Casting Bricks – Jilly’s August Challenge

Casting Bricks

Jilly’s August Challenge

Let the Collaboration Begin!

Welcome My Poetic Friends!  The NEW Casting Bricks Challenge is now open for the month of August.  I am so excited about a new round of collaborative poetry.  The July Challenge was a huge success, we had a great deal of fun, connected with other poets, and were stretched in our writing skills.  Based on the feedback and interest expressed, we are here again for a new set of poems.  Here is how it works:

1. Write a half poem and post it to your blog with a link or tag back to this page (Jilly’s August Challenge).
2. If your Challenge poem is a form (sonnet, quadrille, etc.) please state as such and give a quick review of the form or a link to a site that does that for you.
3. Stop by here and add your Challenge link to our Mr. Linky.
4. Find other Challenges that you would like to complete.
5. Write the 2^nd half of their poem and post the entire poem to your blog.
6. Return here to our Mr. Linky again and post the link to that completed poem.
7. You may also want to put a comment on the other person’s original Challenge post to let them know you have accepted their challenge.
8. Spread the word! Extend the invitation to your other poet friends to join us.  We are a crazy, friendly bunch, after all!

NOTE:  In order to keep the links for Challenges (your half poem) different from the links for the Completed Poems, I suggest the following:  When posting your Challenge half poem, post the name you would normally use along with the word ‘Challenge’ behind it.  ex: Jilly Challenge.

When posting the link for a Completed Challenge, post your user name & the name of the person whose Challenge you completed.  ex: Jilly Colin  (if I am completing a challenge put out there by our good friend Colin Lee.)

Questions? Suggestions?   Just drop it into the Comments on this page and I’ll do my best to address it.

There is no expiration on our Mr. Linky, so feel free to post new challenges and completed challenges throughout the month.  Feel free to complete as many or as few challenges as you feel comfortable with.   Most importantly, have fun & flex your poetic muscles!   Cheers!  ~ Jilly

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Casting Bricks …and the story goes on!

Hello My Collaborative Poetry Friends!

The continuation of Casting Bricks is not forgotten.  I wanted to share my plan and get any feedback you might care to include.  We began with the July Challenge and I would like to continue with a once a month challenge posted on the first Friday of each month.  That means our next collaborative writing challenge would post on Friday, August 4^th and remain open for the entire month.

I know that I ran gleefully into completing all 11 challenge (half) poems from July, finishing them in about a week.  That writing frenzy was followed by the clear dull thud of my head hitting the keyboard of my laptop!  I also did not have much original poetry to my credit during that week, and while I loved the collaborative challenge and learned much from it, I like the idea of pacing myself.

We now know that our Mr. Linky works very well and that will make it all much smoother.  I will give more detailed directions on August 4^th for the nuts and bolts of it all.

Please feel free to extend the invitation to any poet who might be interested in joining in with Casting Bricks; the more, the merrier! 

Cheers!  Jilly

July Challenge Wrap-Up

Hi my Friends & Fellow Poets!  Just over a week ago Jilly’s July Challenge, “Casting Bricks” was posted and everyone was invited to join in with Collaborative Poetry.  WOW! Today I set about tallying up some stats and discovered that we had:

11 Contributors (people who wrote & linked half-poems)
12 Challenges
13 participants
We wrote about 45 poems!
That count is still out and y’all are still welcome to complete any of the half poem challenges that are out there.  There is a list of all the Challenges on the original July Challenge page.

Also during this past week I looked into a Linky Widget to help us with a bit of reflection & feedback.  I know, I know!… If I had known how much participation there would be, I would have had the incredible foresight to get the linky from the start.

My Friends, now is the chance to reflect on the July Challenge of Casting Bricks.  Post your reflections & feedback and I’ll test out this cool new Linky Thing!  (New to me, so expect floundering!)  You are also welcome to put your reflections in Comments, but then I’ll never know if the Linky works, right?

I was stretched, poetically by this challenge.  What a workout!! One of my goals was to maintain the original voice of each poem as much as possible since I have been thinking about Poetic Voice lately.  I did that some of the time and failed at other times. I learned new forms and got to know a truly great group of  people. Crazy, but great!

One more thing: Include in your feedback, whether via posting or commenting, if you feel like this was, 1) A Cool One-Time Event, 2) Something to Consider again next July, or 3) I have a poetic/writing ‘itch’ that needs to be scratched and would like to see something a bit more permanent come from it (not necessarily in the form of collaborative poetry).  I’m not candidating to host something, just letting you know I am willing if there is interest.    Cheers!  Jilly

 

 

Song (a displacement)

Petru was the most recent to join in the July Challenge with her thought-provoking half-poem entitled Song.  Moving out of form poetry (which I love dearly) and into free verse is always a free floating moment of beauty.  This is no exception.  If you have not taken up her challenge, I encourage you to do so.  Note: The first stanza belongs to Petru, the final two are mine.

Raven q(r)uark, crassing, voicing,
mate circling a similar air.
Independent, minded, capable
of linguistic displacement, weighted
with significant information –
it was present at inception.

Ant quark, mouthing, secreting,
dance on communing ground,
eusocial, hierarchal, capable
of feats of Atlas, weighted
with significant location-
it feeds the nation.

(Wo)man, blundering, screaming, pleading,
mate longing for a similar fare.
liberated, tethered, weighted
with significant perception –
they progenize the earth. 

Collaborative Poetry Petrujviljoen / Lyman

 

San-San Completed

The San-San is a more challenging form than I expected.  It took me two days to complete Jenna’s second offering in the July Challenge.  In addition to the rhyme scheme and the three sets of three’s in the poem, she also used 10-syllable lines, which I chose to continue.  Give it a try!

How I would love to see a crystal ball,
But since the future’s not yet writ in stone,
Impossible to see it in advance,
I only listen to its crystal call.  

Impossibly clear in its wind drift tone,   
the song of the crystal chimes in my ear,
I’ll stumble not over stepping stone’s glance  
And build with those stones ‘til heaven is near.

Collaborative Poetry Jenna / Jilly

Old Hum / More Mumbling

Nosaintaugustine’s July Challenge encourages us to dig deep and use personal experience as a guide when completing The Old Hum. That, I did; here it is.

Memory is a prison
A refrigerator buzz
While I make tostadas
A hum over mumbling
Mobsters on the box
A-wandering, mapless
A baroque Sicilian plot

Memory is a prison
A rusty hinged door
Swinging over the portrait
Standing on the floor
The dull whistling kettle
For instant oatmeal
The ‘dead to me’ words
Buried in a dusty tissue

Memory is a prison

Collaborative Poetry by Nosaintaugustine / Jilly

An honor to collaborate with you, my friend.

Dark Sonnet, My Undoing

The July Challenge given to us by qbit is a Dark Sonnet.  I must confess, I wrote one, felt a bit restless about it, so I wrote another one.  I am posting both.  The first one was easy for me; I am a lover of the blues and my mind went immediately to the Robert Johnson legend about meeting the devil at the crossroads to strike a deal.  I post this one somewhat relectantly since my good friend Nosaintaugustine went in the same direction.  Ah, well, great minds, and all that! Thanks for indulging me with 2 Dark Sonnet poems.

I.   Dark Sonnet Deal

The Devil rolls some teeth like dice,
Says your bones are for the gamble —
Wants to know your wager price,
And if the payout you can handle:

He’ll use your ribs for a picket gate,
Ligaments to string a violin’s regret,
Skin to stretch the truth from here to fate,
Pluck those strings to make you forget

 The crossroads that split your spleen from liver
Your memories dance dangle round his neck
Fret strings and chords, your fingers a quiver
Prove the veracity, take up his bet
Roll out the bottleneck, cavort with the blues
The Devil came away with naught but your shoes

II.   Dark Sonnet Dance

The Devil rolls some teeth like dice,
Says your bones are for the gamble —
Wants to know your wager price,
And if the payout you can handle:

He’ll use your ribs for a picket gate,
Ligaments to string a violin’s regret,
Skin to stretch the truth from here to fate,
Render you a cast-off marionette

A darker shade of flame will flavor your tears
With salt of your fortune; will you hazard to know
The madness you’ll gain from this dark puppeteer
The odds of his table, a dangerous throw

 
Sly your fist into his chest; pluck back your spleen
The overhead cost of this game is obscene

 

Collaborative Poetry / J Randall Brett / Jill Lyman

 

Sail (Trimmed)

I journeyed into the seas of Sail, the Tanaga that Jenna (Revived Writer) shared for this July Challenge.  Resonating with her words, I enjoyed completing this poem.  Come on board and sail with us! 

The ocean’s waves are choppy,
Yet how I yearn to sail there,
To feel the sun and fresh air,
Cold, yet new, unknown and free.

Will I find uncharted land?
Following Polaris, bright
Star, I go beyond my sight,
After leaving home’s safe sand.

Storms may fall upon my sail
Or doldrums flat find my bow,
Tack or row, survive somehow
This life of mine shall prevail.

 When my journey is complete
Set my sites between the lights
Glory, I, in gaining heights,
Home’s safe sands will more be sweet.

© Collaborative Poetry / Jenna & Jilly

Tanaga by 2 (J&J)

I must confess, this is a new form to me.  I thank Jeren for introducing it to me! I have completed his Tanaga by 2 making it collaborative poetry by J&J (Jeren & Jilly). Enjoyed this a great deal.  If you have not completed one of the two Tanagas in our July Challenge, I recommend it!  (The other is offered by Jenna.  Makes for a plethora of J’s!)

If love or lust, you did ask
I would jump up & down to say
That love is where my mind lay,
Not heart, body, I could mask.

But you split minds like devil,
Gave two heaven, which to miss,
I treasure the days of bliss,
To make a choice, void of will.

Within your eyes I would bask
Wrapped in thy love to allay
These fears I dare not obey
But link our hearts tis the task

Frame is but the heart vessel
Merging souls the flesh dismiss
Spirits fall into abyss
Joined as one we shall revel

Collaborative Poetry by Jeren and Jilly

Mirror, Mirror, Who Am I?

Collaborating with Victoria Slotto is a most satisfying experience and a tremendous honor.  Her tercets in Who Am I, You Ask made me feel right at home with its iambic meter.  Here, then, is my completion of her July Challenge.  

I am the tiny finch who fills the air with song at dawn. 
I am the bronze of sun on snow-capped hills. 
I am the play of wind upon the leafy ash. 

I am the ocean’s waves caressing sand and shells. 
I am the youthful fool—reckless, full of joy. 
I am the ache of old ones shuttered in the dark. 

I am the healing for the ancients breaking down the glass. 
I am the wisdom found in children – secreting the glee. 
I am the torrent deep who shapes the distant shores and sky. 

I am the wicked gale that tears the fertile blooms. 
I am the cresting dawn on valleys warm and lush. 
I am the eagle strong who silences the song. 

Collaborative Poetry Victoria Slotto / Jill Lyman