Well, here it is! The very first topic of PWoF 2016; and, hopefully, a worthy
successor in the long tradition of the PWoF's that have long graced this preeminent,
web-dominating force we call PigPen.
I want to thank, acknowledge, hug, praise, and beseech the gods to bless PWoF 2016's
Supreme Topic Czar lizziep and the other members of our Exalted Ministry of Topic
Culture: eric_never, cvanshelton, and Quixilated for getting all these damn topics
thought up, rounded up, and punched in. Bravo!
Our Exalted Ministry of Topic Culture has compiled a list of 134 topics for use in PWoF
and future endeavors. In addition to the traditional text topics; we have paintings,
photographs, excerpts from movies, classical and popular music, quotes, and (new to
many of you) word matrices.
How it's supposed to work:
Every night, about 15 minutes before 7 AM GMT, I'm going to go over to Random.Org's Random Integer Generator and ask it to give me a number between 1 and 134.
The topic with that number on the list will be the topic for that day. That way, even
I won't know what the topic is going to be, so I can play along with almost as much
surprise as everyone else. (Though I will exercise a bit of control; if a topic comes
up that I think's too much like a previous one, I'll roll the dice again.)
But, before you begin, I urge you to center yourself, perhaps meditate, and let the
thought that your actions here could well affect the rest of your life dissolve into
the transcendental water of this universe.
So, after further ado, here it is:
Instructions:
You should attempt to write a poem inspired by this topic -- not a derivative, literal
interpretation of the topic. Create a poem that reflects your own true self.
--> Since the officious rules of PWoF 2016 stipulate that you can submit more than
one poem; may I suggest, if the fit strikes you, that you include, after your major work,
a second poem consisting of a bit of transient doggerel, a limerick, or a trenchant
end-rhyming nonsense poem that somehow reflects the intention of this topic.
(And for anyone who's a bit uncertain about starting out here: Ignore my bullshite and
just string some words together (that's what everybody else is doing ).
For your consideration:
You're a hamburger/hot-dog/french-fry/fish & chips... fast food of some sort*.
A few (of many) possible paths your poem might follow:
Your day or week or lifetime or birth or death (and by whose hand?).
Love Fear Hates Wants Trials Adventures
Of what were you constructed? Who are the sorts that would eat you?
I’ve had a few drinks but you
try to walk straight with this back
when you’re overseas and can’t
get a repeat of your meds,
there’s no bimbo
on her knees before you
no matter what language she
doesn’t speak, and this is
Tuesday, it should be Hamburg.
Two thousand years ago
proud men boasted civis Romanus sum
and I am here today
to assure you the world has not
forgotten your plight.
I join you with pride.
Down with a smooth slice,
a slow envelopment
cool and thorough against my skin,
a wetsuit of forgetfulness
or in a quick descent
through a thin searing heat
that wakes me with a lasting sting
and clings until I disintegrate,
the result will be the same, gone.
billy wrote:welcome to the site. make it your own, wear it like a well loved slipper and wear it out. ella pleads:please click forum titles for posting guidelines, important threads. New poet? Try Poetic DevicesandWard's Tips
everyone I know left on a silver plane
and here I am stuck to the floor
I don’t want to be the one to complain
but, I thought my life would be more
than drying beneath wilted romaine
The Soufflé isn’t the soufflé; the soufflé is the recipe. --Clara
Falsetto Realism (we all live in a perpetual state of detachment and die screaming)
I'm a chicken nugget and I'm off to see the queen with my little nugget rucksack and my little nugget dream to be the nugget president of Chicken Nugget Land and sing my nugget anthem to a nugget marching band! I shall declare all nuggets free to wander far and wide beneath the flag of liberty and carry it with pride deep into hash brown country where
those filthy bastards hide and cut their heads off one by one: a breakfast genocide!
(09-23-2016, 01:48 AM)shemthepenman Wrote: Falsetto Realism (we all live in a perpetual state of detachment and die screaming)
I'm a chicken nugget and I'm off to see the queen with my little nugget rucksack and my little nugget dream to be the nugget president of Chicken Nugget Land and sing my nugget anthem to a nugget marching band! I shall declare all nuggets free to wander far and wide beneath the flag of liberty and carry it with pride deep into hash brown country where those filthy bastards hide and cut their heads off one by one: a breakfast genocide!
Always nice to end a ditty with a little genocide.
billy wrote:welcome to the site. make it your own, wear it like a well loved slipper and wear it out. ella pleads:please click forum titles for posting guidelines, important threads. New poet? Try Poetic DevicesandWard's Tips
(09-22-2016, 08:25 PM)ellajam Wrote: Going For A Dip
Down with a smooth slice,
a slow envelopment
cool and thorough against my skin,
a wetsuit of forgetfulness
or in a quick descent
through a thin searing heat
that wakes me with a lasting sting
and clings until I disintegrate,
the result will be the same, gone.
nice one. It's just about swimming though, I hope, because I couldn't discern a junk food theme (thank Zeus!)
Ah well, let the chips fall where they may, sometimes less is not more.
billy wrote:welcome to the site. make it your own, wear it like a well loved slipper and wear it out. ella pleads:please click forum titles for posting guidelines, important threads. New poet? Try Poetic DevicesandWard's Tips
(09-23-2016, 06:36 AM)just mercedes Wrote: Is the dip the kind you break chips in, scooping it up? That works for me, a whole second layer in your poem!.
Well, I started out as a chip and ended up in an existential limbo, should have had another cup of coffee first.
billy wrote:welcome to the site. make it your own, wear it like a well loved slipper and wear it out. ella pleads:please click forum titles for posting guidelines, important threads. New poet? Try Poetic DevicesandWard's Tips
(09-23-2016, 06:36 AM)just mercedes Wrote: Is the dip the kind you break chips in, scooping it up? That works for me, a whole second layer in your poem!.
Well, I started out as a chip and ended up in an existential limbo, should have had another cup of coffee first.
You never know where a chip will take you, until you go ...
Frozen box of Morningstars,
patty space of soy paste,
afterthoughts of menus' farthest corners,
alien to cannibal cow and chicken carcasses,
toss one in the microwave.
What am I anyways?
On the scale of speed
from lutefisk’s two-week soaks
or kusaya’s broth of centuries
to goldfish-swallowing
I’m nearer gulps of little koi
than slow, jugged, stinky marinations.
American sushi!
Robed in woven black
seaweed nori, papery,
and fine fresh sticky rice
(this world’s true grain
whose plumpness wheat and oats
can only envy) -
white toasted seeds of sesame
sharp dose of sriracha
some quantity of complex
mayonnaise Japonaise.
Then yellow-green, substantial
fatty avocado, sliced
with slit fresh salmon belly
rolled, divided, segmented.
Ah! To be eaten
with chopsticks, naturally
fermented soy sauce and wasabe green as avocado
food of young gods!
But American sushi
eaten with tined fork and round-eyed smiles...
it can’t be helped.
Yet speed’s a god here
and I’m fine, fast food.
I'm nothing
but a French Fry in a Frosty.
Once warm and crisp
now cold and limping.
I'm rich but cheap - sickening but sweet
Drowning in everything
artificially refreshing.
Enjoyable and gross poem. Maybe I have an irrational disgust for limping fries. None the less this poem definatley made me loose my appetite. Especially for fast food- so for that I thank you!
P.s these poems are super fun. How long does this PWof thing go on for?