OGS Poetry Contest!

The Path

Stones clack on the board,
Deep pondering breeds great moves,
Balance is the key.

11 Likes

Shido-go

Black like the night, and just as blind.
White pushing through, just like light.

Don’t you see? Hane at the head,
And those stones are dead.

Can’t you see? Attack, not attach.
Else my weaknesses I can patch.

Won’t you see? That’s a tiger’s mouth.
Playing there will only lead you south.

It’s alright, you’ll learn, you’re bright.
Thank you, from this game I’ve learned a lot.

13 Likes

Massacre

Board a mess
A scene of crime
In distress
You try one last time

These dead stones
These hollow tones
Evidence of my hate

Overextending
Without mending
Proof of my greed

Your framework
Right there
Is invaded
Despair

These are the crimes I’ve counted
But all will be forgiven
On the empty board ahead

12 Likes

Endless peace
and frothless rage,
Play out
on this wooden stage.
Connections created,
silent and seen;
The actors unmoving,
yet shine a soft gleam.
The toils will come,
The battles enlarged;
Links will be broken,
Others mischarged.
And over at last,
Silence will reign;
A small piece of art,
It was not in vain.

19 Likes

Suddenly the game went south
My stones are eaten by tiger’s mouth
But comeback is fated, I know,
because your reading is so slow.
You play so close to thickness,
it has to be some sickness.
Well, I shouldn’t be nagging,
As I’m really sandbagging.

12 Likes

Twice i have tried and failed to find words
For the feelings i have for this murder of nerds
Nerds whos feelings and thoughts are the same
When they come to this site for more than the game

I came to this place wanting someone to fight
Someone to challenge and battle that night
Instead i found humor and help in the chat
All made for us by anoek and mat.

So thank you, developers, for taking your time
For making this place without earning a dime
And Thanks to the mods for not banning me yet
Sometimes you do want to ban me, i bet.

Now i think ive wasted enough of my time
Struggling with wording, phrasing and rhyme
Twice now ive boarded the wrong subway back
Perhaps now ill finaly find the right fucking track

19 Likes

##Blunder

You must play hane

says my left brain

I don’t think twice

and invade; insane.

10 Likes

Ladder-Wall

All the stones that lead me there are winding.
It’s just a plight, I can’t get there! It’s blinding.
I really wish, that I could get, the fuck away from you…
But I don’t know how

I said maybe
This next stone will save me…
But after all
You’ve formed a ladder wall.

Today was supposed to be my day,
But I’ll never get away from you
By now I should’ve somehow
Realized what I’m not to do
I don’t even know-oh-oh
why I keep placing stones down.
I really hate you.

All the stones that I place down, destined for dying.
It’s just a plight, I can’t get there! I’m crying.
I really wish that I could just… get away from you…
But I don’t know how…

I said maybe,
This next stone will save me…
But afterall…
You’ve formed a ladder wall.

I said maybe
This’ll be the stone that saves me.
This’ll be the stone that saves me…

11 Likes

Limerick about Go :

Yose, time to empty your head
Go on my pal and play ahead
Cleverest contraptions meet an end :
If you are too thick
Your move is a bit weak
But don’t be silly or you’re dead.

(limericks have a rhythm, please make sure to read it with the good one before not liking)

7 Likes

**Rikhon Special :smiley: **

Muddy muddy sky,
blue blue field
before every move
make a quick read.

take deeper look  
with close breath
never miss the chance,
take a good lead.

pincer pincer pincer
play in right place
when under pressure
get out from the chase

got a weak group ??
better make two eye
be always alerted
don’t let it die.

8 Likes

The stones are beyond old.
We know this without being told.

Speaking without a word,
one can still find the timeless, the entire world itself,

Something like truth
growing like life out of emptiness.

Truth, something like a story
we must each find for ourselves.

The stones speak our story,
asking nothing in return,

But to share the stones’ story
once in a while with another.

9 Likes

My Territory
There can be no life, only death
My stones fought bravely

6 Likes

Life

Two eyes to see
Two lungs to sing
Two flowers spring
From stony seeds.

And you will know
Life grows and needs.
To plant the seeds;
That is Go.

9 Likes

Silence

I shall not say much:
as every warrior knows
silence is truth.
It is the sound of stones
the only that I love.

It is a matter of life and death
no one must then neglect.

7 Likes

SPRING
Player: I place this stone, it is the day I choose. It is not Tengen. This stone is my day, the life that is only set in the waiting. You do hear It’s convex wobble. And soon I’ll hear that cold bowl of shadows, wanting life too quickly.
Ghost: Well, so you’ve had all Goban, with choice of stone to play. The one stone you are now watching for, is tomorrows, without squabble or whack, I’d say. The moment is rightful, also it is yours, though’ I’m here to Surround The Year, reading’ ahead of blurs.

Summer
Player: It’s warm within these corners. I’m placed there without fear. No Moyo has been gathered, my eyes are reaching clear.

   Ghost:   Those shadows that you vision, while not noticing a plan, has led you to Joseki, would you like to use my fan?

Fall
Player: It all seems so confusing’ all this, over here and over there. The edge seems just for finding. Your winds will push me there?

  Ghost:   I must admit' You're cleaver, I understand edge, column and row.  But listen' my bowl rattles, welcome to my Ko.

Winter
Player: This year is almost over. Our own is not so clear, So I will move at Tengen. You see, my Moyo appear?

   Ghost:   All is all and counted, when blood flowed into the grid. All these stones did gather or died and then be rid. Will be no game that's finished, nor Gobans full thus finer When your Surrounding The Year Alone you always finish re-signer. 

  Player:gg
8 Likes

The next time that someone asks me what I’m doing, hunched over a plain wooden board, decorated here and there with lines and points and scattered stones
I’ll tell them that I’m dealing with problems of life and death. And I will be.
I encircle, feint, fend off the shadows from the disused corners of my mind.

Some people say that you can tell who a person is by how they play.
I agree.
I once had a friend who was daring, aggressive, impulsive in his play;
Never a missed invasion, never a held-back play,
So little guile.
His lack of skill (or mine) at the time isn’t relevant, here,
Not now, or ever.
Another friend’s shapes were always thick and strong.
“Solid as concrete, and just as heavy,” I’d tease her,
But her territorial control never missed a beat.

After he left me I cried for hours, then
On and off for days.
He’d only ever been a friend,
But a rather close one. A confidant.
Sipping a sweet ginger tea, I broke down at the board with her,
Then crushed her, after having given her
Four stones
On the 13 by 13.
A month later, I forgot her birthday.

Still I play,
Obsessively
Obsessively seeking the truth behind things.
Not always, not often is this in go,
But when it is
I try to make sense of the present
By digging through the game of my far-flung past.
Still I honor the long-deposed kings and nobility of a war-torn country
My blood
Who I am not sure I accept.

10 Likes

There is a young man from Korea
Who plays his stones from his ear
He always complains
That he’s got rocks for brains
But at least he’s most sincere.


Two stones diverged in a baduk wood,
And sorry I could not play both
And be one player, long I stood
And read down one as far as I could
To where it went in the future growth;

Then played the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it wasn’t joseki and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing hane
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In the game both white and black.
Oh, I kept the first for another play!
Yet knowing how play leads on to play
I doubted if I could ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two stones diverged in go, and I,
I played the one less josekied by,
And that has made all the difference.

       by Robby Frosty Newby
9 Likes

I decided to take a hip-hop approach to this poetry contest. It has explicit lyrics. Hide the children and enjoy…


Awwww shit!
Get your junk together
Cuz it’s about to go down!
Everybody in the place
Gather around to kibbitz
But I’ll cut you if I hear
One motherfuckin sound

It’s on. We playing this.

Bring it, trick!

I’m playing Go.
I’m playing Go.
Everybody look at me while I’m fighting
out a Ko (fighting out a Ko)

I’m playing Go.
I’m playing Go.
Take a good, hard look at the motherfuckin GOBAN!

I’m playing Go, motherfucker, take a look at me.
Straight chillin cuz I know you got the aji.
Opened 3-5
to unleash my creative flow.
You can’t stop me, motherfucker, cuz I’m playing Go!

You got weak shape.
You won’t escape.
You holdin your stone like a Great Ape.
You just a hebo
Worse than DDK
I got reasons for my moves.
You got random play.

I’m like Hikaru
Taking cues from ghosts n shit
Playin tesujis
Getting my opponent upset.
This ain’t tsumego.
This is as real as it gets.
I’m playing Go, motherfucker.
Don’t you ever forget!

I’m playing Go and
I got the flow and
My grasp of life-and-death
Makes me a chō-dan (兆)*
I’m the Honimbo of all.
I’m playing Go like Seigen.
Just look across the board
And you’ll know I’m gaijin.

Wake the FUCK up!

This game is REAL!!!

Fuck chess, I’m playing go, motherfucker.
Fuck pawns, I fight with stones, motherfucker.
Fuck check, you’re in atari, motherfucker.
Fuck othello, do seppuku, motherfucker.

Never thought I’d master go.
It’s a long, deep, ethereal road.
Shusaku, look at me!
O-o-o-o-oh!
Never thought I’d see the day,
with 9Ps waiting to play.
Believe me when I say,
I torch all gosei!

I’m playing Go.
I’m playing Go.
Everybody look at me while I’m fighting out a Ko (fighting out a Ko)

I’m playing Go.
I’m playing Go.
Take a good, hard look at the motherfuckin GOBAN!

    • In this context, chō refers to the Sino Japanese character for the number 1,000,000,000,000.
9 Likes

The Stones

I think all this is somewhere in myself
The cold stones uncaring before
Now containing a stillness such as attends death
And in my mind the sounds of a dragon trying
To find a way to fly once more
You would say it was dying it is immortal

5 Likes

Eye of the Universe

on a square universe
two gods are battling
and a silent eye watches
formed from darkest stone

a white eye tries to be born
alas a black stone descends

© 2014 allen simpson

4 Likes