Donna Williams’ May 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 here are the poems.
The first one in was Grumpy Cat sent in by Adi. It’s a rather naughty poem about a cat which pays back a band of taunting dogs.
GRUMPY CAT by Donna Williams 2008
Oh the old grumpy cat he knew very well that
the dogs of the town were pursuing.
They were there on his case, always there in his face
and had lead him to wrack and to ruin.
So he plotted to trick for he knew they were thick
for dogs do not sense like a cat might
and enjoyed their demise as he caught by surprise
the whole pack down his lane on a dark night.
As his shadow loomed tall, he was having a ball
such a din he did set about making
And enjoyed for a change such a sight oh so strange
as the cat left the doggies a’ quaking.
From Alyson I had Parallel Planet
PARALLEL PLANET by Donna Williams 2008
I could not stand above you,
And talk of equality
In difference.
I could not look up to you,
knowing I’d only try and stand in your shoes,
and look down upon me.
I tried to stand beside you,
but your world didn’t fit me.
So now we wave across conceptual universes,
perceptual universes
perpetual universes,
from our equal, parallel, worlds.
From Kathleen, I got ‘Survival Mode’.
SURVIVAL MODE by Donna Williams 2008
Electric body,
Computer mind,
The self I have just left behind.
To run this harsh and threatening road
I journey in survival mode.
From Kay I got “Sunny Days”
SUNNY DAYS by Donna Williams 2008
Endless days without so much as a tear
Blue skies you were never so stingy as now
Winter becomes summer in a coat
Even grey skies tease the land
And do no more than perspire.
Sunny days, you were a time of joy after the rain.
Sunny days, your endless dally
Left this drought land in such pain.
From Bernadette I got ‘Survival’
SURVIVAL by Donna Williams 2008
We go to work, we pay our bills,
complain about the cost of fuel,
worry over education,
or our child’s excess masturbation.
As the other world we rarely see,
except upon plasma TV,
stands not a chance to be our rival,
knowing whole new levels of survival.
And from Athena, “Meandering Zombies”
MEANDERING ZOMBIES by Donna Williams 2008
The zombies in this shopping mall
Don’t chase or terrorise at all
We pass them all without a thought
Or a glance at fashions they just bought.
The made in China throwaway,
The gone tomorrow, have today,
Of credit debt they have no cares
They meander with their soul-dead stares.
THE May 08 POETRY CHALLENGE IS NOW CLOSED
Thanks for being part of it.
author, artist, composer, screenwriter.
author of the poetry book, Not Just Anything , published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
http://www.donnawilliams.net
Sunny Days
Please, someone give me one! 🙂
Gazillion
The World and Me
The world and I are not unalike.
We have life – seas of water, rivers of blood.
We have sight – a moon and sun giving sight and two blue orbs seeing.
We have scent – fields of flowers, one nose to smell them all.
We have gazillion parts – lands, foliage, beings fill the world while hair, digits, organs fill me.
The world and I are not unalike.
grumpy cat
Oh, I would also like one, but haven’t done this before, I may be really bad at it… 😉
Hi Adi,
Grumpy Cat is now up.
So here’s one for you…
ENCLOSURE
It would be wonderful if you could do a poem for my web site called
“Aspergers Parallel Planet”
Why I am contacting you was wondering if you could do an Online Interview for me, I would be honored as find you to be the most inspirational Aspie woman I know and you certainly helped me on my search for answers.
Warmest regards Alyson Bradley
Online Interview:
If wish to do complete and return…
First just a few/or lots of details about yourself, and then if you could just answer the following questions.
1. Have you been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, if yes how and where.
2. How did you first get to know about Aspergers Syndrome
3. Do you feel that people with Aspergers Syndrome are unfairly treated
4. Do you think that Aspergers syndrome should be classified as a mental disorder, learning disability or?
5. What services that you know of are there for people with Aspergers where you are
6. What support and help are you receiving
7. What do you find most positive about people with Aspergers Syndrome?
8. What do you see as the negative effects of Aspergers Syndrome?
9. Do you feel you can discuss with friends and family
10. Do you have anyone with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder that is close to you?
Please feel free to add and/or alter any questions to suit….
Hi Alyson,
I’ve done a poem called Parallel Planet.
As for your interview, I’m actually diagnosed with autism, not Asperger’s.
I meet with plenty of Aspies and there’s lots of overlap but some skills they have I don’t have
and some challenges and compensations I have they don’t have.
I gained functional speech in late childhood.
My background includes meaning deafness, meaning blindness, face blindness, body agnosia issues, co-morbid mood, anxiety, compulsive disorders and gut, immune, metabolic disorders. Like most people with Asperger’s, I also struggle to read things like facial expression/body language but because I’m very face blind I’ve adapted to mapping how people move and sit in their muscles… essentially I see ‘souls’ because I can’t hold faces, can’t read all the other stuff. There are many Aspies would wish to have this, and some who do, but many auties who have it… and it has its scary side too, because I often see people in ways they have forgotten to even see themselves. So, sure, I’m happy to do an interview with you… just email me over at bookings@donnawilliams.net and we’ll do an email interview for the blog. Maybe I’ll interview you too!
Donna *)
Donna, I put the words for my poem in my first post. Here they are again: Sunny Days.
Survival
Survival Mode
Thanks for my poem! I did mine too:
Enclosure
We find our shells
From ovum to womb
We know our safeness
Nestled in bound
We gaze out
From cribs and cots
We measure our space
We reach the doorknob
We face life’s rooms
The institutions of learning
The vows of value
The presence of conforming
We touch unspoken walls
In love and loathing
Some shy away
But others keep stretching
Until one day we find ourselves
Seeing without boundary
And we know the final enclosure
Was always but our mind
wow, Adi,
that was awesome.
here is my challenge for you
“lazy lizards”
please give me a challenge or two at my blog
other readers: feel free to give me challenges too! Ours is not monthly but ongoing, you can challenge us anytime.
🙂 Athena
actually, strike that one, I’ve got another.
“meandering zombies”
that sounds alot cooler
ignore the first one.
OK, my challenge to you.
My space.
🙂
are you planning to put all of the poetry challenge (TM) poems in a book and publish them? Just wondering…
I’m trying to get more traffic at my own poetry challenge (hat tip to you, for the idea) but so far, I’ve only gotten three responses
mine is openended….ongoing… indefinitely. and I give myself a week to write them (1 week from the date I get them) since it’s hard for me to write poems in short order sometimes…..
any suggestions on how to get more traffic?
and thanks for your challenge. I’m on it!
The Integral
yeah, I think it’s a good idea, eventually, to collect them up into a book. The book Not Just Anything (Jessica Kingsley Publishers) has collections of poetry and pictures and I’m thinking of doing Not Just Anything Vol 2 with collections of art, poetry, short stories and quotes. Watch this space 🙂
How to get more traffic to a poetry page?
hmmm
guess that’s a lot of people’s question.
I think
a) poetry alone appeals only to those who KNOW they love poetry. So diversify with your site. Writing other stuff far broader than poetry alone also gets picked up by google, so that means traffic.
b) an ongoing poetry challenge is to broad, no incentive for people to rush in, no sense of beat the clock which essentially what I do in mine. So even if it takes you a week to respond well to each, then make it a monthly poetry week instead of ongoing.
c) be ‘out there’ in public somewhere, give presentations, include a poem or two, build a following who might drop by your site and come back (business cards are very useful as its hard for people to remember what site… there’s so many!).
d) have a simple, easy to remember site address.
e) create a space visually, spiritually, which feels like a comfy sofa
then what you bring in is new entertainment to that ‘living room’.
Many people say my blog is like an online home to them.
That’s what a drop by site should do.
🙂
I love that poem Parallel Planet.
“1. Have you been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder, if yes how and where.”
Yes, PDD NOS, at age 15. I was having an intake exam for counseling for PTSD and happened to mention I thought I was autistic.
“2. How did you first get to know about Aspergers Syndrome”
I came across a daily diary by a parent of an autistic kid while looking for stuff about FAS. Then I decided to look for more stuff like that and found stuff written by autistics, many of whom were diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome.
“3. Do you feel that people with Aspergers Syndrome are unfairly treated”
Yes. We’re treated as if our strengths don’t matter and our weaknesses are devastating. This is true of most disabled people, not just aspies.
“4. Do you think that Aspergers syndrome should be classified as a mental disorder, learning disability or?”
I think it shouldn’t matter as much as it does what things are classified as. I also don’t understand the question, it seems to me like asking if cats should be called mammals or felines. Isn’t LD considered a mental disorder?
“5. What services that you know of are there for people with Aspergers where you are”
Not much that I know of. Mostly it seems there’s stuff for children, especially boys, about social skills, but nothing else.
“6. What support and help are you receiving”
I’m going to a disabled youth group, and once I start going to university I’ll be eligible for more services. But mostly it’s just my parents to help me.
“7. What do you find most positive about people with Aspergers Syndrome?”
Intense interests, I think. And an unconventional way of viewing things.
“8. What do you see as the negative effects of Aspergers Syndrome?”
Mostly what I see is a disconnect between the person and society’s expectations. We do have weaknesses, but not as much as people seem to think.
“9. Do you feel you can discuss with friends and family”
Oh, yes, very much. I’ve taught them what autism is.
“10. Do you have anyone with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder that is close to you?”
I volunteer with autistic kids, and one boy I’ve gotten quite close to.
i do not understand any of this.watz up.it makes no sense.im sorry if i fended you,but i do not understand.please explain it to me.
every month I start a ‘poetry challenge’
people can send me 1-2 words
I will then make a poem using those words
the challenge only runs for 48 hours
it runs each month
people can also ask me or others to send them some words
they can write a poem to.
Ms. Donna… I have no words to thank you for your first book. My world has found hope knowing there were other unseen others. I felt such hope to “identify” but now I feel I must follow and break free or die. I am reading your second book. It is harder, I dont’ know why. Just me no doubt. I don’t know if this post is public so I’ll say no more but …thank you thank you so so much. You have no idea. I am so grateful to you, your courage, your pain, your sacrifice so that i could one day not feel so alone in this world. The path to healing is difficult and lonely as the road narrows and many have fallen.
I can relate too much to your book and I know NO ONE who has heal before me but you. It is hard to reach the light blind. So from deep within, thank you for releasing your book Nobody Nowhere and leaving the lights along the path. I am more grateful than i could ever transmit in mere words.
Sincerely,
Jennifer St. Jude
Thanks Jennifer,
I’m sure you’ll relate that sometimes there is such tragedy and the only way one can live with it is find a use for it in life’s compost for compost brings richer, stronger life to those living things enriched by it. It has also been an honour to prove one can scrape up the ashes and even build something wonderful from them.
Shine on.
Donna *)