Poet's Arena! -Round 3 started!

[Termital]

Based on the premise that:
"The keyboard is mightier than the sword"

The idea is simple: For every round I shall specify a form and/or length and/or subject for a poem. The contestants will submit their poems on the thread, and get rated by the passing public of tiGLers on a scale of -5 to 5. In every round, we'll feed a poet to them, and let the rest to write another. Our survivor will be crowned the Official GL Poet and will get a cheap plastic statue of a mouse.

So go on and sign up for public scorn!

And these did:

Beartalon
Dragon Phoenix
Hitchhiker
mikegoo
quercitron
Sofis
Werebear
wordcross



[This message has been edited by Termital (edited 02-08-2003 05:27 AM).]

[quercitron]

IN. If we don't like the form can we try to lose?

[mikegoo]

/in...although I may end up with a good golf score prior to being eaten.

[Werebear]

I'm in. That plastic statue of the mouse is as good as mine.

...and I don't mean I have a statue just as good as the prize one.

Werebear

[Hitchhiker]

Poets beware, and you too, Were, I'm a doggerel writer extraordinaire!

Oh, and by the way, /in

[wordcross]

The fun's begun
And so I run
To follow all the rest

It's plain too see
When you see me,
I'm in and i'm the best!

------------------
I'm not an actor, but i play one on TV.
GLih8evilstuff: I hope you never call me, my caller ID would explode.
I dont' suffer from Insanity. I enjoy every minute of it!

[Cyberdork]

There once was a chap from Berlin
Who was really quite skilled with a pen
He saw this new game
And was quite glad that he'd came
And quickly he stated "I'm in"

(Clarification, I'm not from Berlin, but I want in the game.)

[Beartalon]

Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy
That's not original, but in want I

[Agamemnon]

This looks like a right laugh, put me down for a place my good man.

[Dragon Phoenix]

As autumn leaves are falling
The mind wants some distraction
So please count me in

[wordcross]

leave it to DP to haiku his way in

------------------
I'm not an actor, but i play one on TV.
GLih8evilstuff: I hope you never call me, my caller ID would explode.
I dont' suffer from Insanity. I enjoy every minute of it!

[Mackay]

Isn't a haiku only supposed to have 5 syllables in the first line?

[Dragon Phoenix]

Sure - did I say it was a haiku though?

[wordcross]

i assumed it was haiku, i didn't count syllables... perhaps it wasn't. That's about the only form of poetry i don't understand.

------------------
I'm not an actor, but i play one on TV.
GLih8evilstuff: I hope you never call me, my caller ID would explode.
I dont' suffer from Insanity. I enjoy every minute of it!

[Hitchhiker]

Am I the only one who keeps reading this title as "The Poet's Arsenal?"

Back off, tigers, we've got two Bears and a Dragon!

[Beartalon]

Yeah! WOOF!

[Termital]

We've got the amazing number of 9 aspiring poets in one day! I'll let the signup continue for another day, and then I'll post the first subject. All I'll say for now is that it's going be a short and easy one to get everyone in the spirit.

[quercitron]

How about a standard format for thread poems, to make them easier to read to the passersby?

Like Title, Challenge #, Poem, etc.

wordcross, you have no chance
Challenge #3.14

wordcross, you have no chance.
Pants.

...etc, etc?

[wordcross]

I'm afraid i don't follow...

[quercitron]

Well, poems might get lost. Like, let's say Challenge 1 was a 2-line rhyming poem insulting another poet. Person A might post "oh, here were my first three attempts but this is the one I want to submit," Person B might post in the middle of a long rant, etc, etc. If we develop a format it'll make it really easy to tell which poems are the submissions and which are posted for fun, written by other poets, to demonstrate the creative process, etc. Like...

[quercitron]

Eden
Challenge #2: Sonnets

Days spent pressing your picture to my breast,
remembering you walking, sighing, singing
This day could be the first day in the rest
of our lives; all the times you came home bringing

amber, symbols of luck, of our religion;
to disappear with them. And then the Fall;
You left me only symbols. The incision
of Truth, the scripture of a silent hall.

In this way I am starting to cross over
to what you called the other side. This day
could be the first - and silence. I will never
believe you. I will never trust you. Pray
for your salvation. Burn the five-leaf clover,
the cross of rosewood, and be gone forever.

[Termital]

To keep matters simple, only one submission per round per poet, In a post containing only this submission please, along with a bolded title, prefaced by the round's number, like this:

1. Ode to Christmas

All my lines go here.

------------------
Funeral directors in Florida get 500 frequent flyer miles for every corpse they ship out of Daytona Beach International Airport.

[Termital]

Round 1. The Wordy Sonnet.

For our starting round, you will submit a sonnet. This sonnet must contain no less than five of the words featured in the Oh my word thread in the Educator's Ideas Forums up to the 25th of November. Good luck!

[Beartalon]

I assume our entries can have their own titles, rather than calling it your description? I've also bolded all the words from the "Oh My Word" thread.

1. Flame War

If I wanted your erstwhile opinion
Freely I would ask for your two tuppence
But because of your fancy sophistry
You will only receive your comeuppance

Despite that, I shall win the argument
Although the result be a pyrrhic mess
A brouhaha of grammar and spelling
Exculpated venial sins, no less!

Turgid yet flaccid, your opinions fall
Like amargarous whining on the ear
Homalocephalous intelligence
Is all you have, a noisome fate, I fear

Your grandiloquence is nugatory
And Your pleonasm? Inflammatory!

[This message has been edited by Beartalon (edited 11-26-2002 08:50 AM).]

[Termital]

Heh heh heh. Keep'em coming!

[Beartalon]

Where is everybody?

[Dragon Phoenix]

I was hoping for somthing a bit more easy to start off with...

[Werebear]

...will assault the muses tonight, will post this weekend.

[Hitchhiker]

1. Shakespeare Never Had This Problem

I cannot say that word before "fourteen."
It hampers me at poem-writing times.
A nugatory cause for such a scene?
'Tis meter that's my demon, not the rhymes!

My triskaidekaphobia is not
Some trumped-up, namby-pamby cheap excuse.
I turn flibbertigibbet at the thought:
Twelve syllables and one more running loose!

Through prestidigitation, I produce,
For syllables in sonnets come in tens,
A knismogenic verse that does not use
That number which is noisome to my sense.

Few other fears, I adamantly state,
Could be a more amargous trick of fate.

[Agamemnon]

Pah!
Same as what Dragon said.
I resign!

[Termital]

Sorry to hear that! Is it the form or the vocabulary that's giving you trouble?
Nice one Hitchhiker! At least you've gotten over the g-phobia I see

[Beartalon]

My sonnet doesn't even rhyme abab like Hitchiker's does. How much leeway are you going to give us in matching the requirements of each type of piece?

[Sofis]

I hope no one minds if I insert myself into the goings on? That said...

1. The Hypocrite's Song

Oh hark! Go look at those beholden shrews
through prestidigitation they did steal.
Oh, look as his amargous meal he chews...
And her! No more will Pretty steal a meal.

Comeuppance fair was made for such as they,
it makes the city safe for honest men
like me, why barely ever I shortweigh
and only very little even then.

No more than twenty times a day I lie,
it really is no more than what makes sense...
What's that? "As bad as they" you say? Oh fie!
Do you accuse me of grandiloquence?

It is a sorry day when such as I
must listen when one such as you bely.

[This message has been edited by Sofis (edited 11-28-2002 02:49 PM).]

[Hitchhiker]

Welcome, Sofis! Good one!

Termital: I just hope I don't get the title "Phobic Member"

[Termital]

When I commence voting, I will also post a list of all infractions to the format, and advise voters to take it into account. But whether they will or not, I cannot know. A fun enough piece will probably get them to ignore the technical bits, and vote highly of your efforts . Of course, if somebody casually ignores the subject or form entirely, I'll just throw him to the tigers myself.

Hmm.. a Minotur joined the bestiary group. I really need to get something better than these namby-pamby tigers ...

[This message has been edited by Termital (edited 11-29-2002 01:13 AM).]

[wordcross]

1) The Schizo's Sonnet

There are some often noisome names for me
Like bedlamite, or others thus and such
And though i do find it nugatory
I fit the given outline rather much

In myself I have some dopplegangers,
Those lovely Hangers-on within my head,
One of whom, when facing present danger,
Smites unwary foes; hurt but not quite dead.

Another self a mighty magic Mage
Dyslexic reader though he has to be,
The next much more a fully wisened sage,
No lack nor screaming hebetude from he.

An Archer, Turtle, even Death himself;
From me the Mad-mind Doctor gains his wealth!

------------------
I'm not an actor, but i play one on TV.
GLih8evilstuff: I hope you never call me, my caller ID would explode.
I dont' suffer from Insanity. I enjoy every minute of it!



[This message has been edited by wordcross (edited 11-30-2002 12:01 AM).]

[Werebear]

My Work List

So much I have to do each busy day,
The work I must complete, it breaks my back.
Tack tiles to floors, walls up, roofs on, I say,
At end of day sometimes the sense I lack...

To say, come up and stay, my darling love,
Our love is pure, I'll never see your like,
You're perfect in my eyes, a gentle dove,
Let's set a day aside and take a hike.

I know my wayward ways would annoy some,
the time I waste at work should be with you,
Spent at the zoo, get to the museum,
But never you complain, you're always true.

Life goes too fast, the days they all fly by.
Tomorrow is yours, apple of my eye.

[Termital]

Um.. am I the only one to note exactly none of the featured words in the Word thread in this sonnet?

[Amb]

BearTalon 3
Hitchhiker 1
Sofis 3
Wordcross 2
Werebear -2

[wordcross]

do the players give votes for those besides themselves?

if so: *invisibled*
Beartalon: 3
HitchHiker: 4
Sofis: 2
Werebear: 4



[This message has been edited by wordcross (edited 12-01-2002 04:26 PM).]