W3 Prompt #29: 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 Blood Soaked Soil’, a double tanka by Murisopsis

Still we live to die
And die while living at war
We lack bandages
For broken minds, fractured souls
We turn away from carnage

Blood pools and lives pass
When life pools and blood passes
War rages, men die
Wounds ooze when the scab’s knocked off
Gathering lives is easy

II. Muri’s prompt guideline

• Write a “blitz” poem that includes something about a mouse or mice.

Blitz poem?

• This form of poetry is a stream of short phrases and images with repetition and rapid flow.
• Begin with one short phrase, it can be a cliché. Begin the next line with another phrase that begins with the same first word as line 1. The first 48 lines should be short, but at least two words.
• The third and fourth lines are phrases that begin with the last word of the 2nd phrase, the 5th and 6th lines begin with the last word of the 4th line, and so on, continuing, with each subsequent pair beginning with the last word of the line above them, which establishes a pattern of repetition.
• Continue for 48 total lines with this pattern, And then the last two lines repeat the last word of line 48, then the last word of line 47.
• The title must be only three words, with some sort of preposition or conjunction joining the first word from the third line to the first word from the 47th line, in that order.
• There should be no punctuation. When reading a BLITZ, it is read very quickly, pausing only to breathe.

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, November 20, 10:00 AM (GMT+3)

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Last week’s W³ poem

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

‘Life and Death’, an acrostic poem by Larry Trasciatti

Ninth month is a new birth under a pall of burned orange leaves
Overture for a play whose first act is in a funeral parlor
Votive candles silently echoing ‘remember man that thou art dust….’
Elegaic memories are exchanged
Midnight seems to come too early
Burning incense is the only scent present
Effortlessly smoke finds its way toward a full moon
Ringing bells announce a new life