OGS Poetry Contest!

Go Resources
26

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
27

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
29

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
30

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
31

-Hand Talk-

I think I had a crush on you that summer.
The interplay of black and white,
The clash of stones across the board,
The way you frowned when thinking hard-
Crinkling up your lips: you had a winning glare.
Stones filled with energy caress,
Cut, break, grow, live, kill
Escape. Surround Destroy.
You press me up against a wall,
But I hold firm and push back,
Thick and strong.
Leaping out, I pierce you and invade.
You wrap yourself around me,
Locked in life and death,
Twining, twisting and-
My attack is broken, crushed
In your embrace.
Later, gaining ground, and in a flash
I make life in your midst.
Desperate, you wrap around me
And succeed-I am entombed alive
Across you.
Some say the stones go walking,
But between us two they danced.

We never touched, and yet,
Made love across the board.

9 Likes
32

Not within the board
Is this ladder connected
But to the ancients

6 Likes
33

In a wood of yellow trees, two long-acquainted friends

Stride a long black path, and search its length for stones

The eldest, white with age, has walked this path before.

And though it’s aged him much, it’s made his body strong.

He carries the burden now, of all the stones they’ve found.

It’s heavy in his hands, and makes him furrow his brow,

and stroke his chin and grunt a soft and plaintive “hmm.”

His eyes look toward the path, and search it inch by inch.

He’ll add a pale white stone, and pass the burden on.

Or else he’ll quit the lot, and the wager will be done.

The younger watches him, his hair still black as slate,

And wonders if he too, will grow stronger in his age.

He placed the first black stone in that burden hours ago,

But could not have made it grow to what it is all on his own.

He knows that the old man will not quit the burden now.

And soon another stone will be added to the load,

And then he’ll take that burden, and will carry it again.

He watches as his teacher seems for once to break a sweat.

The stones he found today were large, he placed them each with pride,

But still his elder’s stride is powerful and long,

His eyes are sharp and peircing as they scour across the path

And find the stone that’s biggest, as white as his own hair,

The younger makes a burden for himself along the way,

To test his strength against the coming struggle and prepare.

He loads it as it was when he last passed the burden on,

And adds one more to see if he can handle what’s to come.

The load confounds him greatly and he struggles against its weight,

And wonders if he might be forced to quit the burden soon,

And leave the stones along the path, the wager now complete.

A crack disturbs his struggle, as a stone joins many more.

The elder passes on the burden to the younger’s hands.

9 Likes
36

One can never have enough Haiku’s.
Please read this before the haiku! - Choose Black or White
Since multiple entries are forbidden, please only judge your choice. I made this for fun and to show the different perspectives that accompany a game.

Black

Dry leaf fell on board
It shows me the correct move
Thank you Universe

White

Leaf on the Goban
This next move kills my corner
Now rain starts falling

Thanks for reading!

10 Likes
41

Go Saint

Could I ever be a Go Saint
And play like those masters of old?
Spring tesuji like Dosaku?
Use aji like Jowa?
Can I conquer the seven Go sins
And be invincible like Shusaku?
Creative like Seigen?
Me thinks the answer is no.
For how could a man rise to such ranks
When he suffers from sins such as these?

Greed makes me overextend.
Pride makes me look down on my opponent.
Fear makes me play cowardly moves.
Sloth makes me play without thinking.
Envy makes me take unnecessary risks.
Gluttony makes me play casually.
Anger makes me lose control.

Awake my soul!
Cast off all these sins!
And become a Saint through the refining fires of Go!
The natural man cannot attain this
Only one who has become as a child
Submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love,
Willing to submit to all overplays that his opponent sees fit to inflict upon him.
Only then can one truly become like those masters of old
And be called a Go Saint.

4 Likes
42

Komoku or Hoshi, High or Low
How should I play?
Maybe two spaces or better three
What that was? joseki? overplay?
C’mon give me the respond, database
Damn
Timeout, good game
Any dan to review?

4 Likes
43

More info soon. :slight_smile:

1 Like