Candy’s Monsters Contest

Roses are red
Poetry is dead
It’s time for a resurrection
Monsters howling through sonnets
Dressed in terrifying bonnets
Let your imagination flow

Growling clever couplets
With gruesome bloody droplets
There is no style too trite for invention
The dark side of Haiku
A ghost, shrieking boo hoo!
It will shiver and slither and glow

Vampires like free verse
Are they alone in the universe?
The deadline will have no extension
Sharpen your pencils and stakes
See how long it takes
A werewolf will make sure you know

To rhyme or not to rhyme
That’s one question of mine
You’ll answer with little pretention
So roses are red
Zombies are dead
Time to start writing—ready, steady, GO!

Rules of the game:
The contest is open to monstrous poems of all kinds & styles, as long as the subject matter is MONSTERS. The poems will be judged on their merit—writing style and cleverness—length will not be a factor, so Haiku, limericks and other short form poems are as welcome as long form creations. Rhyming schemes, free verse, concrete and other forms are all acceptable entries.

Two ways to enter:
If you are feeling brave, enter with a public post of your poem on the Candy’s Monsters Contest Page. If you are feeling shy, send your submission to candy@sweetcopy.com with the heading MONSTER POETRY in the subject line.

Prize:
ONE winner will be announced on October 31. The winner’s poem will be featured on the Candy’s Monsters blog & Facebook page, and the winner will receive a $20 Amazon gift certificate. NYC based monster-loving poets, may opt for a $20 Strand Book store gift certificate instead.

Comments

  1. Hmm… not confident but I really can’t see a vampire surviving on a desert island populated with nothing but coconut palms and rats. Could you imagine what would happen if a Man Friday came along?

    Mwahahahaha… -cough-

    • Candy Korman

      Excellent!
      I’m so glad you’ve taken on the vampire real estate challenge. I’m looking forward to the wacky places and the implications of the undead “life” in each one. Your Man Friday suggestion is brilliant.

  2. Gale Citron

    Oh, I could think of so many fantastic locations all over NYC but let me suggest the magnificent Loew’s Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse. it was long abandoned for years but is now sometimes used for concerts. It is grand an palatial, with many rococo nooks and crannies (perfect for a ‘child of the night’ to hide in and tiny, twinkling lights in the ceiling that give it the feeling of perpetual night..

    • Candy Korman

      Woo Hoo!
      The perpetual night of a theater is a superb idea, and, now that it is in use, it could be an excellent hunting ground for a vampire.

      Another great idea!!! The contest competition is starting to heat up.

      • Gale

        Can you just see it now–a vampire -(with insomnia, of course, because it’s never daylight, so he/she can’t get to sleep!)
        – in the ‘perpetual night’ of the Loew’s paradise movie theatre in the Bronx–just a hop, skip and jump from Poe Cottage

        • Candy Korman

          The perpetual night of a theater! Ah… sort of phantom of the opera meets, blood sucking vampire. I’m liking this one. Still plenty of time for more submissions.

          Having so much fun reading entries!

    • Candy Korman

      Intriguing… seriously intriguing…
      So far the entries are all inspiring. Choosing one will be my first challenge. The second challenge? Writing the story.
      The second one will be FUN!

  3. I think the best location would be on the set of a “Seinfeld” reunion episode. I’m not kidding. Think about it. Kramer: “I saw a vampire, Jerry, A VAMPIRE!!” Jerry (doubtfully): “Oh, yeah, you saw a vampire. How do you know?” Kramer: “Well, I was getting ready to play 18 holes over at the club, but we didn’t have enough for a foursome so they added this guy with ABSOLUTELY NO SKIN TONE, Jerry. No SKIN TONE! His name was Art Vampalet. Art VAMPalet, Jerry!! He kept asking me my blood type! It threw off my game, my shots were ALL OVER THE PLACE!!” Jerry: “Lemme get this straight, this guy asks you your blood type repeatedly? What’s his job?” Kramer: “He works at the Blood Bank, Jerry!” (Newman walks in to the apt.) Jerry (disdainfully): “Hello Newman!” Newman: “Hello Jerry. Kramer’s right, we’ve got a vampire on our hands!

  4. Great idea for a contest! I’ll play!

    BEST PLACE: I’d love to see a vampire story set during the “Year without a Summer” when everything went dark across the world due to volcanic ash (straight out of hell, right?). Vamps would have had a “free pass” for 3 months. In truth, that event inspired Lord Byron who was buddies w Polidori who wrote the first modern vampire tale. So there’s that.

    WORST PLACE: I dunno- the sun?. 😉

    • Candy Korman

      Totally cool!
      I remember a few years back a friend was stopping in NYC on her way home to Berlin and got stuck her for an extra week when a volcano exploded and caused a suspension of flights to Europe. I’ve read about the “year without a summer” and yes — what a vampire paradise/vacation!

      I’m really pleased with the level of submissions. I’m going to go crazy picking the winner and there are weeks and weeks to go. This is FUN!

  5. Lisa M.

    How about one of the old mansions on Long Island. The old Guggenheim estate in Sands Point is a great place. The mansion is used for designer show houses and corporate events. BUT, there is a basement and perhaps a sub basement where laundry used to be done and food storage. Don’t think it is used today outside of storage. There are LOTS of nooks and crannies for a vampire to lurk. THe house is also near some bluffs that overlook the Long Island Sound….

  6. Caity Bowman

    My idea is not as grandiose as some of the others. I don’t think vampires all have to be as dark as the ones in Blade or Bram Stoker’s version.

    A vampire in a tiny farm town, like Lucan, Ontario, or Parkhill, somewhere with less than 1500 people. They’ve been assigned there to (watch over the people? hunt someone? hide from something/one?) and are stuck there until the danger has passed.

  7. Of all the places I just visited on my recent trip, I think the Rhine Valley would be a great place to set a vampire story. All of those old castles are begging for such a tale 🙂 One location in particular that comes to mind is Burg Eltz. The castle is 850 years old and has been in the same family going on 34 generations. Lots of potential there. Plus, it wasn’t built for defense reasons so it’s not up on top of a hill which is rather different.

    • Candy Korman

      Woo Hoo!
      What a great entry. Last winter I scared the shit out of myself going through an above ground walkway on a lonely, dark night. I was certain that someone/something wound jump out at me. An abandoned railroad tunnel is a spectacular setting!

  8. At first I thought about Alaska’s summer where it is only dark for a few hours a day. That would really be tough on a vampire. Then I thought about Seattle’s underground city. Seattle is such a popular spot and the underground city’s tours are very popular… until the tourists stop returning from there underground adventures…

    • Candy Korman

      OMG! What good ideas!!!
      The Alaskan summer reminds me of a childhood holiday in Scandinavia. The land of the midnight sun was quite an experience for a 12-year-old. My encounter with molting reindeer had NOTHING to do with Christmas. I will research Seattle as a good location for a Vampire story. Real estate and Vampires — a magical combination!

  9. Metan

    Hmmm…. A place with no chance of natural sunlight and plenty of distracted victims wandering about? A large shopping centre (mall) would surely be a vampire banquet! Lots of storerooms and darkened, unused corridors…

  10. As a janitor in Massachusetts Vampire Hunter School.
    It was the only job offering he could find after an agency told him that “the movie producers didn’t think he could portray a vampire convincingly enough during daytime.”

  11. Greg Garnant

    A vampire who runs a sailboat charter business. The ones he selects (based on their behavior) disappear with their boats found adrift. Originally he worked on sailing ships – the origin of the Bermuda Triangle myth…?

    • Candy Korman

      WOW!
      What a wild idea. It combines the Bermuda Triangle conspiracy theories with Vampires and, of course, tales of the sea as no doubt he was a pirate before he was undead. Right?

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