Thread: Being a poet 23rd Feb 09

The new challenge subject is

Being a poet

Please enter your poems below.


P.S. Don't forget to visit the R.T.A. thread, cast your votes and make your comments while you are in Challenge.

Writers block is a disease!!!!

Topic, I need a topic!
Every poet needs a topic...
Mine is never unique,
nor is it up to the calibur of anyone here...

A picture, i'll describe a picture.
Oh yeah, that's great, real original.
Not like anyones ever done that before...
genius.

Well, I can't help it
My mind is now a desert,
for all my thoughts have dried up,
and nothing is of use to me anymore.

The only way to find my thoughts,
are to poke open cactus plants,
which in my mind... don't exist.
Therefore, I have no more thoughts left.

Which must mean i'm no longer a poet,
I now have a disability,
this prevents me from doing my job...
Writers block is a disease, just like anything else.

Don't make fun of me,
Stop laughing, I'm sick and need taken care of!
Sure sure sure, I'll treat your jokes with pure apathy,
I don't care, really I don't care.

What's this? You ask...
Nothing just a rope, just a beautiful rope.
Oh this? it's just a knot... a knot in the rope.
Writers block is a disease ya know....

Go ahead and laugh,
For I myself will have the laugh
of all laughs,
cause no one else.... will be laughing.

When The Pen Runs Dry

In case you didn't know,
you started this business.
My Rome,
My Omega -
My beautiful.

I used to reach for words,
now I try just to keep them at arm's length.
They buzz,
they burn.

In case they didn't know,
you belong to no one,
but sometimes to me.
My Asia,
My wanderer -
My fated.

And when I write the perfect words,
and the metre is just right,
then maybe you'll belong to me again
(or else the pen runs dry - and the poet dies).

Keep Writing

Catharsis, emotions forced on page
Skin peeling, feelings dissected
with meter, rhyme
rhythm, alliteration
No satisfaction;
Keep writing.

Hoping, one day words will be enough
Complex emotions captured
projected, rejected,
refuted, reflected
Until the page bleeds with truth
Keep writing.

Acrostic


Baring my soul for others to see
Enlisting words to set ideas free
Imploring, cajoling, instilling a notion
Never at rest, mind always in motion
Gyrating and spinning for all it’s worth
Another description is coming to birth
Portraying a sound, a sight and the smell
Or else the emotions, the things that I feel
Entering in to the spirit of the thing
Turning a word for the joy it will bring

Misrepresented
by my 26 darlings who refuse
to bend –
to lend this pen
credibility.

I slide the darkness
across recycled nothing and become
their god –
a fraud and fool
without utility.

a poem
by tomorrow.
a poem in a
box
made of requirements
deadlines
rubrics
and word counts.
i prick my finger
write it in my
blood so that
she carries a
part of my soul.
poem flitters
screams
i force her into
the box.
no air holes
she suffocates
and the part of
me inside her
dies.

I am sorry folks, I have over run this again, poems submitted to this thread will no longer count in the contest which is now closed. If anyone would like to comment the thread remains open for that. I am not going to put a poll on the thread for the moment, the last contest attracted only two votes and resulted in a tie so I am waiting to see if there is any response to my post in the Bard's Bistro first. One suggestion, "It matters not who won or lost..." rather than a winner I ask all the contestants to give me a subject choice and then I choose from among them, or set up a poll for a day or two so you can choose, but would anybody vote?

On the poems:- It surprised me how many of them were to do with writer's block, is this part of the appeal of the contest, not having to decide what to write about?
silverfoxgirl:- I love the way you personify the poem and make 'her' female.
iDrew:- That is truly erotic. Not in any sort of forced or manipulative way, but loving, I like very much.
gagoots:- Loved it up to the last line, then I wanted it to be 'Or the pen runs dry, and the poet dies', the 'else' and '-' seemed too 'flowery' and upset the rhythm for me.
StealSniper:- Poking open non existent cactus plants, lovely. A little more care with presentation wanted, an I'll not capitalised and 'The only way' must be 'is' not 'are'.

I really enjoy seeing all the different takes on the subject and there are lots of really good images, thank you everyone.

Dear Olly, How are we supposed to vote? Are you setting up a poll or are we going to post a reply to the thread stating our choice as we did with "Birth"?

After the experience with the poll on the RTA thread where we only had one vote cast for the first 13 days and then a second one to tie the result in the last few hours of the poll I wondered if we might try something else (see the post above and the one in the Bard's bistro). I will give it until the weekend, when people have more time to make comments, and put a poll on on Sunday or Monday if there are no other suggestions.