Everyone Hates Poetry 2024
Rules
Write a poem before Feb.5th and submit it to me with the submit feature or in an ask.
Poems should be less than 500 words
You can use your real name or your blog name but they can't be completely anonymous.
Poems will be published at 9pm on Wednesdays and then a link to each poem will be added to the bottom of this pinned post so people can read them all.
I can't stop anyone from reblogging their own poems and generally sharing art is a wonderful thing, but don't turn it into some kind of social media campaign. because people with a small number of followers would be at a disadvantage. This is supposed to be fun. Please do reblog this post and tag people if you think you know someone on tumblr that might be interested. Since the post will contain links to the submissions, your poem will not be lost in the shuffle.
If I receive less than 10 entries I'll cancel the contest and consider it a failed experiment.
Public voting will begin after the 5th.and account for 50% of the vote
A panel of judges will also vote but will not submit poems themselves, and their votes will make up the other 50% of the final tally.
.There will be small prizes for the winner and runner up.
This is my art blog and will remain so, as it always has been. I'm doing this because poets here don't get much chance to get their stuff read and I have a fair number of followers. It's just a little thing to do if you want. I'm not turning this into a poetry blog or a contest blog or anything else.
Poems don't need to be finished. Due to the one month time frame I would suspect these would be first drafts, but please write something new. I want to encourage people to do something now, however imperfect, rather than showing work that's already done.
Updates will follow. Thank you!
Rule clarifications
-Please dont send poems anonymously if at all possible. I am happy to include a name that doesn't identify your blog directly but it's impossible to refer to or contact people who submit poems anonymously. I can't have anonymous poems considered without at least a name for you and if you were to win a prize, you'd need a name and address to claim it. I don't so much care about the latter part, that's for you, this becomes very disorganized and hard to regulate with anonymous messages floating in.
-Please put the title of your poem above it. If it is below it, I have no way of distinguishing with certainty if it's a title or a last line.
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6, 20, 23, and/or 32? kissy as well if you would like one from me.
6. Favorite character you ever created.
To be honest, I can't remember a single character I've created at the moment. I might come back to the question when I can.
20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.
23. Single or multi POV, and why?
It's extremely context dependent! They serve different purposes.
32. Easiest character to write.
Eurydice.
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1, 4, and 7 for the ask game?
1. Favorite place to write.
Either at a library or a park.
4. Do you have writing habits or rituals?
Hmm...I'm not sure! Nothing that I've noticed, but some are probably present.
7. Favorite author.
Extremely difficult question. It changes daily. Probably Aeschylus right now.
writing asks
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10. 29. 30. kissy
10. Pick a writer to co-write a book with and tell us what you’d write about.
Oh, that's hard. Honestly, we could probably write an Iphigenia book together.
29. Who do you write for?
Definitely myself.
30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.
Cheating a bit. This poem.
writing asks
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New ask game for writers
1. Favorite place to write.
2. Favorite part of writing.
3. Least favorite part of writing.
4. Do you have writing habits or rituals?
5. Books or authors that influenced your style the most.
6. Favorite character you ever created.
7. Favorite author.
8. Favorite trope to write.
9. Least favorite trope to write.
10. Pick a writer to co-write a book with and tell us what you’d write about.
11. Describe your writing process from scratch to finish.
12. How do you deal with self-doubts?
13. How do you deal with writers block?
14. What’s the most research you ever put into a book?
15. Where does your inspiration come from?
16. Where do you take your motivation from?
17. On avarage, how much writing do you get done in a day?
18. What’s your revision or rewriting process like?
19. First line of a WIP you’re working on.
20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.
21. Post the last sentence you wrote in one of your WIP’s.
22. How many drafts do you need until you’re satisfied and a project is ultimately done for you?
23. Single or multi POV, and why?
24. Poetry or prose, and why?
25. Linear or non-linear, and why?
26. Standalone or series, and why?
27. Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? 28. And who do you share them with?
29. Who do you write for?
30. Favorite line you’ve ever written.
31. Hardest character to write.
32. Easiest character to write.
33. Do you listen to music when you’re writing?
34. Handwritten notes or typed notes?
35. Tell some backstory details about one of your characters in your story ________.
36. A spoiler for story _________.
37. Most inspirational quote you’ve ever read or heard that’s still important to you.
38. Have you shared your outline of your story ________ with someone? If so, what did they think of it?
39. Do you base your characters of real people or not? If so, tell us about one.
40. Original Fiction or Fanfiction, and why?
41. How many stories do you work on at one time?
42. How do you figure out your characters looks, personality, etc.
43. Are you an avid reader?
44. Best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.
45. Worst piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.
46. What would your story _______ look like as a tv show or movie? 47. Do you start with characters or plot when working on a new story?
48. Favorite genre to write in.
49. What do you find the hardest to write in a story, the beginning, the middle or the end?
50. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had.
51. Describe the aesthetic of your story _______ in 5 sentences or words.
52. How did writing change you?
53. What does writing mean to you?
54. Any writing advice you want to share?
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What is the Language Using Us for?
W. S. Graham
First Poem
What is the language using us for?
Said Malcolm Mooney moving away
Slowly over the white language.
Where am I going said Malcolm Mooney.
Certain experiences seem to not
Want to go into language maybe
Because of shame or the reader’s shame.
Let us observe Malcolm Mooney.
Let us get through the suburbs and drive
Out further just for fun to see
What he will do. Reader, it does
Not matter. He is only going to be
Myself and for you slightly you
Wanting to be another. He fell.
He falls (Tenses are everywhere.)
Deep down into a glass jail.
I am in a telephoneless, blue
Green crevasse and I can’t get out.
I pay well for my messages
Being hoisted up when you are about.
I suppose you open them under the light
Of midnight of The Dancing Men.
The point is would you ever want
To be here down on the freezing line
Reading the words that steam out
Against the ice? Anyhow draw
This folded message up between
The leaning prisms from me below.
Slowly over the white language
Comes Malcolm Mooney the saviour.
My left leg has no feeling.
What is the language using us for?
Second Poem
1
What is the language using us for?
It uses us all and in its dark
Of dark actions selections differ.
I am not making a fool of myself
For you. What I am making is
A place for language in my life
Which I want to be a real place
Seeing I have to put up with it
Anyhow. What are Communication’s
Mistakes in the magic medium doing
To us? It matters only in
So far as we want to be telling
Each other alive about each other
Alive. I want to be able to speak
And sing and make my soul occur
In front of the best and be respected
For that and even be understood
By the ones I like who are dead.
I would like to speak in front
Of myself with all my ears alive
And find out what it is I want.
2
What is the language using us for?
What shape of words shall put its arms
Round us for more than pleasure?
I met a man in Cartsburn Street
Thrown out of The Cartsburn Vaults.
He shouted Willie and I crossed the street
And met him at the mouth of the close.
And this was double-breasted Sam,
A far relation on my mother’s
West-Irish side. Hello Sam how
Was it you knew me and says he
I heard your voice on The Sweet Brown Knowe.
O was I now I said and Sam said
Maggie would have liked to see you.
I’ll see you again I said and said
Sam I’ll not keep you and turned
Away over the short cut across
The midnight railway sidings.
What is the language using us for?
From the prevailing weather or words
Each object hides in a metaphor.
This is the morning. I am out
On a kind of Vlaminck blue-rutted
Road. Willie Wagtail is about.
In from the West a fine smirr
Of rain drifts across the hedge.
I am only out here to walk or
Make this poem up. The hill is
A shining blue macadam top.
I lean my back to the telegraph pole
And the messages hum through my spine.
The beaded wires with their birds
Above me are contacting London.
What is the language using us for?
It uses us all and in its dark
Of dark actions selections differ.
Third Poem
1
What is the language using us for?
The King of Whales dearly wanted
To have a word with me about how
I had behaved trying to crash
The Great Barrier. I could not speak
Or answer him easily in the white
Crystal of Art he set me in.
Who is the King of Whales? What is
He like? Well you may ask. He is
A kind of old uncle of mine
And yours mushing across the blind
Ice-cap between us in his furs
Shouting at his delinquent dogs.
What is his purpose? I try to find
Whatever it is is wanted by going
Out of my habits which is my name
To ask him how I can do better.
Tipped from a cake of ice I slid
Into the walrus-barking water
To find. I did not find another
At the end of my cold cry.
2
What is the language using us for?
The sailing men had sailing terms
Which rigged their inner-sailing thoughts
In forecastle and at home among
The kitchen of their kind. Tarry
Old Jack is taken aback at a blow
On the lubber of his domestic sea.
Sam, I had thought of going again
But it’s no life. I signed on years
Ago and it wasn’t the ship for me.
O leave her Johnny leave her.
Sam, what readers do we have aboard?
Only the one, Sir. Who is that?
Only myself, Sir, from Cartsburn Street.
3
What is the language using us for?
I don’t know. Have the words ever
Made anything of you, near a kind
Of truth you thought you were? Me
Neither. The words like albatrosses
Are only a doubtful touch towards
My going and you lifting your hand
To speak to illustrate an observed
Catastrophe. What is the weather
Using us for where we are ready
With all our language lines aboard?
The beginning wind slaps the canvas.
Are you ready? Are you ready?
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Poetry is the extreme end of translation.
All poetry is collage to me. Serious statement.
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