Climbing the Poet's Tree: Challenges #17 and 18

[alee_grrl]

Congratulations to spiralsheep for winning Challenge #15, the summer haiku challenge. Thanks to all who entered, all the entries were wonderful. Congratulations to bookblather for winning Challenge #16, our readers challenge.

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For Writers:
Challege #17: The solstice was this past week, marking the day where the days were either at their shortest or longest amount of sunshine depending on which hemisphere you live in. So this week's challenge is to write a poem about the longest day or longest night. It can be about the activities of the day, time itself, waiting, or anything else connected to the topic.

For Readers:
Challenge #18: serene provided us with some wonderful examples of plain-language poems this week. Which one of the linked poems did you like the most? Why? You may answer in the comments or on your own blog. Answers do not need to be long or complex.

This week's prizes:
Winner of each challenge gets zir choice of 30 dreamwidth points (the equivalent of one month of paid time), or a icon or poem (any format, though some make take more time than others, and on a topic of your choice) by alee_grrl.

The winner for each week’s writing challenge will be chosen by a rotating volunteer from the community. (This week’s volunteer judge is to be announced.) If you are interesting in being a judge, please sign up here. The winner for the reader’s challenge will be chosen randomly among all those who successfully complete the challenge. While anyone is welcome to accept and complete either or both challenges, the following people are not eligible for winning: this week’s judge (ineligible for Challenge #1; eligible for Challenge #2); last week’s winners (ineligible for whichever challenge they won last week); the winner of Challenge #1 (ineligible for winning Challenge #2); and the POETREE admins, jjhunter & alee_grrl (ineligible for both challenges).


Note that you do not have to be a member of POETREE, or even Dreamwidth for that matter, to participate. When you complete one of the challenges, please comment at this post with links to your poem or comments; if you complete both, please comment separately for each challenge. Deadline for challenge is Friday, June 29, 2012 at 11:59 EDT. Winners will be announced that Sunday.

Comments

[lnhammer]

    Noon canyon: rock walls
above baked stone and sere wash.
    A small bird chips once.
A cicada chirrs, ticks, stops.
    On a sandstone rock
paled by the overhead sun,
    a slim striped lizard
pumps short pushups over scald.
    Not even thorn-scrub
rustles in the faintest breeze,
    not with these high cliffs
that hold wind out and air in.
    When you breathe in deep
you can feel the solstice heat
    dry the throat, parch lungs --
a heat that coils around you,
    stretching your skin taut,
scouring as it slides through flesh
    with the dangerous
spare beauty of sun-bleached bones.
    So breathe in -- once, twice --
then renounce the seduction.
    This sky is too harsh
even in the scraps of shade
    to remain here long --
to adapt is to depart
    for better shelter,
for other hours of waking.
    On this longest day
in the cycle of the year
we must find our own places.

envoy

    Curled in a dark hole
a coyote slowly yawns.
    From atop a rock,
a lizard skinks down to shade
to hunt for ants in the cracks.

[alee_grrl]

Gorgeous. I can almost taste the hot desert air.

[spiralsheep]

The heat imagery is very effective. I especially liked: "a slim striped lizard pumps short pushups".

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

This is puntastic, and also pretty much a freewrite.

This shortest day
Is ordinary. Save for its length
There is no ceremony about it.
The sun sets as usual,
Till six o’clock feels like eight
And hours are squeezed
Into minutes, and light
Contracts and alters.
The sacrifice is plain,
A few seconds shaved off the day.

[spiralsheep]

Ooo... I like the idea of a sacrifice. From the sun or to the sun?

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Heh. Um, "sacrifice" was supposed to mean the sacrifice of some extra daylight. But that line doesn't make much sense anyway, if you interpret "plain" as "obvious". This is why I should pause to edit instead of getting excited and posting things five seconds after I've written them. :P

[alee_grrl]

Actually that line was one of my favorites. I enjoyed the different ways that plain could be interpreted and how that added to the poem. Plain could be "ordinary" or "simple" as in "Plain Jane," or it could be "obvious." Both ways work with the poem. The obvious sacrifice also being a simple one, that of a few less hours of sunlight to the day.

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Ah. You see, I interpreted it from the perspective of the people in the poem: "a few seconds" would hardly be obvious to anyone unless they were keeping obsessive track of it.

But I can see how your interpretation works too. :)
Thank you!

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

Ah. You see, I interpreted it from the perspective of the people in the poem: "a few seconds" would hardly be obvious to anyone unless they were keeping obsessive track of it.

But I can see how your interpretation works too. :)
Thank you!

Re: Ineligible for challenge

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

ETA since I can't edit comments: I suppose that is a kind of sacrifice to the sun, if you think about it.

I did have that imagery in mind(hence "sacrifice" and "alters/altars")

Re: Ineligible for challenge

[spiralsheep]

I understood your meaning of sacrifice and assumed "to" the sun... but then I wondered if it could be interpreted as a sacrifice "from" the sun as well. Thank you for the clarification but it did already work for me anyway. :-)

And it's almost always better to write than not write so I applaud your bravery in posting a fresh piece!

Ineligible for challenge

[spiralsheep]

(Reposted with correction due to not enough time and too much tired, heh.)

Thank you to last week's judge for choosing my haiku. I don't have much time at the moment so my contribution this week is also nearly a haiku (ineligible for challenge):

Bright sun overhead:
high noon on the longest day
brings the shortest shadows.

Re: Ineligible for challenge

[with-rainfall.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting take on it!

Re: Ineligible for challenge

[spiralsheep]

Thank you. If I had time I'd expand it but.... ::wryface::