The Vicious Cycle
On Hope and Challenges and the Four Elements
As free as the air,
Water, Earth, ink on a page,
Falling to ashes
First, inspiration,
Then, planning and plotting out,
Story, poem, prose.
Time flows like water,
Ink dries on paper, as the
Candles burn and dim.
Hope, that brittle thing,
Solid and fragile as Earth,
Is the last to die.
In almost two years of writing on this platform, I've never placed in a Vocal Challenge.
I've been a runner-up once, among a comparatively small pool of entries where I had a 1 in 10 chance of winning (I did the math...). In most Challenges, my chances are more like 1 in several hundred. That's the issue with free-for-members challenges: everyone enters, often multiple times, and there are only so many prizes to give out.
I've entered all of them: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, words from the heart, pouring my joys and traumas and loves and sorrows and imagination onto page after page.
Each time, I think, "Sure, none of the judges have cared much about my work before, but maybe this time..."
Each time, I get my hopes up.
Each time, the winners are announced... and my name is nowhere to be found.
I doubt this time will be any different.
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About the Creator
Natasja Rose
I've been writing since I learned how, but those have been lost and will never see daylight (I hope).
I'm an Indie Author, with 30+ books published.
I live in Sydney, Australia
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Comments (5)
I like how Your quad-ku went through the phases of trying to write something meaningful, impactful, and still clinging on to hope. It's not that haikus are oppressingly difficult, sometimes it feels like the odds are stacked against us even if we try to stack them in our favor. I wrote well over 100 haikus for the blue haiku challenge. Some stuck out to others, and a few got lost in the wash. Some were impactful, some were more observations than anything, and a few others were just there lost in the ocean that is blue haikus. Heck, if You scroll through the pages of entries, I bet You that one of them is completely filled with my poems. I know that a lot of writers like to think that there's a form of biases going on. Since, how is it possible out of so many author's, out of so many entries, that some author's have racked up more than several awards underneath their belts? I can understand not winning, and that other people have really quality work, but the odds for such instances to occur does incite one's curiosity.
First well done Haiku. I do agree the challenges can be challenging. I also only have placed as a runner up. To win would nice, but I just don't want worry about it. Hang in there and keep writing, you have some great stories
Brilliant & beautiful!!! Loving it!!!
Your excerpt made me sad. I've read a few of your pieces and have always thought they seemed like winner quality. But I feel winning shouldn't always be our only goal. The number of people we can reach with our voices is a win, too, :) and our Vocal community is very good at supporting each other. <3 The next time you're feeling discouraged, just remember a lot of us are grateful to have read your work, as it inspires us too.
Very nicely done.