The Poetry Marathon

Decades of Decay

Beaten

Bloodied

Blackened

Broken

Rage

Unchecked

Hatred

Unspoken

Together

Trashed

Rancid

Rotten

Forever

Lost

Future

Forgotten

****A four square poem has four stanzas of four lines each, where each line is only a single word.****

Rekindling

Evil eyes raged red

igniting ancient ashes,

turning them to dust.

****A haiku is a Japanese poem composed of three lines with a syllabic count of 5/7/5. Traditional haiku usually have a theme focused around nature.****

Words of Mass Destruction

Marching

into battle,

armed with pen and paper,

my words are my weapons. Prepare

to die!

**** A cinquain consists of five lines with the syllabic count of 2/4/6/8/2.****

My Moustache Must Be Mistaken

It was not me, I swear! I did not

eat up all your cookies, full of

ooey gooey goodness, smooth

sweetness melting in my

mouth. My moustache of

milk chocolate

just gave my

secret

up.

****A nonet poem consists of nine lines, where line one consists of nine syllables, line two has eight syllables, and syllabic count descends by one each time, until the final line is only one syllable long, giving off the visual appearance that the poem is slowly disappearing.****

Choosing Life

Today,

my fate

has been decided

by a panel

of lifelong

politicians,

solemnly

sworn to

uphold and interpret

the laws of

this land,

put

in

place by

our Founding Fathers.

We gave them

their power,

but

who

gave them

permission to designate

my decision, determining

the path

which

I

must choose?

They cannot comprehend

the damage done

by choosing

Life.

****A hay(na)ku is a three line poem where the first line consists of one word, the second line has two, and the third line is composed of three words. A reverse hay(na)ku is three lines composed in the opposite fashion, of three words, then two, and one word for the final line. In the 2019 Poetry Marathon, I created the “Mirror hay(na)ku” by combining a hay(na)ku with a reverse hay(na)ku. In 2020, I took things a step further by compiling five mirror hay(na)ku stanzas and calling it a Hall of Mirrors Hay(na)ku.****

Opponent of My Opposition

I’m a walking contradiction

filled with inconsistency.

How can I expect acceptance

when I cannot understand me?

As for the unborn right to life,

I’ll be a vessel for their voice.

What science calls “a clump of cells,”

I call a child, not a choice!

The Lord hath proclaimed vengeance His;

tooth for ev’ry tooth, eye for eye.

When a man’s life has been taken,

the one who took it now must die.

I believe in showing mercy,

bringing suffering to its end;

providing death with dignity,

surrounded by fam’ly and friends.

I must agree that love is love,

whether you’re bi or straight or gay;

your rights should still be protected,

but that protection works both ways.

I support the right to bear arms,

to protect life and liberty,

but even moreso to defend

against the force of tyranny.

I could keep this up all evening,

laying bare my inner conflict.

My list would roll on for miles, as

my own opinions contradict.

I hope by now, you understand

the wars which rage inside of me:

victim of my indecision,

captive of my insanity.

****A stop sign is another fictitious format from the mind behind the madness, made up of stanzas consisting of eight lines apiece, which are each composed of eight syllables. The number of stanzas which complete the poem determine the number of sides on the corresponding Stop Sign. In this poem, there are four verses, making it a Four-Way Stop Sign.****

Ever After

He and she

became we,

happily

together.

Man and wife,

sharing life,

bound by a

love that lasts

forever.

****A tricube is a poem of three stanzas, where each stanza consists of three lines, and each line is composed of three syllables.****

Final Destination

The blue-lined paper stares at me,

as if mocking me in silence.

My big brain sits all but empty

as I scramble words together.

A pinch of this, a dash of that,

I mince words, creating chaos.

Admiring my misguided mess

I am clearly no Chef Ramsay.

At the mercy of my fingers,

I wonder where they will take me.

Will my final destination

be a piece of punctuation?

I buckle up for safety and

relinquish all control as

visions flash before my eyes and

unleash the story in my soul.

**** A stop sign poem, another of my crazy concoctions, is made up of eight line stanzas, and each line consists of eight syllables. The number of stanzas within your poem determines the numbered way of the stop sign. For this example above, since there are two stanzas, it would be a Two-Way Stop Sign.****

The Sound of Spoken Silence

Though

you never said a

single word to me,

your silence spoke to me in volumes.

****A four line poem consists of four lines with a syllabic count of 1/5/5/9.****

The Future is History

Technology has trained us to

depend upon

our devices

to remember.

Ev’rything we once knew has long

been forgotten,

parts of our past

lost forever.

It’s time to take our future back,

to remember

exactly who

we think we are.

****A traditional minute poem is composed of 60 syllables split among three stanzas, with each stanza having four lines where the syllabic count is 8/4/4/4. Traditional minute poems are written in iambic pentameter with the rhyme scheme of aabb, ccdd, eeff. I couldn’t put a true traditional minute poem together in a day, let alone an hour. So for the sake of saving time as well as what remains of my so-called sanity, I eliminated the constraints of rhyme and meter, devolving into the nontraditional minute format seen above.****