The Contest Poem by William Kofoed

The envelope is sealed with tape and hope
and addressed so very carefully
that it may carry the hopes and dreams
to where they will be judged

and in the box it is dropped and cannot be recalled
like a cliff that is leapt off
perhaps to take wings and fly
or perhaps to simply fall

long ago a dance began
of words within the mind
forming patterns of shapes and sounds
that simply must be wrote down

with passing days and passing years
so many pages would be filled
with hopes and dreams laced with fears
in words that were some how not owned

in dark night dreams with images bright
bringing wonder in morning's light
seeking somehow with words to write
the things that were unknown

till the day with trembling fear
of the judgments that might be
showing the words on paper wrought
to others that they might read

would they then find the hopes and dreams
and with a with wonder be filled
or simply find quite nothing there
and simply cast them aside

now filled with dread to simply sit
pen held above paper blank
seeking the words somehow to write
what others will want to read

knowing not what people seek
or what they will enjoy
wondering if it is all for naught
simply a waste of time

still the words begin to dance
and patterns not quite understood
calling that they might be wrote down
upon the paper so white