Cheating at Poetry

It’s been a busy week. And as you’re reading this I’m away at the Kingston Writersfest, immersing myself in writerly things.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted anything on a Saturday, and I didn’t want another week to go by without something new here, but I also didn’t have time to work on a prompt story. Then I thought, it's been a long while since I've posted any poetry...

I was going to post something old, but I was trying out prompt generators I listed in last week’s post, and started to have a lot of fun with the Poem Generator option from The Plot Generator.

In fact, it was so much fun I cheated on my “poemwork” for my poetry group, which was to write a Cinquain, and used the generator to produce two of them. Then I went on to generate a Tanka and a Sonnet.

The group enjoyed them when I read them aloud . . . until I fessed up about the poetry generator. At that point they seemed pretty divided: a couple thought it was fun (taking it in the spirit in which it was intended), a couple were pretty put out by the idea, most were more or less indifferent.

Que sera, sera.

In any case, I thought I’d share them here and you can decide for yourself – good fun, or an abomination?


Cinquain

Love by C. R. Ward

Love
Dark, delightful
Adoring, caring, conquering
It put hunger at rest
Romance


Summer by C. R. Ward

Summer
End, hot
Falling, being, sounding
I was surprised
Summertime

Tanka

Book by C. R. Ward

I so love my book
It is warm and powerful.
It has wild humors
Playful personalities
When it stings I feel happy

Sonnet

Ode to the Ghost by C. R. Ward

My evil ghost, you inspire me to write.
I love the way you cuddle, look and skip,
Invading my mind day and through the night,
Always dreaming about the scholarship.

Let me compare you to a nonmember?
You are more playful, shrieval and sunny.
Big fogs hide the oceans of November,
And autumntime has the easy money.

How do I love you? Let me count the ways.
I love your drastic elbows, feet and lip.
Thinking of your plastic feet fills my days.
My love for you is the benign blue chip.

Now I must away with a divine heart,
Remember my kind words whilst we're apart.