Does every poem have to rhyme? Are you stuck in a rut? Try just once to free your mind. Think: Close could be enough. Then let us see the lines. What do yall say, Are you up for it?

Sure. Do you have any guidelines?

Right there in front of you...I did a pentad, but what I'm looking for is breaking the must rhyme by couples,exact rhyme,2 couplets to a stanza form....in iambic pentemeter...uggh! that we get stuck on in English class..What do you say Cal? let your bagpipes go and let's hear the notes get close to those clunkers. Show us that your poetic liscence is valid.

Alright, I will do my best. Though my liscence probably needs to be renewed!

No charge on this one

Ok...here it is. It is titled NIGHT SENSES In the deepness of the night My eyes attempt to compensate They turn the sounds of katydids Into flickering candle gleams. The darkness is a presence It fills my being with its weight, Pouring over me, drowning me, My heart races in my ears. The falling dew brightens my skin With sensations sharp and chill, I taste the honeysuckle sweet, As I await the fragrance of dawn. END**** Definitely not my usual, lol!

Let's see.... night-eyes...the i attempt...compensate sounds...katydids flickering...gleams darkness...presence being...weight 2 points pouring over drowning 3 points heart..ears sensations sharp and chill 3 points taste...sweet 2 points for the reversal await...dawn 17 points for the starter not bad for the first go I bet you didn't think I'd catch that taste sweet reverse did you Not bad tres. 17 do I hear another go coming?

I was stuck cuz I've never written to a specified meter (am not sure that I understand what iambic pentameter is) so I just kinda wrote what came to mind without forcing it too much. Shy glances one to another Timid touch of nervous hands Uncertain eyes burn with desire Kindling a fire that glows ever brighter Bodies meld with infant passion Innocence shares an unfolding adventure Beautiful joy in awakening love Lifetime of wonder stems from first kiss.

I scored that out at 14+ to 15. Don't feel bad Tres had 12 lines you only had eight. From now on let's try to keep the number of lines 10 or less so to get the scores closer together. If you want a breakdown of how I scored the poem I could E-mail it to you later tonight. You got the most points for a moving focus with rising action. 5 points over 3 lines.

I would like to see how you scored that. I guess you need my e-mail, yes? pipes677@yahoo.com

Take my lack of participation as an indication of just how "lost" I am.

Don't feel bad, Chuck. Me lost too.

A short poem 10 lines or less where the trick is to use a close rhyme risking how far you can stretch what is called a rhyme, in free style, any subject matter, and as I see something I'll award points for it. All terms can be found in Lewis Turco's Book of Forms, University Press 2000. As I reinvestigate the poems, it will be a learning experience for me also. C'mon CND set your minds free. Don't be scared; Don't be weird; Just pull out your pen and bleed*..Hey! Just rant, rhyme, and write *And hopefully I'll see something tommorrow. *that's what's called a ceasura, a still, a pause. *that's my idea of a bad line. Even though there is a consonance of ll,ll,and rr and euphony in the ee in see and something, it still sound clunky.

I'm lost on this one as well. I don't seem to do so well at writing deliberate poetry :(

So write accidental poetry and don't worry about it.

lol I don't even know how to write accidental poetry. I know that sounds weird but it's true. It is moments like these that show me how uneducated I truly am lol

LOL...all my poetry is accidental!!! :)

ok... I am by no means a technical writer..but a challenge I cant pass by. Of music I know little But rhythms I can see Scribbling out with pen here A soulful melody No drums to keep the beat No guitar to be strummed Fingers lightly fall on key Typing out the only chord Tell me not of tempos but symphony of words.

Ok now this is difficult...a good poem but missed on the guidelines. I liked it so I don't want to say anything bad but you have to free it up because you're still stuck.

Ummm ... Hmmm ... A contest sublime? Write half a rhyme? I'm lost. My entry's toast. The mod's a pud. [I think my total confusion ends up sounding like a deranged haiku. I did set my mind free. It never came back. Am I going to end up paying points back to tjames with this?]

Deranged haiku...I think I'll give you five points for that,but you get to go on with Drew at the end of the show and sing the Hoedown. A 7 liner Ummm-Hmmm 1 Sublime write rhyme 3 Contest lost toast 3 mods--pud 1 The mod was good enough for some.Feen should be a natural Rendered2blue where's yours. You get an 8 for that one I still like deranged Haiku sounds like Yoko singing Klingon opera.

Ok, just to prove I'm not chicken. And if I understand, the trick was to "not quite rhyme". Our just sound similar. Well, here are 8 lines. But NO more. Too darn hard! Everything in my head wants to rhyme. (all lines are 8 sylables except for an "a" I sneaked in) ---------------------------------- Slowly up then smoothly down; High in the sky, back to the ground. Music for ears, colors for eyes; Tears on my cheek, mouth open wide. Now old and grey, sit in my chair; Think of a place with a bit more cheer. I close my eyes and ride once again That carousel, my childhood friend. ---------------------------------- There, TJ, have fun.

Ok, here goes. . . One scary scene the faint of heart male should avoid~ LOL its time~ The moanings just begun. Shadows ominously swallow everything ~as screams wrap a stranglehold on the heart. Alas~ hands and feet and tormented body can no longer endure~ as one falls to the floor~ in the darkness of fetal slumber the other bursts forth, seeking the light~ stretching out in all its full glory ~a tiny newborn man.

If I don't get to read the credits at the end of the show and mock Clive Anderson, I'm not interested! ;-}~ (Ugh! Such a watered down version of a classic, it tears my heart!) tjames - you used to work for Arthur Anderson, didn't you?

For chuck: slowly-smoothly 1 down-ground high-sky 2 bal 2 music-ears color-eyes 2 open-old chair-cheer-childhood 2 close-carousel again-friend ok I got an 12 hopefully I didnt miss anything.

I don't know if you missed anything or not! In fact, I'm lost on how I got points for open and old. And for childhood.

Ok R2b let's see what we got here.... moanings-shadows-swallow 2 hands-feet-body catalog ascending action to zenith 3 as-alas-hands assonance 2 endure-floor 1 floor-forth 1 fetal-seeking-glory 2 a tiny newborn man recap and summary 2 use of tilde to show rapid change of scene 1 that's a 14 for a 10 liner. No I did not work for Anderson and Assoc...but wait till you see the next trick. The poems will be directly compared and the winner will have their name placed in the laureate square, a square on the backpage,hopefully in the upper right hand corner, until bumped by another contest...Unless our laureate successfully defends his square.

The results are in and we have a winner...but the clunker wasn't part of a poem so I'm having a little trouble here. the results are as follows: tresamie 17/12= 1.41 Caledonia 14.5/8= 1.81 Crescent 8/7= 1.14 Chuck E 12/8= 1.5 R2B 14/10= 1.4 Looks like Cal gets the first seat in the laureate square The clunker award goes to Crescent for deranged haiku the picture of yoko singing kligon opera in the shower.... if it were part of the poem you'ld be in the square. I wanted to score Knot4U but it was Knot2B the rhymes were too rhymy. You all game to give it another go on the same field?

I would be game, but like Chuck and others, I have no idea what you are scoring us on, and am not even clear on the rules. A few points for clarification follow. 1. Rhyming - are you saying there should be none at all? How close can we get before you throw out our poems...Knot4u only three rhyming words and they were not adjacent lines, and he was disqualified, whereas Crescent had a full blown rhyme on two adjacent lines and got points for it. This is very confusing. 2. More Rhyming - Are you counting/discounting internal rhymes, or only end rhymes? 3. Meter - Are you saying there should or should not be rhythm to our piece? If we are allowed rhythm, must it be something odd like alternating anapest/iamb lines? How structured/unstructured do you want? Some people seemed to have the impression that you were demanding iambic pentameter. 4. Other structural devices - Use of a tilde gets a point? Moving focus? Rising action? Ascending action? Why are these forms getting points when they are not part of the challenge? Or are they? Please make that clear. I like the idea of the challenge, I just think it needs to be much clearer what the challenge is, and how it is being scored.

I'll have to get the ISPCE Handbook (International Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ears) Most of the trouble comes with the fact that I am only one person and I don't see everything all the time. The object of the last challenge was to break into freestyle. I was,in fact leaning away from rhymes, I was looking for consonnance and quasieuphonic word pairs. I didn't consider meter, but Chucks poem was so well balanced I did give him some points. I was tempted to give R2B more points for her use of the tilde when changing scenes, but on such a small poem her rapid pace of scene change was like a revolving door. Considering her subject I thought that was a good effect. I have learned my lessons from this experience and I am instructing the Bulgarian judge. When I give points for something I'll write it down and try to be consistent. I do like parallel structure and when the catalog goes to a high point. Chuck's poem had a catalog, but it seemed to ramble. The old man in the wheel chair as an image, I couldn't consider that as a zenith or a nadir. I have another idea in the works its: Does all poetry have to be dark...Now Bart Simpson once said "Writing depressing songs for teenagers is like shooting fish in a barrel"., well what's the challenge in that?

Hmmm... I dont understand why my .. unintentional rhymes got me no score ..and the intentional rhymes ( no finger pointing ) of others got points. I apparently didnt manage to stumble into the right methodology here that was required. TJ you made reference to a book that somehow would enlighten me to this scoring method, do you know if it is available online anywhere ? I am not much for technical writing, I tend to write what comes to me... but to have not managed to earn a point I find ...well.. slightly more than humbling as I know I am no walt whitman or Edgar Poe...but.. not without merit. I am unfamiliar with the rules that you used to score so would like to learn more. Afraid the High school I went to was not exactly the strongest on poetry and rules governing it and that was ..well..half a lifetime ago.

jagill, that looks like a pretty solid effort. But I am guessing like hell (big grin). I think the beginning will garner more points than the finish. Oh, and is it a toad or a frog? Or are their two creatures? Funny reading, though.

Thanks Chuck--reposted after corrections. What is the meaning of life? The lonely toad queried the gods. A shooting star split the night as a distant train shook the pond. He grabbed a grub with his tongue. Perhaps there is no meaning he thought but to stay on my pad and lounge. Then a passing car hit a pothole splashing mud into the air then down. The toad croaked and jumped in the water, Where a waiting snake gulped him for dinner.

oh my said the snake You're just a bit late I always eat nice fat toads but when you dropped in to sweeten my chin I found I'd just eaten canary. Nice ace but the match was yesterday. I hadn't mentioned the new challenge yet so here I am stuck in the middle with you as the song goes. I score it EMLOTE (e-mail later on this eve)

Oh, I guess I misunderstood this remark above: "The clunker award goes to Crescent for deranged haiku the picture of yoko singing kligon opera in the shower.... if it were part of the poem you'ld be in the square. I wanted to score Knot4U but it was Knot2B the rhymes were too rhymy. You all game to give it another go on the same field?" I assumed by the word, "field", that you meant same rules, same game. I realized you mentioned Bart later, but I ALSO assumed that was for another idea beyond a rematch on this "field". Somebody SLAP me !

It was bad enough when I didn't understand the rules, and found the point system unfathomable, but now I don't even understand when this challenge starts and stops. I really need to up the dose of my Omega-3 tablets. In honor of my confusion, I'm going to offer my own challenge on Monday. If you all can play this game, mine will be a cakewalk. But cake isn't the prize you'll win. :)

I'm still trying to speak Bulgarian...Hey I was gonna wait until Monday and try and write everything down nice and thoughtfully in between times I'd like to run it for about 10 days no more because you guys have got me lookin' up stuff left and right.

Uhmmm.... I am gonna take issue with dialyn.... cause . I not only want my cake...but want to eat it to

LOL! That was fast. Another slice?

oh my.. I would.. but... not even had dinner yet.. what would my kids think

Well, then, we'll just have to save the rest (and, I hope, the best) for Monday. :) I don't want to ruin anyone's supper.

:) thanks and I think we have digressed here enough.. lol

Agreed. We can have our cake and eat it too But too much dessert makes for quite a to do Cease and desist as you suggest, I will obey, no more to digress. Happy weekend!