TUESDAY POETRY CHALLENGE 1-19-10

Mlou · Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:08 pm Post subject: TUESDAY POETRY CHALLENGE 1-19-10

Tuesday again and I think I'm all alone in a great shadowy cavern. Our poets seem all departed to more languid climes or are just goofing off somewhere in mid-winter doldrums. But let's have a fresh challenge or two. Perhaps this will recall our versifiers to their duties. *smile*

1. Usually, a word list from which to build a poem is a sure-fire starter. I hope perhaps it will be again. The list:
thread,eyes, world,treetop, silver, waves, stretch, condemn,stamp.wistful

2. Here is a cloaked figure. Who is he/she, someone you've seen or imagined, and what could his/her purpose be? A verse please, light or serious, any style or length.

3. On a relaxed note, how about a haiku? Old style, 5-7-5, if you will.
_________________
nothing is ever simply Yes or No. There's always a But...

GINGERBREAD MAN by Mary Lou Healy at Amazon.com http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopquery.asp?catalogid=16658 at Publish America

Olsenpotter · Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:16 pm Post subject:

My waking nightmare

See here a cloaked figure;
a woman,
dressed in white.

And here another cloaked figure;
a man,
dressed in red.

They take each other by the hand
and walk down a dirt street,
ill-lit with a blue fog surrounding them.

Their names are Cairenn and Ferrin
or Emma and Wayne
or Becca and Lance

or any name of any couple:
Everywoman and Everyman.

They do no talking.
Their glances are to the wayside
not each other.

As they walk their cloaks meld together,
a pink mesh of unity begins to form between them.

Then appears another cloaked figure,
standing in front of them,
wearing orange.

The united mesh of man and woman stop
and study this new figure.

From under its cloak, a fire gleaming sword
appears and cuts the unit in two.

White and Red return.

Walking down different paths,
they part.
_________________
I'll leave you a note in the freezer.

Mlou · Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 1:49 pm Post subject:

Now there's a picture. We're left wondering about the sinister orange-cloaked being, and the whys of it all. Is he Fate, or the Spirit of Disunity, or just somebody having a bad day that doesn't want any happiness around? It's up to the reader to decide...is that it, OP?
_________________
nothing is ever simply Yes or No. There's always a But...

GINGERBREAD MAN by Mary Lou Healy at Amazon.com http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopquery.asp?catalogid=16658 at Publish America

Olsenpotter · Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:40 pm Post subject:

When I wrote it I was thinking about the fear of divorce. I had a line that explained who the figure in Orange was. Something along the lines of

He is Depression, Fear, Hate, and Selfishness

but I took it out because I took the challenge to be not so much as a definition of who this cloaked figure was, but rather to imagine what this cloaked figure would be doing.

I could analyze my own poem, tell you exactly the metaphors and images that I imagined as I wrote it, but it's still to freshly exposed to the world to do that. Maybe next week I'll come back to it and spill all.

Not that my vision matters a twit as to what this poem says to anybody else who reads it; take it for what you will, that's the fun of poetry.
_________________
I'll leave you a note in the freezer.

Mlou · Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:16 pm Post subject:

So who's game for the other challenges????
_________________
nothing is ever simply Yes or No. There's always a But...

GINGERBREAD MAN by Mary Lou Healy at Amazon.com http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopquery.asp?catalogid=16658 at Publish America

Mlou · Posted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:35 pm Post subject:

ENCOUNTER
Hanging by a silver thread
from the treetop,
one spider eyes her world.
She has stamped her delicate mark
upon this place, a filigree
of web that stretches
across my path. I will not
wave it carelessly away
but step around her weaving.
Nor will I condemn
what she must do to live
as nature taught her.
A wistful thought touches me
as I pass. What skills
might nature have given us
that we forgot
long aeons ago?
_________________
nothing is ever simply Yes or No. There's always a But...

GINGERBREAD MAN by Mary Lou Healy at Amazon.com http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopquery.asp?catalogid=16658 at Publish America

LizGrayson · Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 2:12 pm Post subject:

You almost make me feel like spiders are beautiful....*almost* Seriously though, the image at the beginning is very strong. I can picture it perfectly and like the philosophical turn it takes at the end.
_________________
Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star and they give you them for free! ~ Billy Mack (aka the lovely Bill Nighy), Love Actually

jillstar · Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2010 6:56 pm Post subject:

removed by author
_________________
Guilt is the freedom killer.

Mlou · Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:18 pm Post subject:

Thank you, Liz...now how about giving the challenges a go? *smile*

Jill...I like it. Might you make it more immediate by saying, "The land is frozen..."?
_________________
nothing is ever simply Yes or No. There's always a But...

GINGERBREAD MAN by Mary Lou Healy at Amazon.com http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopquery.asp?catalogid=16658 at Publish America

jillstar · Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:18 pm Post subject:

Yup... that works better! Smile

_________________
Guilt is the freedom killer.

Fireflare77

The Shroud

Her eyes were downcast,
Her hands gracefully weaving along.
The world around her had long since d i s a p e a r e d .

The --thread-> of royal silver blurred,
Her masterpiece coming to fruition.
Her mighty waves of fabric streching,
J-o-i-n-i-n-g ~ t-o-g-e-t-h-e-r

But this whistful stamp- her scene of *beauty*,
Was a shourd of death.

Her nible hands finishing quickly,
She lowered the burial shourd over her shrine-
The shrine to her god- her <love3-
Rip>--<ped from the fabric of her shroud.

Torn asunder from the seams.

She gazed at the beautiful scene within her shroud,
A treetop, an ocean, the sun.
Then, s l o w l y, she set fire to the small condemned weaving.
And so she said goodbye.
_________________
FireFlare77

I often sit here, in this chair, writing, oblivious to the passing of time.

It's not always rainbows and butterflies, it's compromise that moves us along.
<--Maroon5

Mlou · Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 7:04 pm Post subject:

Fireflare, I'm sorry but in my opinion you are killing your poem with all the busyness of colors and type. Your pyrotechnics get in the way, and some words are almost unreadable. An excellent poem is never in need of such embellishments. At least that's MY take on poetry.
_________________
nothing is ever simply Yes or No. There's always a But...

GINGERBREAD MAN by Mary Lou Healy at Amazon.com http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopquery.asp?catalogid=16658 at Publish America

mae · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:22 pm Post subject:

For some reason, I didn't participate in this challenge when it came out. But I am now!!! Here's my poem for challenge #2. I can't think of a suitable title. Help me out? mae

The figure crouched,
jumping from shadow to shadow,
seeking doers of dastardly deeds.

With a mighty roar
and fluffy cape flyin',
he sprints at supersonic speeds.

Surprising this thief
of warm cookies and milk,
his stealthy approach succeeds.

In a bath towel cape
and pajamas with feet,
he's the hero all the world needs.
_________________
My heart beats in poetry. I think in rhythm and dream in rhyme.

Give me a crit! I can take it!

CELTIC QUEEN, an Epic Poem, Cynthia M. Bateman, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/search.php?search=Celtic+Queen%2C+an+Epic+Poem at Tate Publishing

mae · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:37 pm Post subject:

The title is Caped Crusader.

mae
_________________
My heart beats in poetry. I think in rhythm and dream in rhyme.

Give me a crit! I can take it!

CELTIC QUEEN, an Epic Poem, Cynthia M. Bateman, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/search.php?search=Celtic+Queen%2C+an+Epic+Poem at Tate Publishing

Mlou · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:42 pm Post subject:

Very cute, mae...and comes from hands-on experience of grandkids, doubtless. lol
4th stanza throws me a little...who is surprising the thief or is HE doing the surprising?
_________________
nothing is ever simply Yes or No. There's always a But...

GINGERBREAD MAN by Mary Lou Healy at Amazon.com http://www.publishamerica.com/shopping/shopquery.asp?catalogid=16658 at Publish America

mae · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:41 pm Post subject:

I'm the cookie thief and he's surprising me
_________________
My heart beats in poetry. I think in rhythm and dream in rhyme.

Give me a crit! I can take it!

CELTIC QUEEN, an Epic Poem, Cynthia M. Bateman, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/search.php?search=Celtic+Queen%2C+an+Epic+Poem at Tate Publishing

mae · Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:41 pm Post subject:

I should probably make that clearer somehow
_________________
My heart beats in poetry. I think in rhythm and dream in rhyme.

Give me a crit! I can take it!

CELTIC QUEEN, an Epic Poem, Cynthia M. Bateman, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, http://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/search.php?search=Celtic+Queen%2C+an+Epic+Poem at Tate Publishing

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