Here is an oldie but goodie from December 2015.
I go by Harrold.
Some admire my
Sticking with
Traditional form.
Passive aggressives
Always call me Harry.
Aggressives ask if it
Got shot off in the war,
Or why I insist on
Wearing a merkin.
Before you think
I have it bad, realize,
My wife insisted
We name our daughter
Anita.
Typewriter keys clicked through
The silence of the night hammering
Alphabetical symbols on the worn tape
Leaving fading ghosts.
Reams of paper tabbed their way through the bail
Leaving consonants and vowels that bleed
But make no words.
***
I wrote and posted this poem in June of 2015. I had just graduated with my undergrad degree in English. Most of my writing experience was in essays literary critique, and I had taken 4 semesters of fiction writing. In my final semester, I took an introduction to poetry writing class, so I can’t say that I had no experience writing poems. But I had preciously little experience, and still had little confidence in my ability to write good poetry. Turns out, this one was pretty good.
Here is a link if you want to see my original post: https://therichardbraxton.wordpress.com/2015/06/26/my-yesterday/
There is a competent principle
For people getting political
That says they should do
What I tell them to,
Or they all will be fireable.
***
A limerick is a five-line poem where the first, second, and fifth lines are long and the third and fourth lines are short. There seems to be quite a lot of variation between the examples of limericks that I have seen. But the long lines tend to be eight, nine, or ten syllables in length, and the short lines tend to be five, six, or seven syllables in length. Typically, the three long lines rhyme with each other and the two short lines rhyme with each other. But the rhyme scheme is subject to change on the whim of the poet. Limericks are often humorous poems consisting of a single stanza. However, they don’t have to be funny, and limericks can be linked together in multiple stanzas to form a longer poem. If you want to learn more about limericks or any other poetry term, you can check out the Glossary of Poetic Terms at Poetry Foundation here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms?letter=L
There was a hidden Queen
Walking from town to town
Cursed to live out her days
Fighting the wild land.
.
She lived in luxury
As lucky as a clam
Until she was put out
Now, she’s the hidden Queen.
.
Just a filthy beggar
Woman out stealing food,
Working for a pittance,
Working from town to town.
.
She sleeps in the weather
Clothing made of rags,
A tale for the children,
Cursed to live out her days.
.
In burning the castle,
The flames had cursed her life
Teaching her humility
Fighting the wild land.
.
I wanted to write a cascade poem to meet the poetry writing challenge from Muris’ page A Different Perspective. She has a list of 13 poetic forms to write in the month of April. If you are interested, you can find her list here: https://murisopsis.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/looking-forward-to-poetry-month/
I don’t know. Does this count? Can you complete a story writing challenge with a poem? I think I might be able to do more justice to this story if I am not so tightly constrained. So I think I will end up writing it out in short story form. I will wait and see what I can do though because this week’s cards don’t look as much like a ready made story as last weeks cards did. I did pull something out for this poem, but I am not sure I am totally happy with the way it turned out.
“Once Upon a Time” is a cooperative storytelling card game. The object of the game is to work together taking turns telling a fantasy story. The game is part cooperative and part competitive. Each of the players has their own story elements and ending card. When one player uses all of their element cards and reads off their ending card, that player wins. Because of the drive for the players to win, the game devolves into saying a word or two and throwing your cards on the table. This is not how the game is supposed to be played.
In my house, we have changed the rules. Instead of trying to tell one story where each of us try to steal the story from each other, we take turns telling the story we have come up with from the cards in our own hands. This makes it a fun game to play with your kids that helps teach them storytelling structure. At the same time, it is a good tool for practicing storytelling skills in a nonthreatening way.
If you choose to participate with me, feel free to write your story as short or as long as you like and comment a link of your story to this post so that everyone can see the differing stories that come from the same story telling elements.
The rules:
1. The story starts with, “Once upon a time.”
2. Use as many of the seven story element cards as you can.
3. End your story with the phrase on the ending card.
4. Have fun.
Planting extinction on the brink of cardboard sport in southwest sawdust.
Gospel of the quartet stone, sacred years, fish scraps, and you.
Once this kid, Malakai
He was my nice friend,
And he never gave up with me.
He never stopped being my friend.
.
I, Colin, one that was talking,
Like chicken nuggets and hot chips.
I love my dad and mom and my Meme
And my family
My whole entire family.
.
I was a kid
Learn mean things and then
Trinity let me play
On her phone, my friend.
.
I was taught by my mom and dad.
And then Matthew.
I didn’t know him at first.
When I didn’t let him let me
Play with him.
.
He would punch me.
That’s when I learned that one thing
Not to punch people.
And I, now, I am really nice.
.
And I was just nice for a year.
A whole year.
A half of a week year,
I meant.
Birdcall in the calming
Beige state run correctional
Facility
A scar on the breeze blowing
Through the warming countryside.
Ignore the lost
Fragment of humanity locked
Within prison walls
As animate Homunculus
Driving a human suit.
Riding the ruts
On the road less traveled slipping
Through mud on two wheels
Kicking up rooster tails
And powering around the turns.
Inspiration and Spirituality **Award Free**
stories about English language and people in Asian communities in America and in Asia.
therichardbraxton 