Held: Feb 12-13 2009
Participants: Charles Fry, Tom Lokovic, Chris Monson, Dominic Widdows
Challenge:

1. Alone and obviously out-of-place in a crowded nightclub.
2. How the king was betrayed.
3. Why distance mattered before but doesn't now.
4. Ask and then answer the question "Do universals exist?" in some artful way.

Results:

---

the king
    by Charles Fry

night swoons
again
without you
no crowded light will reveal
your presence tonight
alone
I must seek you
in each passing face

once your distance
gored my breast
but now I tire
endless betrayal
selfish sorrow

did I ever love you?
was I loved by you?
love?
all I know are my hands
and my weeping heart

---

One of Many
    by Tom Lokovic

Through thick and smoky air inside a busy bar in Memphis
I settled down to drink beside a tired-looking Elvis.
Absently I asked if I addressed the honest deal;
He snorted, took a swig, and he said "Tell me: what is real?"

"For screaming mobs I sang and rocked my pelvis for a fee;
Their desperate eyes, in tears, perceived a God that wasn't me
And so I came to know that only death would set me free.

"One day I got away--I went to Elba more or less.
I spent my time in unfamiliar quiet happiness.
The music called me back, but now I move about unseen:
I have an army of my counterfeiters as a screen."

"In me the people found a fragile King they couldn't save.
Now they just believe in copies, not the archetype they crave.
And they're right--I'm not the light--I'm just a shadow in a cave."

---

I'm interested, but feeling overwhelmed:
A feeling hard to shake, that makes me think
my time's not mine, if indeed it does exist.

But time is there, and use it well I must,
Or all my work and leading is for naught:
a steward left without a team; they'll flee.

So pressing forward I will join the crowd,
But lonely I remain among my peers.
Close in wants but not in wonts,
But happy nonetheless to be included.

They're good, I'm not.  So be it.

    by Chris Monson ("written in ten minutes on a phone")

---

Distant Sonnet
    by Dominic Widdows

Imagined faces puffing through the smoke
Cacophonous and fake - we live for this?
All week to work. That this should be the night
Of joy? I feel a universal joke.

I hear your distant whisper, "thou art one
And all of these, my subjects, I do know
And treasure." Can you? They with clubs do lurch,
For diamonds seek, but you were King of Hearts

And bound to fly. Nearer am I to thee
Than to these folk who flit in time and space?
But their true likeness still I must accept
For doubt is cheap: but pattern I must see.

Though all unproven, to my faith I cling.
Still far to reach you. I will know your works.

---

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