Haiku Contest! ^^

[Opal]

Okay, so to mix it up a little bit, this week there will be a haiku contest. The winner will get to come up with some event or some obstacle that the contestants will have to overcome in week four (obviously nothing too extreme, like making anyone die or having some horrible apocalyptic event, but I swear, if anyone says "pie" they will get fwumped in the face with a body pillow; use a LITTLE creativity here, people), but this is your chance to throw a little curveball at the contestants (note that it also has to be something that includes all of them in some way, to be fair).

So, start writing haiku! Haiku are my favorite type of poem because pretty much anyone can write them, and they're also really addictive. I know there are different types of haiku, but so everyone's on the same page we'll go with the standard 5-7-5 version (that's 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 again in the third). They must be RV5 related in some way, whether it's about a specific contestant, all the contestants, an NPC, the setting, etc. You can submit as many as you want, but there will be only one winner! Good luck!

So, as an example, lessee... **thinks**

Round as round can be,
Are there stoatlets growing there,
Or too much 'hog meat?

Definitely not my best, but you get the idea. ;D

Oh, and contestants can join in too! Just, for obvious reasons yours won't be in the running to win. :P

[Revel]

*bites Tara*

Audience beware
If you write one like Tara's
I'll bite you as well

[Opal]

If you bite them, stoat,
Woe betide! Fifty more votes
at next voting time.

;D

[Cairn Destop]

Actually, what you're writing isn't haiku.  By definition, a haiku is a form of poetry that uses nature to reveal its message.  What you are asking for is something called a Senyru, which allows a diverse form not restricted to nature, though it does call for sentiments.

Such poetry is best when it has its readers thinking.

Haiku:
Five drag like a snail,
While two rush past the cheetah.
So how was your week? 

Senyru:
Computer screen blanks.
Rebooting it will not work.
Thank goodness for pens.

[Deadtail]

Huh, this could be fun.
When do the submissions close?
When the vote opens?

[Cairn Destop]

And so I'll offer my first entry to this contest.  Since another mark of a haiku is the lack of a title, I will keep with that tradition.



Blindness rules the dark
With the sighted floundering.
Can peace be thy light?

[Jarrtail]

That's really good, Cairn. Quite apt.
Eh, I'm not poetically inclined to do something like this, but I might give it a shot.

[Cairn Destop]

Jarrtail, just remember the format and the poetry rules for this form:

1 --- the syllable count is fixed at 5 - 7 - 5 for the lines.
2 --- punctuation is optional
3 --- haiku = nature while senyru = anything goes
4 --- the lines cannot rhyme.

The best haiku is one that makes the reader stop and think about the message.  Senyru can be as obtuse, but should evoke a thought or emotion based on the poem as a whole.

Learned these on that other writing site where such contests are common.  So one of Tara's poems doesn't qualify.

[Cairn Destop]

Yeah, double posting.  Finally checked out the counts for these, so I'm uploading one poem per living contestant.  I'll consider doing one for the two who died.  Anticipating a lot of smiting for some of these.
**********************************************************



Feathers are now furled
he sits within a stone cage
with light, he could fly

Does the one-eyed rule,
or will those without prevail?
warrior must know.

In darkness a king
will be the one with vision.
All hail our captain

Growing life does gnaw
confining a great hunger.
Escape must happen.

Underling rebukes
An angry voice, seeking calm,
finding no allies

Silence cannot err,
but actions can define him.
Will we see it soon?

Background noise is he,
To the fore, he presses on.
Dangers lie too close.

[Damask the Minstrel]

*pokes Cairn* Your first one was 5-6-5, from a few posts ago (assuming that word is sighted), and the last one is 5-8-5.

I like mine, good imagery of the cave -- mind you, I dunno if his feathers are furled, he seems to be popping out more, to me.

(And the last two... are they both Deadtail? Or is one Deady and one Liza? Or is #3 Liza? Hmm...)

[Cairn Destop]

Good catch on the last one, it is now fixed.  As to the first, I found the error wasn't in the second line, but the first.  Per Dictionary.com the word "furled" is one sylable and "within" is two.  As to which one refers to who, that's half the fun.  Why ruin it?    ;D



Feath - ers are now furled = 5
he sits with - in a stone cage = 7
with light, he could fly = 5

[Damask the Minstrel]

I meant this one, Cairn:

"Blindness rules the dark
While the sighed flounder.
Can peace be thy light?"

And, daww... now I have to try to prise meaning out of seventeen syllables. ^.^

(And I almost did these for my poetry, in-character. Evil, beastly syllable-counting poetry.  :P )

[Revel]

Growing life does gnaw
confining a great hunger.
Escape must happen.

Now I'm scared to sleep at night.  :twitch:

[Damask the Minstrel]

Aww... it's okay, Rev.

Yore babies gonna eat you in yore sleep!

[Cairn Destop]

Think the 5-7-5 style can be fun?  You should try a Rictometer poem.  That starts out with the first line of two sylables, then each line goes up two sylables to ten, then it goes back down by two until the last line is the same two-sylables used at the opening.  Spent a long time composing the one I used in one of my Redwall fan fiction.



Mother,
Your eyes call me
With a joyful twinkle.
Beautiful voice fills my heart.
Horrible choice, one free or two as slaves.
Your song muted; memories fade.
Now glazed by death?s cold grip
Forever blind,
Mother