Round 5
Held: May 22-28, 2009
Participants: Charles Fry, Charles Schafer, Rob Malkin, Tom Lokovic
Challenge:Write a poem in 20 lines or less that satisfies AT LEAST THREE of the following five constraints/topics:
- I'm getting too old for this shit.
- "Life's too short It's too cliché"
- I've got a bad feeling about this.
- "Do you think she saw that?"
- It comes in waves.
Adopting a whiny, angst-ridden tone is optional but seems to be implied by the topics for this round.
Results:
One More Day
the morning is back
knocking me off my feet
again
and so the day begins
it's all such a blur
where did I go wrong
again
when the day began?
can she even see me
or am I too cliché
again
just another day
endless concentration
my eyes age as they weep
again
yet another day
grasping for hope
fighting to survive
again
just one more day
-- Charles Fry
I've got a bad feeling about some shit
that I am going to describe in a second,
shit for which I am getting much too old.
It's those damn children on the sidewalk
in front of my big Victorian house,
with their lemonade stand and their antics.
Life's too short. Oh, I know it's a cliche.
I just don't give a shit,
nor do I mind uttering banalities, digressing,
or making the same point several different ways
during a single conversation.
Anyway, life's too short to put up with those pesky kids.
I am going to have to do something about it,
and it's not going to be neighborly.
Boy. I wish this awful headache, which comes in waves, would go away.
--Charles Schafer
Alright, Melpomene, it's time to go.
Not to any placid shore; I fear Lachesis
gypped us.
Slowly I rise to take your hand, questioning: Is
this still the course, even now?
You won't long escape Atropos' gaze, she tells me;
perhaps you should look behind, not ahead, for comfort.
On the whole, I've got a bad feeling.
Eris, Nemesis, Thanatos; they're all coming for
me.
--Rob Malkin
Manic and Depressive are supposed to alternate
But for me they come in waves, together.
Foamy crash and mental eddies
make me function like a child
bratty, scattered, whiny
'Til the wave recedes,
I find my cool
And take another crack
At the blunted sandcastle.
--Tom Lokovic