W3 Prompt #39: 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 five 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?

---

Okie dokie ~ Let’s do this thing!

I. The prompt poem:

‘The Actor and the Realtor’, a poem by Brandon Ellrich

See the contemplating of the actor,
I think he's angry at the common factor.

The realtor is typing on her phone, 
Leaving him to tour alone.

He walks into an upstairs room;
It smells of death, regret, and doom.

Just one object alone exists,
His vanity cannot resist.

His arrogance and self-affection,
Cannot pass up his own reflection.

He stands before a dusty mirror, 
Leans in closer to see it clearer

A hand reaches out and grabs his tie, 
Draws him through to the other side

His conceit, vanity, and pride,
Keep him trapped forever inside.

II. Brandon’s prompt guidelines

Riddle me this… I would like to you to compose a riddle or “puzzle” poem. J.R.R. Tolkien included several in his novels, as did Lewis Carroll. Emily Dickinson wrote several riddles in poetic form as well. Here is a link defining “riddle”: https://poets.org/glossary/riddle

Here are some famous examples

There are no restrictions on length or rhyme. You can give the answer at the end of your poem, or to make it a little more fun, allow readers to try to guess the answer. You can also provide the answer within your poem. Have fun!

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 5 days, until Monday, January 30, 10:00 AM (GMT+3)

---

Last week’s W³ poem

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

‘Generation Gap’, a poem by Denise DeVries

We stand beyond the reach of lights,
surrounded by home’s benevolent dark,
the night’s fragrance of wood and fields,
faint sounds of nature from all sides,
the spangled firmament recalling my dreams
of dancing planets and spinning stars.

For my granddaughter, the black unknown
is brimming with dangers and threats, evil doers
and malevolent beasts, nightmares
she was taught to fear, unfamiliar with awe.

I want to take her hand but only say
“look up.” We stand on silenced gravel
exhaling tiny clouds and wait
for the constellations to clarify.