we’re always on the same page…
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I love giraffes
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I don’t even try
bone and muscle harmonies
pain’s antithesis
endure again, 1hp
like I just pop’d moxie cat
Hard damn. When waves hit
clenchwise, compel your body
“Wouldja unbuckle?”
8 Likes
Are you gonna do this again? Would like to get it on the next one
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Yes! I just haven’t set a date for myself and now it’s on perpetual hiatus. Let’s do a new one on August 1! I’ll tell people the new rules then.
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As promised, here are the rules for this month. Rules from the last two games no longer apply. This time, I want to experiment with a different poetic form: the pantoum.
A pantoum works by repeating lines verbatim throughout the poem.
Pantoum line pattern
Stanza 1
A
B
C
D
Stanza 2
B
E
D
F
Stanza 3
E
G
F
H
Stanza 4
G
I (or A or C)
H
J (or A or C)
For our game, let’s follow a rhyme scheme: abab, bcbc, cdcd, dede, eaea. I am not a stickler for rhymes. Near rhymes and assonance work just as well. See below for an example.
A Ride in the Rain
A Ride in the Rain
The driver has no knife. He has no knife, no,
you think, and lower your head into his car.
A ride in the rain? The dark clouds bellow.
You saw him drinking at the local bar,
you think, and lower your head into his car.
Rain taps on the roof, falls on this familiar man:
You saw him drinking at the local bar.
He shrugs and offers up his empty hands.
Rain taps on the roof, falls on this familiar man,
and sugarcane stalks bend in the breeze.
He shrugs and offers up his empty hands.
As sewer pipes burst, flooding the street,
and sugarcane stalks bend in the breeze,
machetes swing into the green stems, low.
As sewer pipes burst, flooding the street,
bile is a blade at the back of your throat.
Machetes swing into the green stems, low.
A ride in the rain? The dark clouds bellow.
Bile is blade at the back of your throat.
The driver has no knife. He has no knife, no.
For line length…hmm. Let’s try 8-9 syllables per line.
Again, we will create poems that have lines from multiple writers. 1st writer makes the 1st stanza, 2nd writer adds the 2nd stanza. The difference is that the 2nd writer has to use lines from the 1st to complete their own.
Share a theme and I’ll add your name to the hat. I will draw from the hat 2024-08-08T04:00:00Z
My theme is vacation.
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My theme is inheritance
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i was gonna say WAHH THIS IS TOO HARD AND TOO MUCH THOUGHT but i only have to write four lines at a time i guess ill try
my theme is half off sales
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My theme is limestone
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my theme is “provisional”
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After the first stanza, you only have to come up with two lines!
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My theme is chores
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Are we going to pass poems around to make them have 4 stanzas total as in the first instruction?
My theme is debt
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We’ll pass them around like before. The second to last and last will be done by the same person since the last stanza incorporates pieces from previous stanzas.
airport
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i am curious how these will turn out, it seems like the kind of form that needs a lot of planning to turn out coherent but i guess brains are good at filling in gaps
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pizza
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It’s a risk! But I’m really amazed at what people have written and if this is a failure, it will be an interesting one.
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I guess I’ll participate this round too. I feel a bit skittish after how long I took last time but I’ll try to keep up better this time. My theme is “rabbit in winter.”
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Okay, I’ve done a lot of procrastinating on setting this up, but I’m getting it done today!
Also, I know the instructions are convoluted, so don’t be afraid to ask for clarification. I’ve tried to include examples so you can get an idea of what the end result looks like.
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