The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem is spillover from the March 18, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from janetmiles. It also fills the "wishing" square on my 11-26-13 card for the origfic_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by LiveJournal user Lb_lee. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

WARNING: This poem mentions some weird forms of self-harm and gruesome situations, inspired by superhero origin stories.

( Read more... )

Today is the last day of the half-price sale in the series Polychrome Heroics.  Links have been added for recently posted poems.  I still have one more sponsored poem to post later today.  There are lots of poems left if you're still shopping.  Some are epics but there are plenty of shorter ones starting at $2.50.

This poem is spillover from the March 18, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from technoshaman. It also fills the "extortion" square in my 6-10-13 card for the hc_bingo fest and the "fury" square in my 3-6-14 card for the origfic_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

( Read more... )

This poem is spillover from the April 1, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from technoshaman. It also fills the "a crowd" square on my 3-6-14 card for the origfic_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

( Read more... )

This is the freebie for the March Muse Fusion over in Torn World. It was inspired by the prompt "Ressa off the clock."


"Off the Clock"


Ressa treasures the time
after hours when she does not
have to be Ressa the Clerk
or Ressa the Carnal Guild worker.

She can let her hair down,
a fall of straight brown silk
that covers her back like a shawl,
and brush it until it shines.

She can fill the tub with hot water
and pour scented oil over the surface
so that curls of white steam rise up
over the rainbow shimmers.

Some nights, Ressa soaks for an hour,
fantasizing what it would be like
if Bai were free to climb in with her
without worrying about entanglements.

She imagines how he would
play with her hair, so gently,
washing and rinsing the dark mass,
then brushing it out as it dried.

But she is alone in her bath,
as always, so some nights
she just washes quickly to get clean
and then climbs into bed.

This poem came out of the September 3, 2013 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from technoshaman. It also fills the "group dynamics" square in my Wordsmith Bingo card. This poem has been sponsored by janetmiles. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

( Read more... )

This poem is spillover from the March 18, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from janetmiles. It also fills the "parent(s)" square on my 3-6-14 card for the origfic_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by an anonymous donor. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.

WARNING: This is a horror poem. It is nightmare fuel. It is about things that can go wrong when superpowers manifest in infancy or early childhood. If you are a parent or work with small children, think three times before reading onward.

( Read more... )

The general fund voted a small donation into "Uncounted Colors of the Stars," so it has a new verse. Astin compares space to planetside.

This month's theme was "genderqueer people." I worked from 12:30 PM to 5:15 AM, so about 14 hours 45 minutes, allowing for lunch and supper breaks. I wrote 14 poems on Tuesday and 9 later. This fishbowl leaned toward medium poems, with a fair number of epics. There were a few structured but unrhymed poems, and most were free verse.

Participation was vigorous. There were 45 comments on LiveJournal and 31 on Dreamwidth. Please welcome new prompters helgatwb, and LJ user Ng_moonmoth. You have them to thank for the second freebie.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the April 1, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"Casting for Answers"
"Faeder Way"
"In Our Many Images"
"Indoor Men and Outdoor Men"
"It Takes Three"
"Like the Two Wings of a Bird"
"The Many Loves of David"
"Neti, Neti"
"The Power of Two"
"Temperate in Politics"
"Uncounted Colors of the Stars"
"Was Blind But Then Did See"

"Hatching into the Future" (Dragonsilk, 4/4/14 fishbowl)
"Soldier Boy" (Fiorenza the Wisewoman, 1/7/14 fishbowl)
"Peace Offerings" (Polychrome Heroics, 4/1/14 fishbowl)


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, read the unsold poetry list from April 1. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available. There are still several verses of "Hatching into the Future" remaining, which you can reveal by linking to the unsold poetry list or a favorite poem from the March fishbowl.

Most of the currently sponsored poems have been posted, with a couple still pending. Backchannel copies of the rest have gone out to prompters. Per the $200 goal, "Soldier Boy" is the free epic. Per the $250 goal, that's one tally toward a bonus session. Per the $300 goal, there will be a half-price sale in Polychrome Heroics later this month.

Donors this month include: librarygeek, alexconall, janetmiles, chanter_greenie, LJ users Ng_moonmoth, the_vulture, Anthony & Shirley Barrette. Welcome new donor Ng_moonmoth, who is partly responsible for the extra freebie.


The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.