Avant-Garde Poetry Contest 2

[Lokasenna]

Back by popular demand, it's the second iteration of the Avant-Garde Poetry Contest.

First thing you'll notice is that I'm neither Qimissung or HCabret - this isn't a coup d'etat, I'm just helping out as the latter doesn't seem to be around much and the former is rather over-worked!

There have been a few questions in the other thread about what exactly is meant by 'avant-garde' - I myself sought qualification. According to the OED, the 'avant-garde' are the 'pioneers or innovators in any art in a particular period' - so the challenge here is to be exciting, different and experimental with your poetry. Go on, live a little and be radical!

In the last thread some people also requested a theme for the contest. In view of the experimental nature of the thing, I don't want to stifle anybody - so let's say the theme of this contest is 'Communities and Individuals', which you can interpret as broadly as you like.

Let's have a notional deadline of the 25 June - two weeks from tomorrow.

Post away, you lovely creative types!

[YesNo]

1

I thought that I would never see
Avant-garde ****ing poetry.

Mary had a little bard
Who when he went went avant-garde.

2

And that's when Alice wanted to know when
I was going to grow up and she apologized
for giving me the arsenic even though it was
only imaginary arsenic and then she started
crying because she wasn't real any more than
that arsenic and that's why she acted the way
she did and I told her 'It's OK' because what
else was I going to say and then I told her that
even atoms were almost all empty space, nothing
there, and she said, 'Really?' and I said 'Sure'
and then she wanted to know about that tiny stuff
in the middle of the atom and she started to cry
again and I had to tell her that when that stuff
was a wave of potentiality it wasn't there any
more than she was and she said, 'Really?' and
I had to think because I didn't want to lie to
her and I didn't want her to start crying again
and as far as I could tell she was more real
than any old atom was and so I said 'Sure'.

[Pendragon]

In a Group of Angels, One Devil

It takes a village to raise a child
But only one villain to destroy life
Families can blend and extend their borders
But a black sheep will inevitably show
Famous families have infamous members
Some change their names to avoid the stigma
The poorest of the poor have individuals that even they cannot harbor
Every barrel of apples has at least one rotten
So fix it, forget it, or fake your way through things
Lest a battle be lost for want of a horseshoe nail

Pendragon
(C) 6/12/2014

[Lokasenna]

Two excellent entries so far!

...but let's keep them coming! Nine days to go until the deadline.

[mal4mac]

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[DieterM]

Dere’s now Lue come a-walkin
down da street in’er torn leggin’s
all wobbly an’ bloody dumb b itch in’t she
oar block’s bloatedest ratchet an’
dressed up likuh reel thot she is
eyes locked on’er Blackberry
cuz that Jer ‘my-bloke with the like hugest nob in town
jis’ texted and told’er ‘Mirin ya for edges,
care for a kiss bae lass?’
And Lue she thinkin’, ‘Jeez a kiss,
oh yeah BFD!’ And she textin’ back,
‘F uck you hashtag SWAG’,
and then she steppin’ in some
reel dogs hit an’ screamin’
an’ the pusswat from next door
yellin’ outta window ‘Oy, piss o’’, y’ugly b itch!’

[Lokasenna]

Things are going very well - another two great entries, bringing our total up to four now! For anyone else who wants to take part, there's still another two days - so get writing!

[mal4mac]

Bernstein’s Dysraphism Dissipated

Condominium conceals carnage - clowns
brought the slaughter home. Traced
by fairies, hacked by anchorites,
the nightmare tree hops over three hops, two
hops, then flops. “In those days you could whisper
and still be expressive.” Silently
the sandy soil is slapped, the sorrows rebranded.
A fleet of fairies, forever remarrying.
Fighting men know what the show folks don’t,
how to win the war without making a show.

[mal4mac]

Some help with hard words going in (how avant-garde is that!):

pill - a tedious or unpleasant person.
Dyfed - Welsh county.

Dyfed Rock Festival Encountered by Accident

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of drunken Dyfed pills;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the slime that shines
And twinkles on the dirty docks,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
Dylan Thomas would be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What damage to me all this had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bane of solitude;
And then my heart with horror fills,
And dances with the Dyfed pills.

[Lokasenna]

Excellent stuff, Mal!

As a point of order, though, in the last contest Qimi had a one-poem-per-entrant rule for the contest, and I think we probably ought to stick with that rule. By all means leave your poems up here (I'm happy to give my thoughts on all of them when the contest ends), but would you care to nominate one of them to be your 'official' entry for the purposes of deciding the winner?

[Lykren]

Junk:

Junkyard. White light,
moon-light. You
drag string
across the depths.

Recaptured. The dominant
force is exhalation.
That of tense,
oblivious gods

lasting
through waves
like pistols. Borne
efficiently into quiet houses.

[mal4mac]

Rules.
Were meant to be broken.

??Choosing??

Boo. Hiss. Call the security guards. Kick the drunk off stage.

Nice hat!

Compliments don't work on me mate, it's a cold bath for you.

[Melanie]

Compliments don't work on me mate, it's a cold bath for you.

I don't know you well enough so I have to ask…you're joking, right?

[cacian]

individualism
inspects
life
with a hygiene mask
and it becomes a task
the importance
is to be seen
pass and above
the norms
to a power crawl
the conduct of the small
the laws applicate to suffocate
and the rest syndicate
to erradicate
abdicate
expectations fall
and the basics
spoil
and you and I toil
failure a score
democracy is a bore,
society
compacts
to run
it is
a matriarch
there is no cermony without
a patriarch
let's run it with a mark
no need to bark.

[tailor STATELY]

Headlines: How to Keep Your Brain Young

FBI targets pimps, rescues 168 children
Lightning knocks guy out of boots
11-foot gator gives man 80 stitches
'This isn't a trip to Disneyland'


6/24/2014 r.7/8/2014

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY