Poetry Writing Meme
Jul. 5th, 2012 02:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritI found this writing meme I did once before and thought it was a funny sort of day, and just the time to try again. And I did it! \o/
1: Pick five fandoms.List them in alphabetical order. (ETA: Whoops.)
1. Blake's 7
2. Sapphire & Steel
3. Doctor Who
4. Press Gang
5. Angel
2: Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it's an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and - you guessed it - list 'em in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it's always been about creativity.)
3: I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting - make your brain explode!), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don't have to include it in the half-drabble - it's just inspiration.
4: Bravo! Have a cookie.
Five resulting demi-drabbles. Warning for disturbing themes in B7 (1984-ness), S&S (murder) and Angel (vampires being vampires, but I'm sorry, look at the prompt).
Hopefully they all make sense, no spoilers. I only had 50 words. (And they are 50 words exactly according to MS Word, anyway.)
1. Blake’s 7: spatter of dry clay sticking yellow on his left sleeve
It’s a tell-tale sign, a speck of dirt that unwittingly records what otherwise will never be noted: a death, a burial – a thing that never happened. He’s losing count of how many now as the Federation endlessly rewrites its history.
Yellow mark on a black sleeve. He brushes it away.
2. Sapphire & Steel: lies unblessed in my hand
Sapphire holds it in her palm: it’s an old necklace, tarnished and blackened silver framing a garnet. But to her it screams: once it choked the life from its wearer, it’s a potent memory, Time’s weapon. It tastes of blood. Yet Sapphire smiles: she holds the trigger – and Time loses.
3. Doctor Who: of candy wrappers – airborne. Everything
“They’re not.” The Doctor grins.
Amy raises an eyebrow. “They look like wrappers.”
The Doctor releases a handful. They float away: pink, yellow and white. “They’re leaves,” he says. “If sweets grow on trees, how else is that going to work?”
She laughs. It’s somehow all the reasons she’s here.
4. Press Gang: Though art’s hid causes are not found
“It’s a good story,” says Lynda, although with a grudging note. “Who found out about – you know, the science teacher and the –?”
“Colin.”
Lynda thinks of asking how, but halts. They look at each other.
“Yeah,” says Sarah. “I didn’t ask, either.”
“Let’s just hope it wasn’t anything criminal.”
Angel: And if you eat more than you need
“Not that I’ve any wish to curb your appetites…” Darla flickers a wicked look at him “…but this is the third mob in a month, Angelus.”
He grins, though they’re hiding in an alleyway, backs against the wall.
“And if you’d said, you know I always enjoy a good massacre…”
***
The poems:
1. Carl Sandburg - The Shovel Man
2. Anne Sexton - Year of the Insane
3. GE Patterson - Autobiographia
4. Ben Jonson - Song from the silent woman
5. Theodore Roethke - The Saginaw Song
I had a sandwich, a banana and a bit of chocolate afterwards, though, not a cookie. And I was being very careful not to let my mind explode. It does that too often anyway, these days.
1: Pick five fandoms.
1. Blake's 7
2. Sapphire & Steel
3. Doctor Who
4. Press Gang
5. Angel
2: Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it's an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and - you guessed it - list 'em in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it's always been about creativity.)
3: I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting - make your brain explode!), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don't have to include it in the half-drabble - it's just inspiration.
4: Bravo! Have a cookie.
Five resulting demi-drabbles. Warning for disturbing themes in B7 (1984-ness), S&S (murder) and Angel (vampires being vampires, but I'm sorry, look at the prompt).
Hopefully they all make sense, no spoilers. I only had 50 words. (And they are 50 words exactly according to MS Word, anyway.)
1. Blake’s 7: spatter of dry clay sticking yellow on his left sleeve
It’s a tell-tale sign, a speck of dirt that unwittingly records what otherwise will never be noted: a death, a burial – a thing that never happened. He’s losing count of how many now as the Federation endlessly rewrites its history.
Yellow mark on a black sleeve. He brushes it away.
2. Sapphire & Steel: lies unblessed in my hand
Sapphire holds it in her palm: it’s an old necklace, tarnished and blackened silver framing a garnet. But to her it screams: once it choked the life from its wearer, it’s a potent memory, Time’s weapon. It tastes of blood. Yet Sapphire smiles: she holds the trigger – and Time loses.
3. Doctor Who: of candy wrappers – airborne. Everything
“They’re not.” The Doctor grins.
Amy raises an eyebrow. “They look like wrappers.”
The Doctor releases a handful. They float away: pink, yellow and white. “They’re leaves,” he says. “If sweets grow on trees, how else is that going to work?”
She laughs. It’s somehow all the reasons she’s here.
4. Press Gang: Though art’s hid causes are not found
“It’s a good story,” says Lynda, although with a grudging note. “Who found out about – you know, the science teacher and the –?”
“Colin.”
Lynda thinks of asking how, but halts. They look at each other.
“Yeah,” says Sarah. “I didn’t ask, either.”
“Let’s just hope it wasn’t anything criminal.”
Angel: And if you eat more than you need
“Not that I’ve any wish to curb your appetites…” Darla flickers a wicked look at him “…but this is the third mob in a month, Angelus.”
He grins, though they’re hiding in an alleyway, backs against the wall.
“And if you’d said, you know I always enjoy a good massacre…”
***
The poems:
1. Carl Sandburg - The Shovel Man
2. Anne Sexton - Year of the Insane
3. GE Patterson - Autobiographia
4. Ben Jonson - Song from the silent woman
5. Theodore Roethke - The Saginaw Song
I had a sandwich, a banana and a bit of chocolate afterwards, though, not a cookie. And I was being very careful not to let my mind explode. It does that too often anyway, these days.
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no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 02:27 pm (UTC)The demi-drabbles are well done, though - you've managed to convey a great deal in only a few words.
(Reminds me of the 6 word story Hemingway once wrote: "For sale: baby shoes. Never worn." The Writer's Relief Twitter feed people challenged writers who follow them to do something similar recently. I came up with: For Sale: One Axe, needs cleaning.)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 04:10 pm (UTC)Or, whoops, I need to re-read instructions, even when I think I know them! But I'm not sorry, the order I wrote them down in (and I did stick to it) turned out to be perfect for each quote.
And thank you! :-) I enjoyed doing this one both times; I'll probably fish it out again in the future.
I came up with: For Sale: One Axe, needs cleaning.
Hah, yes, that's good. :-)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 04:18 pm (UTC)I might give it a go myself at some stage - when I am not in agony.
Heh, thanks. It amused me at the time. If I'd had eight words I'd have put "Needs cleaning and sharpening." :D
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 05:58 pm (UTC)WIN.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 04:18 pm (UTC)ETA: Also, whoops, apparently I should re-read instructions, because I missed all the alphabetical stuff. *sheepish*
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 04:32 pm (UTC)I may do it later, when I get tired of doing housework and stuff.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 07:06 pm (UTC)Also, the meme police came, but I hid, and they went away again. I think I'm okay.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 11:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 07:08 pm (UTC)But poetry prompts - I like them. :-)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 11:14 pm (UTC)OTOH, slightly disappointed that a 'poetry writing meme' didn't involve the writing of poetry, but I soon fixed that.
no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 02:11 am (UTC)(And I'm amused that your Doctor Who ficlet can be read as sort of a sequel to the Doctor Who ficlet I wrote last time I did this meme. What is it with poets and airborne objects?)
[Edited to fix the link]
no subject
Date: 2012-07-06 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 06:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-07 12:30 pm (UTC)