Donna Williams’ April 2008, 48 hr, Poetry Challenge
Each month I send out a challenge for those on my mailing list to send me a 1-2 word topic they’d like me to write a poem to and I must write all the poems in the challenge within 48 hours. People CAN’T send names (yes, everyone wants one named after their child 
but they can send other 1-2 word titles. Each sender only gets me writing one poem per poetry challenge and the more surreal the challenge, the better.
This month I’ve decided to give everyone out there in blog land the chance to join in. So feel free to send me a 1-2 word title in the comments below.
And, because some of you are budding poets yourselves, this is now where you can also ask other commenters to challenge YOU with a title too. So let’s see what happens!
Also if you are a published, self published or street poet, this is where to let people know.
author, artist, composer, screenwriter.
author of the poetry book, Not Just Anything , published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
OK, so here’s the poems to the poem titles sent so far:
ANGELIC SOUL
As I was passing by a hole
I heard a strange angelic soul
Into the dark it called me down
And sang in such angelic sounds.
Hypnotised I felt so numb
I felt no fear, no need to run.
I put a hand into the hole
Then it wrenched me in, body and soul.
I plummetted to depth so great
I lost all thought of love, of hate
I lost all sense of body and mind
I lost all memory of human kind.
Then hit the sides as down I fell
and landed in a place called hell.
The song I’d heard now seared my ears
And back to haunt me crashed my fears
And there was no angel to be found
On this dank and stagnant depressive ground.
I clawed my way back up the wall.
I heard now only demons call.
There’s nothing up there, I heard them lie
But I determined that I still would try.
T’was years since I fell down that hole
Since I found within a place of light,
My own angelic soul.
Copyright Donna Williams, April 2008
OK, so my next challenge was ‘Moonlight Doorway’, here goes.
MOONLIGHT DOORWAY
Space, that’s all it was,
All.
And everything.
The moon had kissed the earth
Where walls could not hold it back.
I stepped into the space
Bathed in moonlight
Standing in a moonlight doorway.
Copyright Donna Williams, April 2008
And my next challenge was APRIL FOOLS
APRIL FOOLS
We met upon page
Armed, adorned, with our words
Waltzing with phrase
On a blog to be heard.
Word smithing our trade
And words as our tools
The poets in April
Were no April Fools.
Copyright Donna Williams, April 2008
And here’s FLUTTER TWIST
FLUTTER TWIST
The hands held tight upon my wrist
My heart a flutter, dare I twist,
Out of this wrangle, we both know,
Is the place where only maddies go.
What fool sees love in killer’s eyes,
Yet sees through Barbie’s thin disguise?
What insight managed to out run,
The death wish I have overcome?
Copyright Donna Williams, April 2008
And next up is SILENT VOICE
SILENT VOICE
She’d echoed words, once upon time
When faces smiled
And photographs sat proud
On walls.
Then walls were everywhere
As silence became louder
And others became her voice.
Then freedom through a keyboard voice,
Such blasphemy,
How would she ever speak?
Her silence seared them
In their impotence.
In ignorance, they had presumed
disturbance, even choice.
They couldn’t see the language of behaviour,
They wouldn’t trust the typed out self,
The wouldn’t see the person,
In the person with the silent voice.
Copyright Donna Williams, April 2008
Next was KABOOM
KABOOM
Beware the autie with gas stove
Attention span may tend to rove
And hope at least they lit it gas
For if they didn’t best run fast
Because the autie may come back
On the same or on some other track
A match in hand into the room
And gone in one shocking KABOOM
Copyright by Donna Williams, April 2008
Then was NEVER ENOUGH
NEVER ENOUGH
Only a life time to seed,
to sprout,
to grow,
to bloom
and die
Life, playing hard to get
leaves the lucky wanting more.
Copyright Donna Williams, April 2008
And here’s POETIC CAT
POETIC CAT
As I went to put upon my hat,
I met a most poetic cat,
Curled up inside, it now sprang out
And in cat-in-ness I heard it shout,
In poetry of lands afar,
Liasons with a movie star,
A dodgy deal on a moonlit night,
A wound hard earned in a cat fight.
Then just as I stood gaping there
It made it’s exit up the stairs.
Copyright Donna Williams, April 2008
My 1-2 word title would be: “Angelic Soul”
ok; here’s your two words, donna:
moonlight doorway
How about:
April Fool’s
Please challenge me!
oh, yeah, and i’d love a poem challenge too… fun stuff!
Hi Ivan, you got yours - Angelic Soul - up on the blog now, have a look
Ok, Kay,
I’m gonna challenge you.
I send you:
“Twaddle”
Ok Devlyn,
I send you:
“Brush”
OK Devlyn, your request, Moonlight Doorway, is up on the blog.
Words for you:
Flutter twist
Please give me a poem challenge too.
OK, Amanda, here’s your challenge
“Pedantic”
Ta Da….
Flutter Twist is now on the blog.
enjoy.
Hi Donna,
Oh I hope this challenge is still on?! My poetry request title is: Silent Voice
Hi Lisa,
Silent Voice is now in the blog.
I say,
“Kabam!”
Twiddling, Twaddling Thumbs
Twiddling, twaddle thumbs
Twirling round and round.
Two thumbs
Eight fingers.
The fingers claps
A Net of fingers.
The thumbs,
Twiddle and Twaddle.
okay Donna……hope I’m not too late………….
my two words are “never enough”
How about Poetic Cat.
OK Marla, Andrea and Integral, the poems in response to your challenges are now on the blog
They said he was pedantic
But to me just looked frantic
To hide the chaos at his back
With earnest verbal antics
He built his towers higher
But the chaos lit a fire
Now he and I are standing
In the ruins of Semantics
(Only post this response once if the last one didn’t go through. I couldn’t tell whether it did or not.)
They said he was pedantic
But to me just looked frantic
To hide the chaos at his back
With earnest verbal antics
He built his towers higher
But the chaos lit a fire
Now he and I are standing
In the ruins of Semantics
Yay, very cool.
a brush of cirrus white
across a sky of blue
gilded a brush of geese
in sunset pastel hues;
and then i watch amazed
to see the ocean’s hands
unveil a brush of pretty shells
drawn soft across the sands.
wow, glorious Devlyn.
Excellent Kaboom response.
Ha!
Hey, I thought you might want to post about this art program for autistic kids. It’s in Chicago, so far far away from you, but it seems interesting. http://www.chicagochildrensmuseum.org/red_kite.html
BTW Donna, is it okay if I use this or a similar idea on my own blog, linking back to you as the source of the idea?
Basically, a 48 (or 48ish, since I’m sick) hour poetry and/or writing challenge thing. I think it’d get me more focused, and I enjoyed doing yours, but I don’t want to just grab your idea without asking.
no problem, just cite me.
and hope it is a great buzz for you!
I’m really glad I started them, they really give me an artists rush.