ForumsArt, Music, and WritingPeriodic Poetry Contest - Theme: Touch of Truth (Page 390, due Jan. 28)

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DragonMistress
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DragonMistress
1,058 posts
Blacksmith

First, I will post the overall rules, and then I will post the specifics about this week.

Original rules, as stated by Ubertuna:

It must fit the week's theme.
It must be submitted by the deadline.
It cannot have inappropriate language in it.
It cannot be stolen (if you plagiarize, we will find you).


Also:

The poem must be created for this contest
A user cannot win two weeks in a row (though everyone is welcome to submit every week!)
Only one submission per user will be accepted

As we all know, the winner will recieve a merit, and their poem will be featured on the _Poetry_ page.


OK, on to this week's topic...Again, we are having a style instead of a theme. Also, this week we are having TWO WEEKS to do it, instead of the usual one. Why? Because this will be an EPIC poem. Or, rather, a parody of an epic poem. Generally, epic poetry is very long, and tells the serious story of a heroic figure. Well, this week, the epic figure is YOU! Write a long poem (I'll leave the definition of 'long' up to you, but give it a good go) about the heroic story of you! It can be silly, serious, whatever... just have fun with it. You have two weeks, so have a great time!
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TSL3_needed
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TSL3_needed
5,579 posts
Nomad

I thought I'd enter this one, just for the hell of it.

My dreams make me sad,
They always make me happy.
My dreams drive me mad,
And make my life crappy.

I feel a pain in my leg,
It sings to me like a bird.
It feels like a keg,
It might come in third.

That's a dream, I will not see,
I guess that's the way it has to be.

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

My brain hurts from thinking about what iambic quadrameter means. I'm guessing that it means in four lines only two of them with one line seperating them rhyme?


Moat's right, but it's called iambic tetrameter, not quadrameter. 'Tis my favorite meter too; there's something lyrical about it.
Moabarmorgamer
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Moabarmorgamer
8,570 posts
Nomad

By the way Jonnycakes, the capitalizations are intentional. If anyone gets all the references, I will give him or her five internet cookies.

He shoulda stuck up his thumb, methinks. You forgot that part.
Amirite? Do I get cookies?

*rubs eyes*
Did I just see a post by TSL? A recent one, no less?
thisisnotanalt
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thisisnotanalt
9,821 posts
Shepherd

Umm . . . no. Think music.

adios194
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adios194
818 posts
Nomad

At the end of all.
We dream and we fall.
To the depths of our minds.
We will dream of cryptic finds.

Living in this other place.
We don't worry about space.
Where we go we will choose.
Some get here by drinking booze.

Silently we sit unstalled.
Once upon a time is always called.
We can do what we decide.
Riding on our favorite ride.

This dream is great and fine.
It begins around nine.
When it ends we are sad.
Was it good or was it bad?

Ernie15
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Ernie15
13,344 posts
Bard

Epic Mind Journey

I once was the greatest
I once was a star
I was globally famous
I went so very far

I climbed several mountains
I traveled the earth
I flew in a spaceship
For all that it's worth

I flew to Uranus
To a Uranus town
I swam in the ocean
Over 3 miles down

I went to a world
Where the people are bears
And they called me abnormal
"Cause I ain't got no hairs!"

I fought 20 dragons
In a fiery cave
I captured the devil
And made him my slave

I ruled the whole world
Every country, I mended
But then I woke up
And that's where it ended.

Parsat
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Parsat
2,180 posts
Blacksmith

Based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Winter Dreams, Winter Dreams

Fists clenched tight around the skis,
Down the slopes of wintry freeze
With dreams of sudden victories.
The world is mine, the day I seize.

Winter dreams, winter dreams.

Business rolling, champagne flowing,
Twilight swimming, moonlight glowing.
See the fish's scales, how they're showing
Hope from which the breeze is blowing.

Winter beams, winter dreams.

See the boat move down the lake:
Watch as she just hits the brake
To bump me gently as the wake
Subsides and falls to quickly break.

Winter seams, winter dreams.

Sleeping with a dozen men
I notice not, except times when
She mentions them to my chagrin
As I move close to touch her skin.

Winter schemes, winter dreams.

Now the dream is off and dead,
There is no Judy in my bed.
And every tear I seem to shed
Falls languidly for my own head.

Winter dreams, winter dreams.

thisisnotanalt
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thisisnotanalt
9,821 posts
Shepherd

Is the first stanza supposed to be split in trochaic and iambic, Parsat? Because for me at least, the first two lines feel trochaic and the last two feel iambic. A lot of the other lines seem trochaic too, so the entire poem is sort of a medley of trochaic and iambic.

Parsat
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Parsat
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Blacksmith

thisisnotanalt:

Many lines do omit the first weak half of the iambs, as I have a tendency to do (I actually don't write as much strict as it may seem). So here, you see:

FISTS clenched TIGHT a-ROUND the SKIS

is really a headless iambic tetrameter. Alternatively, you could think of it as trochaic tetrameter catalectic (indicating that a weak beat has been left off at the end of the trochee).

And yes, I have mixed iambic tetrameter and trochaic tetrameter as a direct, deliberate device in relation to the content of the poem. Trochaic is very bold and confident, or heavy with self-realized futility, while iambic is very lilting, light, or in its negative side, mourning or denying. By altering the stresses in tetrameter, you have great flexibility in creating a rhythm that matches the moods of each individual line.

thisisnotanalt
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thisisnotanalt
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Shepherd

Ah. I'd never heard of catalectic before, lol. It's really an interesting way of manipulating the mood of the poem. I'll have to remember that.

FloydTC
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FloydTC
2,906 posts
Nomad

nobody ever talks about my poems. is it too short to even notice?

adios194
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adios194
818 posts
Nomad

@Ernie, I love yours. It's really good, good job.
@Parsat, your poem is written as an older concept. Instead of focusing on the rhyming of a whole phrase and simple lines it was more complex. I liked it, I loved the refrains after each set of lines.

SlimyGames
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SlimyGames
42 posts
Nomad

Haha nice one beastahayes.

DrElmer
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DrElmer
552 posts
Shepherd

A gifted mind, bound
Only by a white jacket
And a small white room
But he is not limited
His mind takes him everywhere

Jessikar
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Jessikar
67 posts
Nomad

As you shake in your bed
Darkened thoughts in your head
You awake with a scream
To find it was a dream

You stand up with a yawn
Put your normal clothes on
Go watch the rising dawn
Then walk 'crosst the red lawn

Red!? You think with a jump
Strange, your throat gains a lump
Black goo comes out a pump
As people fly to dumps

Fly!? You yelp with a start
That is strange in my heart
You've been wiped off the chart
As dogs talk in their carts

Wait a sec; dogs talking!?
And now you're plain balking
As you watch worms walking
And yellow cows squawking

Then you awake once again, find yourself in your den
And then you're thinking, "I've got to stop drinking"
You leave and find a world, all twisted and swirled
Where lawns are green, and the pumps are clean
Where people walk, and dogs can't talk
Where worms simply crawl, and cows go "Moo!"
It seems a much more dreamlike world to you

Just a draft. I'll probably change my submission later.

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