New Challenge

Beat writers' block here.
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Antcliff
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Sun May 31, 2015 4:07 pm

Write a poem about A Secret Place.
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
Suzanne
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Sun May 31, 2015 4:22 pm

Ok.
David
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Sun May 31, 2015 4:35 pm

I liked the Old - Cinquain - Challenge! I'm sorry it didn't seem to take off.

This one sounds good too, though.
Antcliff
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Sun May 31, 2015 4:42 pm

The Cinquain Challenge is still on. I am going to appear in that thread again. Still writing cinquains.
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
David
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Sun May 31, 2015 4:43 pm

Antcliff wrote:The Cinquain Challenge is still on. I am going to appear in that thread again. Still writing cinquains.
Great. I'll look at it again too. They are a lovely form.
KevJ
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Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:59 pm

Will have a go at this I think.
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Magpie Jane
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Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:55 pm

Blackwork: Forbidden Zone

This is the land of the ward lock
and the scarecrow. This is dawn
on the ninth day of creation,
dusk in the ninth circle of hell.
This is the dark and echoing edge
of a town whose name is forgotten.
This is the path through the forest;
mark well how straight it goes.
This is what's left of the city
that lost its way en route
from one millennium to the next.
This is the bridge that leads
across the abyss, generously
graffitied in gothick cypher.
Is this what the real life looks like?
Please tell me it is. Please tell me it isn't.

*
Everything looks better by candlelight.
Everything sounds more plausible on the shortwave.
Antcliff
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Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:54 pm

Huzzah, Jane! A secret place poem.


Me
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
KevJ
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Sun Jun 14, 2015 10:19 am

That's a cracker Jane.

Kev
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Magpie Jane
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Sat Jun 27, 2015 12:33 am

Seth, Kev, thanks!

Is nobody else going to give a secret place a try?

Jane
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Everything sounds more plausible on the shortwave.
KevJ
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Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:48 am

Have been struggling with this one Jane. But hope to have something soon. :roll:
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David
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Sat Jun 27, 2015 4:01 pm

Magpie Jane wrote:Is nobody else going to give a secret place a try?
Really must, Jane. Yours is terrific, by the way.

Cheers

David
Antcliff
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Sun Jun 28, 2015 1:14 pm

Liked the ending of the poem especially, Jane. Indeed, don't we often have such ambivalent feelings about places, feeling both attracted and repelled?

Seth
p.s. yeh, I will be finding a secret place poem (although I must find the secret place first, which may take some time.)
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
Antcliff
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Tue Sep 15, 2015 12:46 pm


Cinquain for the northdown hops
grown in the poly tunnel by Loch Tay


Trailed high,
[tab][/tab]reminiscent
of pine cones, though softer.
Light summering into white at
[tab][/tab]tip toe.
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
Magpie Jane
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Tue Dec 01, 2015 11:21 pm

I really like this hop-cinq of yours, Seth!

Hops are such lovely critters. I've never seen them in poly tunnels, though; but I know they're fond of climbing trees, sometimes making tunnels, and secret caves too.

Jane
hopeful hops
hopeful hops
hopehop.jpg (180.79 KiB) Viewed 22698 times
Everything looks better by candlelight.
Everything sounds more plausible on the shortwave.
Antcliff
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Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:16 pm

Thanks very much, Jane! Good photo.

I was inspired by the hops grown by my brother-in-law. He had a bad hand, so could not pick the hops he has grown for brewing. I had never really seen them before. I love them now.
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
Magpie Jane
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Tue Dec 29, 2015 11:25 pm

Crypt Script

The church in Astatine Town has a white,
straight tower and two warped steeples
that look like roguish devil horns.

Lit by tiny gas torches, the crypt harbours
the relics of a bible salesman, a martyred
exterminator, and the sainted Rob Nosis.

The sexton receives anonymous complaints.

*
Everything looks better by candlelight.
Everything sounds more plausible on the shortwave.
Antcliff
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Fri Jan 01, 2016 10:05 am

Magpie Jane wrote:Crypt Script

The church in Astatine Town has a white,
straight tower and two warped steeples
that look like roguish devil horns.

Lit by tiny gas torches, the crypt harbours
the relics of a bible salesman, a martyred
exterminator, and the sainted Rob Nosis.

The sexton receives anonymous complaints.

*

Rob Nosis? Any relation of Hyp Nosis?
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
Magpie Jane
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Tue Jun 07, 2016 8:17 pm

Antcliff wrote:Rob Nosis? Any relation of Hyp Nosis?
Quite possibly, Seth.
Once upon a time there was a kind of cleverish pun involved in this, but right now it eludes me. P'raps I should try to reconstruct, deconstruct, or repurpose it. Heh. The faculty of memory is never what it used to be.

Jane
Everything looks better by candlelight.
Everything sounds more plausible on the shortwave.
Magpie Jane
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Tue Jun 07, 2016 8:27 pm

Horseman, pass by

Whenever the term security has been used,
send a comforting thought to the beings
that live under your floorboards.
(It could be yourself, next time around.)

Look for traces of dreamstuff, tiny shards
that flicker in the dawn. Bear in mind,
secret place means nothing like safety,
silence, or sanctuary; not even sleep.

At night, all and everything is on the move:
Angry folk carrying pitchforks and torches.
The solitary worm. The sexton beetle.
The cockchafer and its chubby grub.

*
Everything looks better by candlelight.
Everything sounds more plausible on the shortwave.
Antcliff
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Wed Jun 08, 2016 7:31 pm

Once upon a time there was a kind of cleverish pun involved in this, but right now it eludes me.
ha! Me too. :D What was I talking about?

Loved the poem. The last line is terrific.
We fray into the future, rarely wrought
Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
Boat
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Wed Jun 22, 2016 5:22 pm

‘Where is it?’, she demanded.
'I’ve hidden it from you.'
‘I know, where have you hidden it?’
'In a secret place, my secret place.'
She faltered, glints in her eyes,
‘I didn’t think we kept secrets.’
'You’re always testing me,' I said.
I removed some books from the shelf,
reaching in I grasped a small item.
I handed it to her.
She looked at the thing in her trembling hand,
then at me, smiling, reassured.
As the door closes behind her I look across the room.
Now i'm smiling, she’ll never know my secret place.
Last edited by Boat on Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
What the hell do I know about poetry?
Antcliff
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Thu Jun 23, 2016 12:03 pm

As the door closes behind her I look across the room.
Now i'm smiling, she’ll never know my secret place.
aha, a cunning plan, Boat. :D

A cunning plan well conveyed in the poem.

Should there be quotes extending around ln.7 (it still being speech)?

Me
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Save in the tapestries of afterthought.
Richard Wilbur
Boat
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Thu Jun 23, 2016 1:52 pm

Thanks for reply, Me.

I'm not sure how speech works in a poem. I think I remember seeing somewhere that only one person has quotes around their speech but I might be mistaken. Anyway for clarity I've added, 'I said', at the end of line seven as it is the man speaking and not his lady friend.

Regards.

Pat short for Patrick.
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TonyMac
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Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:13 am

Concerning "Quiet Life" by Boat.
One to trigger the conscience! As someone who has been happily married for 56 years I would say the person who doesn't have a little secret or two must be a very rare person :)
All that I had I brought,
Little enough I know;
A poor rhyme roughly wrought,
A rose to match thy snow:
All that I had I brought.
(Ernest Dowson 1867 - 1900)
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