W3 Prompt #21: Wea’ve Written Weekly

Intro

Dear friends,

Welcome to our W³ Poetry Prompt, which goes live on Wednesdays at The Skeptic’s Kaddish.

You may click here for a fuller explanation of W³; but here’s the ‘tldr’ version:

Part I

The main ingredient of W³ is a weekly poem written by a Poet of the Week (PoW), which participants respond to in verse.

Part II

The second ingredient is a writing guideline (or two) provided by the PoW. Guidelines may include, but are not limited to: word counts, poetic forms, inclusion of specific words, and use of particular poetic devices.

Part III

After four days, when the prompt closes, the PoW shall select one participant’s poem as the W³ prompt for the following week, and its author becomes the next PoW.

Simple enough, right?

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Okie dokie ~ Let’s do this thing!

I. The prompt poem:

‘Looking at the Flavor of Color’ by Murisopsis

I see deep greens in azure streams
Murky depths where the light is low
My prism eyes detect the separate dreams
I feel the colors of the swirling flow

Murky depths where the light is low
Rough red and saffron through my hands
I feel the colors of the swirling flow
My crimson blood released to foreign lands

Rough red and saffron through my hands
I taste the tang of purple, indigo and drink it in
My crimson blood released to foreign lands
Running carmine and cobalt off lip and chin

I taste the tang of purple, indigo and drink it in
My mouth is not big enough to contain the swell
Running carmine and cobalt off lip and chin
I hear humming wave and chiming bell

My mouth is not big enough to contain the swell
Bass brown countered by soprano buzz of blues
I hear humming wave and chiming bell
My soul sings in counterpoint in forest green hues

Bass brown countered by soprano buzz of blues
Inviting me to become the water’s bride
My soul sings in counterpoint in forest green hues
I want to be washed, soaked in color, tie-dyed

Inviting me to become the water’s bride
I pray for more than black and white
I want to be washed, soaked in color, tie-dyed
No artist’s palette can contain the sight

I pray for more than black and white
My thoughts are drenched in grue and bleen
No artist’s palette can contain the sight
Hope is water wings glowing octarine*

My thoughts are drenched in grue and bleen**
My dreams float above the water line
Hope is water wings glowing octarine
Caught on fire and drowned in brine

My dreams float above the water line
I see deep greens in azure streams
Caught on fire and drowned in brine
My prism eyes detect the separate dreams

*Octarine, in the Discworld books, is known as ‘the colour of magic’, which forms the title of Pratchett’s first ever Discworld book. According to Disc mythology, octarine is visible only to wizards and cats, and is generally described as a sort of greenish-yellow purple colour.

** Grue and Bleen are sniglets to describe a color that extends to include shades of blue and green. An alternative, meaning the same thing, is bleen, though linguists and anthropologists tend to use the term grue.

II. Muri’s prompt guidelines

• Write a Dizain poem from the perspective of somebody who has synesthesia.

Dizain?

• Two accepted forms:
  • Eight lines: Rhyming a/b/a/b/c/d/c/d, or:
  • Ten Lines: Rhyming a/b/a/b/b/c/c/d/c/d
• Syllabic: 8 or 10 syllables in each line (each line being of the same length).

Click for more info about the ‘dizain’ form.

Synesthesia?

Synesthesia is when the stimulation of one sense leads to involuntary experiences in a second sense. This is often manifested as letters or words having color, colors having flavors, smells having a sound or sounds having a taste, etc.

Click for more info about synesthesia.

III. Submit: Click on ‘Mr. Linky’ below

In order to participate and share a poem, open up this blog post, outside of the WordPress reader. At the bottom, just below these words, you will see a small rectangular graphic with the words ‘Mr Linky’. Click on that to submit.

Submissions are open for 4 days, until Sunday, September 25, 10:00 AM (GMT+3)

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Last week’s W³ poem

This week’s W³ prompt poem (above), composed by Murisopsis, was written in response to last week’s W³ prompt poem, which Aditi Sharma wrote:

‘Aurora’ by Aditi

The castles, the wars, the unwavering heart, moments of helplessness, creeping their way from places so dark and I knew you were happy, I knew you were sad, but when I felt all alone, I found you in those hidden trails, in the forsaken crevices of my heart, emerging like aurora, I had never felt those butterflies, overfilling my soul with the urge to encompass these boundaries between fiction and the facts and live inside that dream, while you delicately guide me across your masterpiece, I need to listen more, why everything fell apart and why still the love remains, I never knew what love felt like but it must feel like admiring this art, to find my way across its heart and fancying to live here till forever falls apart.