Weekly Challenges

I have decided that I need to grow as a person and a writer both. I have decided to grow as a person by joining the U.S Navy but to grow as a writer I need to challenge myself. However, I have decided to share my challenges with you all starting with my first for the week of 06/18/2009-06/25/2009.

The rules of the challenges are that you have one week to write the challenge and each week I will come up with a new challenge, you can write about anything, a special circumstance that the challenge reminds you of or it could have universal meaning but the challenge must be thought about and the poem must circulate around the challenge. If you can't write on the weekly challenge don't worry, this is not meant to be a contest simply a challenge to help us all grow and become better.

One of my personal beliefs is and has always been that it doesn't matter if you are the best of the best, the elite, you can always become better...

This weeks challenge is : Hay Bales

Have fun! And may the muse be with you...

Re: Weekly Challenges

My horses' name is Lightning Ivy
I'm WordSlinger, she stays beside me
Only for my horse I do this shit
Me, I hate chiggers and ticks
She hates them round
She loves them sqaure
So I'll go bale them up
Because she's my mare.

Re: Weekly Challenges

Now that the hay bales challenge has drawn to a close I have yet another challenge that should be as simple as can be for any writer. The challenge is to write about a pen or pens if you like. Two things that go hand in hand: A writer is to a pen what a pen is to a writer. This challenge opens up on 06/27/2009 and closes on 07/04/2009.

I would truly like to see what anyone has to offer on this challenge so anyone interested please send me a message containing your poem or post in the forum for me to read.

Good luck and may the muse be with you...

Re: Weekly Challenges

I do not scribble
for fortune or fame
Better off
when no one knows my name

Words flow
from the end of my pen
Working out demons
from within

This is how
I live my life
Using a pen
rather than a knife

To cut and dice
and kill my soul
To heal and nurture
and make me whole

Last edited by gypsyf8 06-28-2009 at 02:00:12 PM

Re: Weekly Challenges

Happy fourth of July to anyone reading this! Thus far I have enjoyed seeing all of you participating in these challenges. Your work is greatly appreciated and I have loved seeing all of your work either posted here in the forum, sent to me via private message, or otherwise. So far all of the poems have been vastly creative.

This next weeks challenge comes from a friend of mines suggestion that we write about cats. Personally I don't really like the little buggers. They scratch you to ribbons and bite-not to mention they are quite anti-social critters. However, I guess that gives me something to write about...how about that? This challenge officially opens on the 07/05/2009 and closes on 07/12/2009.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with so please let me know.

As always good luck and may the muse be with you...

Re: Weekly Challenges

Dawn comes early and way to fast
When a cowboy greets the day
It's rise and shine no time to whine
When daylights burning away

He heads to the barn and saddles his mare
blowing frost through his every breath
first the livestock to tend then more fences to mend
and he's prayin he won't catch his death

But it doesn't take long for the day to heat up
and by noon the suns beating down hard
Now he hopes for a breeze, and the shade of the trees
and that hammock for two in the yard

But the days now half over, there's no time to rest
just a daydream is all he will spare
load the tractor with hay baled just yesterday
leave a flake in the barn with the mare

Feed and water the cows and it's back in the saddle
to finish the rest of his chores
head up to the clearing, round the sheep up for sheering,
if theres time he can paint the barn doors

Not a moment spent idle, there's no time to waste
no vacation or weekends to rest
from morning till night, the sun long out of sight
a cowboy gives only his best

Once this day is behind him and supper is laid
he pulls off his boots with a sigh
though the works never done, he be up with the sun
Thanking God for his beautiful life

Re: Weekly Challenges

Ball Point

I am a tool, I am an instrument
Born and created with but one purpose
I am a slave to anyone
with a grip firm enough to control me

My life can be short or long
depending on how often I am used
Forced to construct thoughts, feelings,
images, and needs that are not my own.

I live a simple life of servitude
Until I am used up and discarded
Always under the hand that gives me purpose
Until at last my work is done

Re: Weekly Challenges

My Cat Poem

I Walk With the Moon

I walk with the moon
it casts such a light
to my face
I dream, I wish
too see and hear
I throw my own
in haunted eyes
I hope you see it
I am clean in it
you may die
in brilliance---
walk, like me
silent as
cold water
rushing to this end
when you
walk with me
like moon---

Re: Weekly Challenges

Miserable Cat

On a cold winter day
And a cold winter night
Live a sad miserable cat
With no home to lay

The miserable cat looked
Misleading toward anyone
While her one eye was shut
Like someone kick her

And her fur was so badly shape
Her bones looking so weak
As my eyes began to water
And my little daughter begin to wonder

Mommy as she applies
May we bring that sad miserable cat in
As she seem cold and alone
With no food and no water

As it must seem,
The sadness in that miserable cat
With the tears of sadness rolling down her cheek
And my little girl begging please

We took that miserable cat
And look around until it was ours
When suddenly the miserable cat
Beginning purring and dancing

Smile that the miserable cat had
Brought enjoy into my little one heart
As it was happy to have someone so special
And warm and healthy as we had her through the winter night

Last edited by jlecabwit 07-14-2009 at 01:58:35 PM

Re: Weekly Challenges

C,ANT YOU DO ANYTHING BUT LAY THERE
A,LL WAYS SLEEPING LIKE A LOG
T,ELL ME WHAT IT IS YOU ARE ALL ABOUT
S,OME ONE PLEASE TELL ME FOR MY BRAIN IS IN A FOG

Re: Weekly Challenges

So it seems it has been a while. I apologize for my late arrival of the cat poem however; I did get it done and posted. This weeks challenge has to do with automobiles-the things move us from one place to another. Please use as creative a touch on this one as you would like. Consider where you are at right now as opposed to where you have been in the past. Could relate to anything-such as a physical location or even mental state. I'd love to see everyone's poems on this topic so please either post here or send me a message...I will read it. This challenge officially opens on 07/25/2009 and will be due to close on 08/01/2009.

Thank you all for participating and may the muse be with you

Re: Weekly Challenges

Automatic Car flying in the sky ……

Would you think it would be cool to drive in the sky?
When you do not have anyone pass you by
Seeing the imagine that you can see through the clouds
And watching the birds fly next to you one by one

No signs, no rules but you’re thoughts in mind
As you are flying in your car to the place called heaven gate
But be careful and do not open your eyes
Because your car will be gone and who knows why

Thoughts that come and thoughts that just go
Is like an automatic car fly so deep to the core
That I call it the mind automatic of how you would travel throughout time
It could be seconds or minutes, but hurry up as your car might ….

RE: Weekly Challenges

Alot has happened since I last issued a challenge. I have not had much time at all to write but those of you who know me know why that is. Since I much need to get back into the groove of things I remembered my challenge poems and figured that it was high time I issued a new one.

I much appreciate how openly everyone has been participating in these and hopefully if I can access a computer often enough I shall continuing posting challenges for all of you to participate in. I would much love to get enough poems from challenges alone to publish a book for everyone and once I have enough may see what it will take for me to do so.

This week I would like to issue a challenge on water. Please think carefully on this challenge and consider all the things that water can do for us but also all the things that water can do against us. As one of the four elements it is quite a powerful thing so choose your words wisely. A few things to consider on this one is rain, oceans, lakes, rivers, ponds...etc...any type of water. This challenge officially opens on 08/27/2010 and will close on 09/03/2010.

I look forward to seeing what you all come up with and hopefully I can get the word back out on these challenges to get the participation back.

Good luck to you all and may the Muse smile on you all as you work to fulfill my wishes

Last edited by DestinedQueen 08-27-2010 at 04:27:19 AM

RE: Weekly Challenges

Queen,
What a wonderful challenge. Water can be refreshing and is certainly needed but it can be also wicked and dangerous. To take your challenge on I have written this;

Tick Tock

I’ve seen a drop
shiny like a fire fly
dangle from a silver spout
drive away sleep and
a man mad

I trust that I have offered here, perhaps, is what you were looking for.
Paolo

RE: Weekly Challenges

My message will be clear. to be unstood.


Rushing ,flowing, roaring

In the state of solid mass I pierce you in the most painfull way.
In my liquid mood I can drown the very exists of your life.
I am ripping upon your brow crowded by the memories of
storms rushing in from the past soft screems begging for mercy
alone isolated yet free ,dangerous, a merder among many.

Last edited by bella28 08-28-2010 at 05:44:44 PM

RE: Weekly Challenges/ water/ doorway of rain

Doorway Of Rain


Within the shadows

I slip through the narrow passageway
Where cave is roughly hewn from stone
Moving from darkness toward the day

At the brink

I stand before the doorway wide with rain
I see the temple's walls and its balcony
Its set stone imbuing pale shimmered sky

Amid a stride

I enter into the quick silvered waterfalls
With rope and pickax slung upon my back
The weight of stars over my shoulders

With lifted pack

My liquid cheeks upon my beaded face
Drip as I emerge from pouring water
My chest widens with carried heart

At the edge

I wade into the pervading stream
To cross within the arising current's lift
I enter into the light with song undone

Inside wonder

I walk toward the ancient glinting temple
That invites me with its opened doors
To arise and climb its rain etched steps
To greet the other waiting on the terrace

Within the shadows


------------------notes
© RH Peat 8/28/1010 4:51pm
"A doorway of water"
Photo from the book
"Doorways To The World"
By Elisa Daggs

Last edited by RHPeat 08-28-2010 at 07:52:48 PM

RE: Weekly Challenges - Water

Moons over Madness
_________________



Here's to she who shines on me
Moonlight sparkles on the sea
In me, On me, never still
servant Water, does her will

oh sweet river in my veins
feeding death to stop the pains
sharing space but what remains
mutant poison, deadly strains

ice chips, dry lips, barren skin
looking for lakes to swim in
fever, no food, who will win
droplettes, with an evil twin

tubes of liquid come inside
dull me, slow me, with your ride
flood me fuzzy with high tide
push me from this shell, wide-eyed

food-sins I could not withstand
came to eat my body and
here comes ocean, take my sand
home in Universal land.

RE: Weekly Challenges

Congratulations everyone on all your excellent water poems! We all have gathered quite different ideas of all of waters attributes. Good job!

After considering this challenge and realizing that it is one of the four elements I have decided to go ahead and issue the next challenge as another of the four elements-this time the challenge will be earth. As such I would like to see poems about anything about earth that you all can think of. From memories of childhood and climbing trees and digging in the dirt-to gardening and turning rich soil to make things grow. Of course you can use this challenge metaphorically as well and I would love to see things like that as well.

Of course I pray the Muse is with you all.

Sand, Mud,and Stone

Thease thioughts I think in my head
I have brought them out to make
myself a mud bed. Or maybe
brim and stone giving it's own tone.
though the dough of sand swishing it
in my hand to make a castle or maybe a
tastle. To make a vase of clay for all
viewers to stay to look upon to beauty
I have mad from earth.

RE: Weekly Challenges/ Looking At The Hole In The Ground

The Hole In The Ground
The Poet Celebrates His Life & Death
(Within A Single Breath)

There were some whispered leaves
Like words hanging on wet limbs
As the pigeons flew by—Swoop and Roll
I was unsure of their wings
In the stormy sky
Their cry— I feel I understand it… Now
Looking at the hole in the ground

A sharp knife isn’t any better than a skate key —
After reading any piece of knotted old string
Fishing line snagged at the rock bottom
And remembering that other space
My own internal outer space
A piece of you I read so many times
Looking at the hole in the ground

A madness of mine we shared… I had
A weakness for hate a week before I died
So thankful I didn’t know then
Who,…How… Could I ever thank you
Looking at the hole in the ground

Deep within my own little cubical… Death —
I began to see the candle-light in the night
Knowing that a certain type upon the page
Would glow like gloss… Gold thread
Cut into my cloth;… A format was being used
Looking at the hole in the ground

Soup to seas… It matters not to me —
But I wondered about one thing
You see— Spring no longer appealed to me —
The pieces of cut fire-wood by the fireplace
They are all very blatant... Life’s blood—
The candle and the fireplace… Smoke and soot
I’m just lost in those joyous cosmic clouds
Looking at the hole in the ground

My screams… My dreams… I wouldn’t want
To destroy you… Or loose that part of my
Own hysteria... The secrets to my real neuroses
My concepts thrown like sharp rocks
Fishing hooks… Pages torn out of old books
Scalpel-daggers into clay cadavers… Turned spades
Because they have real impact… Smacked steel
Looking at the hole in the ground

But why wait till the end of the world
A desolate piece of ground and an evaporated sea
A wasteland to set your big humorous trap
Let the mice know it now
You’ve already sprung it on their tails
Ink upon the last lost pages for the reader
Maybe your story … My story… Anybody’s story
Just has more humorous impact
And less punch in the stomach... Cut gut upon me
Lying dead at the end of the street
Looking at the hole in the ground

Would it be a big bet
A bit more subtle straw in the fast flames
Lines to draw a reader into his own death-wish
Listening to himself within the darker story
Told to him by some total stranger…
Himself a drop in the bucket
Lantern light within a big humorous flicker… Laughter
Anchor lifted at the beginning… Story on its way
Looking at the hole in the ground

Sent out whaling for the big white-whales
Voyage to suck them out of their skins
Drawn in— This would be the way… So to speak
Wine from mashed grapes and red feet
Do it… Pipe smoker in the alleyway
Secret drawer hidden in the cabinet
(Draw the reader onto the canvas or paper
Printed or painted into his story— Gasp
Into the story with his own humor)
Looking at the hole in the ground

Once you have the fishing line
Snagged around their dirty little necks
Red ants! … That must mean pecker heads in tow
Crank the little handle madly— Wildly
Then reel (That’s “Real”) them in
Death like a big fish on the line
Looking at the hole in the ground

If I were writing this kind of thing
Humpty Dumpty In my dreams or behind the scenes —
Which I don’t do… Too well, that is
(Even or Uneven in the attempt)
So to say— You see… I know I don’t know
My asshole from my butt-hole— When
Looking at the hole in the ground

I would start out
Cosmic comic-strip motorcycle
Arrowhead with a great punch-in-the-balls line
So BIG— It is a vast stormy sky
Bait bitten upon the silver hooks… I’d even use
A tag-Line from dummy-school
That was used over and over again… So you
Would know what I mean… That’s what… That is
Looking at the hole in the ground

One old one — Quite famous old tag line
“That’s what she said when the bed broke”
Tag her toe and shroud wrapped around her death
She may be hitched as a trailer
To any stranded vehicle in the snow
Tagged to anything for a high laugh... low draft
Anyway I’d wait to the end of the movie
For the bigger catch... The net full ... Hauled in
The deeper ocean to be found in their own eyes
And then ZAP… Send them the zip-codes
Lost love letters into oblivion
Looking at the hole in the ground

I really like the stormy weather… Especially the wind
And what both of these pieces of string
Are saying in the stirred ashes...
I’m acquainted with fire and the firelight
Gifted they are saying lightning in the wide sky
(Tell me if I’m wrong)
Looking at the hole in the ground

Anyone with any strained brains
Spaghetti left in their noodle-heads
Has to know this subject is our age
The story always needs to be told
Over and over again
Till the dumb-bunnies get it: the dogs are on them.
Looking at the hole in the ground

Questioning the numb ants in their twisted trails
If the pencil-leads in their eraser-heads
Can make a mark with some meaning
Breath can truly absorb anything
Looking at the hole in the ground

However— You make me realize:
Stray cats and rabid dogs: rotten logs in bogs
“Can something give rise to nothing?”— Hardly!
The responsibility lies with paper tongues
When knowing-people can’t see
Understand the sand is lost
Plight that the privileged poor know
Drops down on their knees
For Popeye has said it all
“I am what’s I am”… Creamed spinach
Looking at the hole in the ground

I say this because… I can drink a cup of Ginseng Tea
I realize there are mad-dogs in the street
That will be blind-mice forever
Gloom, death-wish and doom
That until we confront the frost and the ice
Badlands of our own lost-country's
Continents of rasping despair
Nothing will be done or undone
A deep well all about this issue
Looking at the hole in the ground

I don’t know about fire-ants and how you relate
But the army I want to enlist in
Is made up of anyone— Everyone —
Even midgets, gimps, thieves and murderers,
The whole God'amn trigger pulled
Like you once told me in the coffee shop
“LOVE or FEAR— Make your choice”
It’s all based upon first-base
Never upon home-plate
The big picture being the hardball that you see
Thrown out — On any one form or another
So—What can we do? But what's due!
Looking at the hole in the ground

I think the more direct current we touch— Use
The electrical approach in focus
Spirit can be plugged into any… One —Form
Discrimination at any one point
Right time of day… Space will have more impact
Than scattering energy across a broad field.
Oh! —Sky will have much more clout
Bat swung upon anyone who reads its clouds
Or as it’s said in the oracle
“They are confronted by tigers
Wild beasts of their specific problems”— Bleeding hemorrhoids
Whatever the rich asshole’s problem
Answer might be… Will come
Looking at the hole in the ground

I’ve recently jumped confused from a high cliff
Face fall come to its conclusion
That if we lived as the life force… Poets, writers,
Painters, electricians, mechanics, etc.
Creatively by choice— Right by path—
Which is no choice at all… Pathway that we feel
Either on the road or lost in the wild
We have to deal with the nation’s crap, —If we have
A willingness to sing out
Just take one rotten apple
Out of our big stinking barrel
And then twist that SOB
Every way they can be twisted
Flesh into the burning blowtorch
Heart center of the self — Shove it in the nation’s face
And let everyone have a real close look at it
And say … “This is one really bad stinkin’ apple,
It’s got crap on it”— Then say:
“In fact it looks like an asshole!” — While—
Looking at the hole in the ground

I know We can do everyone some good
Those that suffer at the egotistical hands
Tender palms of the favored and powerful by
Looking at the hole in the ground

Jeweler of one desire
To bring all the facets of the diamond together
The stone to be chipped down
To fracture one issue at a time
In any one given space
Looking at the hole in the ground

(Oh! I really like your idea
To have a-lot of separate gem stones
About individual concerns
And then put them— All together … In a single box
Soaring— Flight into a larger manifesto.)
Looking at the hole in the ground

My feelings are bobcats that growl… Meow!
Caution that if we spread our wild energy
Curtain over to many mountain-tops of concern
And not dumped into one small room
It will all get lost in dichotomy
Looking at the hole in the ground

I want to punch for the ignorant selfish nose
And make complete contact —Smack…
Splat with the lead bat —Obliterate the SOBs
No doubt left in anyone's mind
What is exactly being expressed in words
By dealing with one Coconut-shell at a time
Commemorative issue in a single space
Looking at the hole in the ground

(That’s what I feel about those rattlesnakes
The vipers you are castrating
So many phony individual items… Onion-breaths
Peeled skins that make up the larger work)
Looking at the hole in the ground

I feel we can let some light
Skylight into the darkroom—
Drill a big hole through the ceiling
To make room for the spiritually privileged by
Looking at the hole in the ground

©  R. H. Peat — 5/21/95

Last edited by RHPeat 10-04-2010 at 05:00:39 AM

RE: Weekly Challenges

I figured since all of you seem to be participating with much enthusiasm I would go ahead and share my work with you. It needs editing but here it is.

Strength in the Garden
I remember strength
Like walking through your garden
Adding strength to the Earth
Through clear clean water from the hose

Watching you turn that rich soil
Creating life
With seeds
With bulbs
With juvenile plants

That strength you brought forth
Was real
Was waning
All those years I saw you
Turning the Earth

Last edited by DestinedQueen 10-06-2010 at 12:51:13 AM

RE: Weekly Challenges

Welcome back fellow poets and poetry lovers! I am back again with yet another weekly challenge,

This time the challenge is on air. The very thing that we breath, that gives us and everything else life. Air is the thing that trees exhale from the carbon dioxide that we exhale through the process we all know as photosynthesis.

This time I want you all to think of something as fresh as the air that we breath, that has filled our lungs since the day we were brought into this world that has given us life and sustained us so long.

I appreciate all of your participation and once again and always may the muse be with you.