Competition: Dreams in the Night

Finished
Dreams in the Night

Poetry competition for any form of poetry longer than four lines.

The theme is Dreams in the Night, interpret that how you will.

Please submit as PDF for longer poems or text box submission for shorter ones, but they must be at least four lines long.

Will be graded by the current fiction rubric

Competition Information
Organized by
Quaestor Rasilvenaira StormRaven
Running time
2025-09-15 until 2025-09-30 (16 days)
Target Unit
Entire DJB
Competition Type
Poetry
Awards
Third Level Crescents
Participants
11 subscribers, of which 4 have participated.
Results
Member
Golden Envoy Abbey Atty Attiter Ann
Textual submission

I am not a poet--
I am not my brother.
He deconstructs meter across multitude tongues, tracing back the very concept to its root.
I calculate meters in milliseconds.
My periods are bullet holes.
My sentences stutter.
I'm not a poet--
But all my other languages fail. I can't encapsulate what you mean to me
I can't tell you it all
I can't
My voice is a joke, it's disgusting, disgraceful, it's broken.
And my hands shake too hard.
The words aren't right.
Nothing I shape
My face won't move that way
You can't see it
I see it in your eyes how you don't understand
And how could you when I can't even speak?
I can't make words beautiful.
Not in this language, not in any secondhand or birth tongue.
But I need to tell you too much
There is so much in me from you
You. You. You.
I didn't dream before you, have I told you that?
The metaphor of it, as Jax may say.
He'd have a better metaphor.
This body would sleep and it would process and it would dream-- regurgitating information, files, memories.
Post-traumatic stress disorders and phantom pains.
I wake up screaming.
I break my skin to ground me back in the place I am from the places I am not.
But you
You are different
And you changed me
When we chose each other and so long before that.
I think I saw dreaming in your eyes.
So now I lie awake at night listening to your breathing and I dream of things bodies do not need or deserve.
I dream about holy things.
I dream that I get to keep you, because you have decided to keep me and to stay.
And I dream that we have soft days, that we will debate the color of our kitchen and you will cede to me because it is the kitchen, but when the gallons arrive I will have ordered whichever shade your gaze lingered on longest.
I dream the most feverish and unholy things too, too selfish to put to words. Arms shaping cradles and small designer shoes. Rings or ink or garlands. Promises.
I dream that I could live with you
More than this body and its histories.
I'm not some fucking poet.
I'm not my brother.
And I'm not what you deserve.
But I still get to lie awake and listen to you breathing
And fuck if that's not poetry.

Placement
1st place
Member
Blade Mistress Shadow Nighthunter
Textual submission

From darkness, my eyes open with bright stars to greet.
And I'm no longer lost in slumber's comforting, heavy sheet
Wonder for this new world's secrets stirs within me deep
But a gentle touch on my arm reminds me of the heart I do keep
Her soft eyes and tender smile tear me free from mind-made seams
And once more I pray no end shall ever come to such living dreams.

Placement
2nd place
Member
Furios Morega di Plagia
Textual submission

Running, lost, unfamiliar scene
Chased by a persistent threat
Falling, peril, death is mean
Awoken in cold sweat

Placement
3rd place
Member
Quaestor Rasilvenaira StormRaven
File submission
Dreams in the Night.pdf
Placement
Participation only