15 replies to this topic

[Scipio]

People who inhabit this forum appear to be brilliant at playing word games. For a slightly bigger challenge than a word association thread, try this poetry challenge. (Actually it's not poetry, it's doggerel, because I wrote it.)

Rules:
* Write the next verse. It could be the concluding verse or it could beg for another verse to follow it.
* Does the next verse have to have the same number of lines as the first verse, or the same number of beats per line, or the same rhyming scheme? Of course not!
* Continue the process until the whole thing becomes unmanageably tedious or a publisher buys the huge poem and we all get lots of money.

The Poem: First Verse

Who will weep for the human race when the last of us has gone?
Beyond the stars there's an alien in a space ship ten miles long.
He sees our bones and our last remains, and his history books will show
He weeps for us not because we've gone but because we had to go.

[Kaeloree]

Moved to Scribbles - since this is poetry, slightly more fitting. I'm interested to see what comes out of this!

[Jarno Mikkola]

The Poem: Second Verse

Not because we wanted to live, but because we wanted to die.
After all, there is a heaven, among the stars,
The promissed land of pure light. But why does the alien cry?
Because it's the only thing left alive, to die.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 05 March 2008 - 01:37 AM.

[quinlan]

The poem: 3rd Verse

All is not lost!
Of their destruction some have seen the ghost
Brave souls who left to space unknown
With their deeds to save the race and bring renown.


I like this! It is harder than the word thread, but i think also more rewarding. Bravo for the idea Scipio!

Edited by quinlan, 05 March 2008 - 07:45 AM.

[Ascension64]

The poem: 4th verse

But with no utility hath the alien brandish,
All but gone; all that was cherished,
ere the day that the bipeds perished.
The alien's dream could not be relished.


P.S.: All you newer dudes have not seen the Collection of Five community story, which turned into crazy-fest (http://www.shsforums...showtopic=27611).

Edited by Ascension64, 06 March 2008 - 01:55 AM.

[Scipio]

P.S.: All you newer dudes have not seen the Collection of Five community story, which turned into crazy-fest (http://www.shsforums...showtopic=27611).

I've just checked it out and it must have been great fun while it lasted. Maybe we can get a new one going soon.

[Jarno Mikkola]

The poem: 5th verse

So try however hard they could,
Die they would, as they should.
But being such a cyborg,
This thing would not as easy to work.

[quinlan]

6th Verse

Nevertheless and however small the odds for success
To give up they wouldn't, no matter the stress
Into other galaxies they sailed
Sadness in their hearts, but hope never went away.

[Isilven]

Verse the Seventh

And, oh! Behold the new age dawning
Those learnéd minds work on anew
To repair the path that flows on, yawning
A new galaxy, from stardust they shall hew

[Jarno Mikkola]

The Verse 8th

But the want becomes obsession,
The obsession becomes need,
And need becomes greed.
To be a god, to be the god, of the men.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 10 March 2008 - 11:51 PM.

[quinlan]

All right! It seems we have a war here, against you Jarno. You and your fatalism!

[Caelellowynn]

Verseth 9

So now doth he bow
With bent knee shall he scrape
In belief is he cowed
Turning water into grape


Okay no more whining from me.

[Shadowhawke]

Verse 10
For beneath the spanning eons,
The breadth of history does sleep,
And they remember, they remember,
The fate of those who dug too deep


PS: Apologies for not commenting here sooner. This is an awesome idea, Scipio!

[Jarno Mikkola]

11th Verse

But too soon to raise for the heavens,
Is to suffer the fate of Icarus,
So down they staid,
Hobbled in their own fate.

All right! It seems we have a war here, against you Jarno. You and your fatalism!

I have a knack of getting characters killed, cause I am very good at it.

(12nd verse -> Until one day... )

[Scipio]

You people are all too clever for me. I write silly verses, you write poetry. It must be the Philistine in my soul. Or it could be that I am overly influenced by Winston Churchill, who once wrote: "Culture is the glittering scum floating on the stream of production."

Anyway, I am dragging this thread down to the level of my flippancy with Verse 12. It has the same structure as the first verse. You'll have to restore some quality with the verses after this one:

They couldn't care what's happened here but they're sorry that we've gone.
Now they'll never meet a human being with the name of Pete or Don.
But they agree that the human beings, to give our race its due,
In a casserole with a whole-wheat roll made a very tasty stew.

Edited by Scipio, 11 March 2008 - 12:00 AM.

[quinlan]

12th Verse

The alien being fully immersed in the human race's sense of funny,
He couldn't but appreciate the situation's irony.
The few resourceful ones that managed the grim fate to escape,
Found a way to stimulate the alien's palate.
For they used an ancient derelict spacecraft of the alien race's,
A strange shape that much resembled a giant hot dog in several places.