and more connected lines?

3

Their scared?

4

According to the OP, the poem above made it to the state level last year. The OP isn’t asking for critique of this poem, but help with generating a new topic.

5

I am not trying to threadshit. But if an author posts a complete work, there seems to be a sort of implication that they are seeking feedback?

And as a songwriter I have a personal interest in verbal composition, so I do tend to have opinions and reactions.

But I’ve said my piece, I won’t comment further.

6

You just want a possible topic? Okay.

Atheism

Cars

Trains

Sidewalks

Parking lots

Quarks

Quasars

Trees. You shouldn’t try and probably can’t outdo Joyce Kilmer on that topic, but there is surely room for more poetry on that topic.

Good luck.

7

Maybe go for something more personal and less generic?

Something slightly unusual that has happened to you, or that you have noticed?

8

Kicking things off with a first line:

Roses are red, violence is blue

This is the end of the S. of A., U.

No copyright on this, so feel free to build.

Dan

9

Thank you for the feedback, it is helpful.

10

This is correct, while I’m not looking for any critiquing I am willing to take any advice given to me about my already existing poem.

11

You’re welcome. I am not speaking as an adversary, just a fellow craftsperson.

12

Absolutely.

13

As a songwriter, I tend to favor more formal structures.

Since we are presenting some of our work, here is a sonnet I wrote some years ago which seems a bit relevant to feeling versus form.

======================================

Light breaks in, and light the hot heart sings.

In words which, given tongue, seem strangely dead.

And incommensurate, though what was said.

Was faithfully the thought the feeling brings.

So the work begins, to find the strings,

that words can pull between the heart and head.

Energy and discipline: books that must be read,

To learn the skill to build a line that rings.

_____________________________________

An effortless syntactical machine,

builds perfect as a man can engineer.

All else dead of neglect as it has grown,

it can present no image but its own.

So stationary, crystalline and clear,

its flaws and failure can at last be seen.