Label Features Poetry Competition

Label Features recently ran a poetry competition. The winners were featured in our New Year issue of Label Magazine: congratulations to our winner Serena Gainda, and our runners up Jess Metson and Rose Hiles. The following poems were also entered, and we thought it would be nice to share them! Many thanks to all of our entrants. 

Anarchy of a Sort

I don’t want to be

Just another face in the crowd

I want to stand up tall

And rise against what’s not allowed

 

I want to be

An adolescent revolutionary

A unique individual

The one and only original

 

I’m an anarchist of a sort

But not the sort you might expect

I just want to be free

Of the world and how it wants me to be

 

I wish I could see

How to attain the things I require

I want to retain my composure

I’m chasing a single desire

 

I want to see

Freedom in its simplest form

And to achieve a peaceful state

Because in my mind I’m seeing straight

 

I’m an anarchist of a sort

But not the sort you might expect

I just want to be free

Of the world and how it wants me to be

 

Let those who believe they profess the truth

About our lives be thrown down from upon their thrones

Let them bear witness to those they reject

Rising up against the way things seem to be

 

Let us reflect and elect

One who believes in anarchy

Rupert Ibbotson

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Some Days

Some days

I have no thoughts to light the way

Just an empty canvas

And no fruits for my labour

 

Rain comes

I stare, but no inspiration

Travelling is an option

To satisfy my mind

 

So take a ride

To that tide

Climb the mountain

To that fountain

 

Don’t try too hard to find it

Because when it arrives it’s unexpected

A poet puts the unexpected into words

 

Digression is an artist’s worst nightmare

It always gives him a scare

And the monster never leaves his wardrobe

 

Trying to find the right words to use

I write, scattering them here and there

Creating nonsense, but nothing else

 

So take a ride

To that tide

Climb the mountain

To that fountain

 

The experience will lead you

To the goldmine for a second

The second is gone and you’ve got a song

From that holy treasured goldmine

 

Don’t try too hard to find it

When it arrives it’s unexpected

A poet puts the unexpected into words

Rupert Ibbotson

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Ah Youth

Ah Youth, what is Youth?
My beautiful days, my joyful days,
The time of exploring, the time of deep learning.
A Student’s  life what a joyful time,
Meeting and greeting and bonding with people,
But most of all reading, and reading, and reading.
Discovering and learning new things, great things.
Ah Youth, what is Youth?
The time of my life, the time for my flight.
The wings of my knowledge, the wings of deep learning,
They take me up high and high,
Into the beautiful sky, blue sky,blue sky,
The sky of perception and sky of assertion.
Ah Youth, what is Youth?
Its time for my triumph,
Its time for my riding,
Long riding, hard riding,
Into the world of researching and learning.
Ah Youth, what is Youth?
Its time for creation,
Its time for formation,
But most of all time for perfection.
Perfection of heart and perfection of soul,
Which is hidden deep down inside of each us, each us,each us.
Ah Youth, what is Youth?
The time of my life, the time for my fight,
The fight against odds,
The fight against weakness,
And finish, what is in the finish?
The born of your potential,
The time of self realization,
Ah Youth, what is Youth?
So many questions in the air,
Just live your life, just be yourself,
And shine and shine,
Like the brightest star in the sky.

Gulchekhra Shamakhmudova

---

 

Zombie to the Greater Plan

Alienating those who had become your closest friends

Without a reason why, not trying to make amends

Is it a question of, who’s in the wrong and who is right?

Why am I still thinking I can ever win this fight?

I’m spiralling, going into my own demise

Will I ever see reason and learn to use my eyes

Or am I a mere speck, within the greatest play?

Will I live my life, will I have my say

 

I wish I could just live my time

Without hitting walls, looking for a rhyme

My head, it hurts; it hurts more than you could believe

Living with self-doubt, I don’t think I can achieve

Old friends turned against me, they talked behind my back

Thinking I could trust them, but they never gave me slack

They lied, they had no alibi, they never told the truth

Spreading false accusations, it’s a trait of our youth

 

Like a bird of prey that is waiting for its chance

Forgetting past romance, it’s maintained a subdued stance

Becoming the monster from your worst childhood dreams

It never left the wardrobe, or at least that’s how it seems

Memories, the memories of past affliction, never buried in the grave

A constant reminder of life and how I’ve become the slave

A slave to my own inner demons, the inferno of the mind

Trying to fight myself, being constantly redefined

 

Sometimes I question what everything is for

Because mankind’s consuming itself; it’s wanting more and more

I may be one in a million, but I do not have a voice

Loud enough to be recognised, enough to make the choice

I haven’t lived enough years, to be considered matured and smart

I’m still learning my way, whether I play an important part

The dreams of childhood innocence left me long ago

Making way for realistic values, they’re becoming all I know

 

Will I work at a desk, becoming a zombie to the greater plan?

With every second dragging on, how it has since time began

Or will I actually do something, one thing to make a change

To help better mankind, to help it rearrange

Forgetting past troubles, looking upon the rising sun

Searching for light in this world, when there appears to be none

By attempting to predestine change, for the greater good

Can unity and harmony be introduced, with the hope it’s understood?

Rupert Ibbotson

---

 

Nothing Bringing Me Down

It’s a happy little day

Perfect and unique in its own way

It’s a calming reflection on how things are

 

The mind’s at its best

When there’s nothing leaving it distressed

It’s coincidental of my latest trend

 

My eyes are seeing

My ears are hearing

The world and all around

 

My body is feeling

My life is revealing

That there’s nothing bringing me down

 

So tell me what I want to hear

I’m wasting time in my own little sphere

I’m living exactly how I want it to be

 

I cannot see what’s in front of me

But that’s the beauty in how it is

Nobody will tell me what I have to be

 

My eyes are seeing

My ears are hearing

The world and all around

 

My body is feeling

My life is revealing

That there’s nothing bringing me down

 

I don’t want to live without a care

Like a millionaire who’s able to afford the life he lives

I’m standing here with my dreams

Being the only thing of importance

Or at least that’s how it seems

 

My eyes are seeing

My ears are hearing

The world and all around

 

My body is feeling

My life is revealing

That there’s nothing bringing me down

Rupert Ibbotson