30 Day Poetry Challenge - Day Four

Day Four - Look to Craigslist, newspapers, Twitter, anywhere for unintentional
poetry. Using the original text, punctuate and use line breaks to turn it into a poem. 

Write is Wrong

(Adapted from the article, “'Chapter 1: Clark,' Reports Awful Manuscript,” reported in The Onion, Issue 49.12

http://www.theonion.com/articles/chapter-1-clark-reports-awful-manuscript,31731/ )

{NEW YORK.}

An absolutely terrible manuscript…

Written by local aspiring novelist,

Brandon Heath,

Reported today that “Chapter 1:

       …Clark.”

“It was late autumn,

The leaves on the trees

Were a brilliant, blazing red,

And Clark Thurman

Was gazing at the passerby…

Just outside his apartment window,”

Continued the just awful first draft

Of Heath’s 80,000-word book…

       …The Final Light…

Which according to its author,

Details the interlocking fortunes

Of three strangers living in 1950s

       Manhattan,

And which sources confirmed…

       …is very bad.

“For a moment,

Clark thought he heard Mary

Call his name from the kitchen,

But then he remembered…

…school was back in session…

And the woman he loved

Had returned to her studies

       at Swarthmore…

Leaving him here…

       …alone.

This time of year

Often saw Clark fall…

Into such melancholy thoughts.”

At press time…

Heath’s thinly sketched character

Was rushing

To respond to an unexpected knock

On the front door of his

        apartment.

30 Day Poetry Challenge - Day Three

Day Three - Write a poem to someone and share it with them. (This requires some explanation... I play D&D... this one's for the party.) 

In Forgotten Days of Yore

In fair Eradas, the story goes,

The lands were rife with fear,

Its people cowered in the grip

Of villainy, far and near.

At sleepy, humble Forest’s Edge,

Foul goblins rent the night,

With violent cries and bloody roars,

To instill unholy fright.

They cruelly hacked and slashed

And slain the peaceful village men,

Who fought like simple fools

And quickly fell beside their friends.

But then, as their destruction loomed,

Their village, torn and burned,

Six motley heroes rose, and soon

The tides of battle turned.

A goliath, name of Steiner,

Heart of gold and hide of stone,

Displayed his mountain justice

As he crushed the goblins’ bones.

And then they met a dragonborn;

Bael, the paladin,

With righteous fury and freezing breath

He brought about their end.

There came the drifter, Melastien,

Born of unknown lands,

He brought his foes a fiercely swift

Demise by Elven hands.

The fourth, a pixie sorcerer,

Mxyzptlk of the trees,

Was mocked by goblins ‘til his thunder

Brought them to their knees.

The human wizard, Regdar,

Master of the arcane arts

Unleashed his searing lightning

Ripping vile foes apart.

The last of them, a human Cleric,

Rowan, full of grace;

His faith could heal the sick,

Or smite the wicked, he did face.

The goblin hordes had erred

In their disastrous village raid,

For every last was felled

By blazing spell and piercing blade.

And when the smoke of battle

Broke with sun’s protecting glow,

The people knew their saviors

As they stood ‘mongst bloodied foes.

With joyful tears, the people cheered

The heroes in their midst,

They passed the jugs of ale and mead,

But the heroes did resist.

The first, they knew, of many battles,

A minor victory,

How long the war would carry on…

Well, only time could see.

And so the heroes, six, did ride

Toward setting amber sun,

On oath to never venture back

Until the war was won.

30 Day Poetry Challenge - Day Two

 Day Two: Write a poem on paper quickly without lifting your pen from the page. Post image if possible. No edits.

Existentialism 101

 

What if we live in a multiverse?

Would there be a swirling spiral of Earths

Streaming throughout a vast mega-cosmos?

Would a magnitude of “me’s” be

Sitting around their living rooms

Attempting to write a messy poem?

Would there be a heaven or hell;

A god or a devil,

Or would they live in legions

In their celestial or infernal omni-realms?

Does an infinite number of gods debunk

The church?

Would an infinite number of Satans doom

Us all?

Would they argue over who’s right and

Who’s wrong

While we infinitely live oblivious lives?

Would we endless peons share our

Omni-selves’ joys?

Share each others’ pains? Feel it when

Each other dies? Know when there’s only

One left?

30 Day Poetry Challenge - Day One

I need to offer a brief introduction to what is about to happen. This is the beginning of the 30 Day Poetry Challenge. Over the course of the month of April, a new poem has to be written each day... thirty days; thirty poems. Where it becomes a "Challenge" is that each day its own criteria for the poem being written. Over the next thirty days, I will be writing and posting enterprising new vistas of poetry... or dreck that I'd crudely whipped together to meet my deadline. Either way, I'm going to make you read it...and here we go.

Day 1: Write a short poem (less than 5 lines). Be sure to include at least two strong images. Don’t over think it, just do it!

Apples and Oranges

Strawberry rainclouds let loose their shimmering cascades,

Showering me in sweet honeydew lullabies;

I drift upon the saccharine ocean in a rickety banana boat

And brave the blueberry tides to find my tropical paradise.