Donna Williams’ August 2008, 48 hr, Poetry Challenge
Each month I send out a challenge for people 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.
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.
AND THE NOMINEES ARE…..
Dragonfly requested by Devlyn
DRAGONFLY, Copyright, Donna Williams, Aug 2008
With might sword, he sought the quest,
Among warriors, he was the best,
Many a beast he had brought down,
His reputation known throughout the town.
He feared not, its fiery breath,
Its knife sharp talons could cause no death,
Unbeatable, he could not die,
For in fact twas no more than a DRAGONfly.
Diamond Flower requested by Judy M
DIAMOND FLOWER, Copyright, Donna Williams Aug 2008
The diamond sparkled chandellier-ly,
An Autie fell into delight,
But the squealing in the jeweler’s window,
Was met with no-one’s shared delight.
Then the flower was so shred-able,
In glee, its petals fell like snow,
She gathered them into her mouth,
The flower gone, no one would know.
Vision requested by Bernie Drawe
VISION, copyright, Donna Williams, Aug 2008
Is vision colors in my brain, which spark from touch and falling rain?
Is vision where the blind girl sees, in movement, space, texture and sound?
Is vision where the haunted sense, the rabbit holes of trauma-ville?
Is vision something up ahead, a guiding hand unseen.
Freezing Rain requested by Xenia
FREEZING RAIN, copyright, Donna Williams, Aug 2008
The freezing rain could do no harm
For mind had lost emotion
For self had lost will
For soul was but a memory half doubted
And yet, even through her armor, it had touched her.
Scaredness requested by Gordy
SCAREDNESS, copyright, Donna Williams, Aug 2008
The scaredness was a yukky thing
It wouldn’t dance, it wouldn’t sing
It wouldn’t let me sleep at night
It wouldn’t let me out of sight.
But then I learned of something new
The thing that scaredness couldn’t do
And there I knew that I’d get free
For scaredness could never be me.
Gadoodleborger requested by Dagan Onymous
GADOODLEBORGER, copyright, Donna Williams, Aug 2008
He spied her in a magic wood, a sensing creature in need of none
And dreamed of how he’d join her there, his partner she would soon become
He lured her back to the place he knew, a world of hierarchy and of power
And there she then began to die, as surely as a wilting flower
His heart began to break inside, he knew only one thing to give
Return her to her sensing world, that she might find the will to live
And there as she began to bloom, she saw something he’d never seen
That he was not of that world either, a Gadoodleborger, he had been.
That he walked between two worlds, he now had finally understood
And so they made their home in neither world, at the edges of the magic wood.
Manhole Cover (requested by Marla)
MANHOLE COVER, copyright, Donna Williams, Aug 2008
She could sense the other woman, she could she see it in his style,
It was as if her aura hovered in the nature of his smile.
But he insisted she was crazy, she’d always been his only lover
Then she found the underhanded wretch, just beyond the manhole cover.
In a fury and a tangle, there were bites and there were scratches,
The smarmy Tom Cat simply mused
What more could one expect
from these two wild feminine Katzes?
Triangles and Squares (requested by Lisa)
TRIANGLES AND SQUARES, copyright, Donna Williams, Aug 2008
He wore a suit with shiny shoes, of mock snakeskin and a tie
He entered with a briefcase, full of samples one could try.
He eyed me up and down and flashed a cheesy grin,
With one of those gold fillings that bad dentistry puts in.
Go ahead, I see you want to, he said thrusting his wares
The squares are in the sale, but triangles taste better than squares.
Hush Wind (requested by Kay)
HUSH WIND, copyright, Donna Williams, Aug 2008
The humble bean, it does no harm,
It does, however, cause alarm,
When after too much beans for starters,
The guests turn into rampant farters.
Sure, try to hush them but have no doubt,
Those winds insist on getting out.
and Kay, you’ve requested a poetry challenge… here’s yours:
“dried fruit”
author, artist, composer, screenwriter.
author of the poetry book, Not Just Anything , published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
http://www.donnawilliams.net
Donna asked me to post this. 🙂
Dried Fruit Dried fruit –
Soft and gummy,
Crisp and crunchy,
Full of flavor,
And is magic in the mouth.
Donna suggested that I could post this poem here too…it’s all true…
Summary of Benefits from Medicare Yesterday
We paid a lot of money from 2004 to 2007 for your gamma globulin
But we now we think we shouldn’t have.
So now we are asking for some money back from your provider.
And you may be billed, oh, about $90,457 or so.
And maybe they should have been billing your other insurance like you told them
But they didn’t, so it might be too late now.
Oh, and this one claim didn’t have the right name or number on it.
And this one, our records show we told you in writing we wouldn’t cover…although we did pay it.
(Oh, you never got that letter?)
This notice supercedes all the other benefit summaries we sent you before.
They were wrong. This one is right.
Oh, and on this one date, the service wasn’t medically necessary,
Although it was on all the other dates.
And this one it looks like you didn’t know we wouldn’t pay it
So you don’t have to pay that one.
And the company that you get your medicine from has been the same
And your insurance has been the same
For the last 10 years, but the personnel has all changed
And there have been corporate mergers and changes of location
So some of your records may have been lost or misplaced
And that guy who told you we would cover the costs, well
He isn’t around any more. In fact that whole location is closed.
There are only 32 footnotes on this form.
We ran out of lower-case letters, so we went to caps.
We do hope this doesn’t affect your high blood pressure.
Aren’t you glad you have Medicare?