Alright, here we have Kat's attempts to "culture us poor souls as can't write poetry to save our lives." Ok, so maybe that's just me. However, Kat has decided to add to the writing challenges and post some of her own, Poetry based. It's a whole intro class all rolled into one. Perhaps I can con her into writing a much better intro for this page sometime in the future... We'll see.
Poetry Challenge #1- Acrostic
Well, I thought I would add a little variety into the writing challenges. Don't be afraid of the word poetry. It's not my favorite thing, but it fits with the rut I'm in. Most likely I will be recycling for you some creative writing assignments that I've gotten in the past. Anyway...
For the first one, to break you in easy, will be to write an acrostic. To write an acrostic you first need to pick a word, please pick something at least 3 letters long. Write this word down on your paper, putting one letter per line. These letters will be the ones that need to start each line, and unlike the ones done in elementary school you can have more than one word per line.
A quickie example: (I will be writing something else to be my real reply later)
Cute little pointy ears
Attention paid to every word
Total undivided attention
Poetry Challenge #2- The Double Acrostic
Since the usual culprits for partaking in these writing challenges have already completed their poems here comes another one.
Pick two words that have the same number of letters in them. Pick one word, write it down on your paper like you did the acrostic. Now this is where life gets a bit tricky. Take you second word and write it on the far right hand of paper like you did on the left for the first word. The rules for a single acrostic apply, but the letters from the second word are to be the last letter of each line.
D....D
A....A
R....Y
K....S
Pretend that the elipses are poetic somethings, not feeling that creative tonight anymore, used it all up. Also you don't have to capitalize the last letter, I just did it here for some emphasis.
Poetry Challenge #3- "The Name Game"
This one was always entertaining to share in my creative writing class. To create this one you need to make a list. Well I suppose you don't have to but it makes life easier later, of titles, whether for songs, movies or books. Taking that list (and others if you happen to think of them while working), try to string those titles together to create some semblance of a poem, using as few other words as possible. Articles and conjunctions are permitted but the fewer of these you use the more entertaining the poem will become.
Now, time to talk about how many you should use, my teacher used say 20 or so. But since those of us who do these challenges are college students with time limitations, I'm going to say use at least 10. Of course you are more than welcome to do more, but 10 is the bare minimum.
Poetry Challenge #4- Color Poem!
Ok, so that didn't really warrant an exclamation point, but I felt like it. It's kinda there for the same reason they put them in text books.
Here's the deal, first you need to pick a color. Any color, a color you hate, you love, or a mild acquaintance.
Next, you need to think of that color and tell me,
What does it look like? (and answering blue for blue doesn't count)
What does it smell like? (please don't say a crayon)
What does it sound like?
What does it taste like?
What does it feel like?
Now, you don't have to put those in your poem in that order, you can mix it up for better flow. Also you don't have to say "Blue looks like...." You can just list them amorphously.
Poetry Challenge #5- The Freewrite
Well here we go again...
Ok, here's the deal. This is pretty free and open indeed.
Step One: Pick a song, any song, preferably one without words.
Step Two: Play this song and write to it (put it on repeat if you like). Write the first thing that pops into your head, anything and everything. Don't stop to punctuate, line-ate, or edit. It should be a random muddled mess, whatever the music makes you feel.
Step Three: Take a highlighter or a different color pen/pencil and pick out your best phrases/words whatever strikes you and you like.
Step Four: Take your highlight sections and work them together to create a poem, add in your punctuation and line breaks, add lines to transition, etc. as you see fit.
Step Five: Well, title it I suppose. You're done, I just felt like posting a step five, nice round number.
My Response
Poetry Challenge #6- Allegorical Dream
Ok, here we go again. I may be stepping into Mistharael's territory on this one. Alright, so maybe I really am and I know it, hopefully she doesn't mind.
The challenge is to write an allegorical dream. To explain this is essentially a conversation between a character (either a complete character or an ambiguous one, just someone so there are at least 2 people conversing) and an abstract concept that has been personified, such as justice or peace. You can write this in prose or poetic form. I'm leaving this rather open and free, a nice way to easy back into the swing of things after the holidays.
My Response