I was very pleased with my poetic productivity in April. Here’s the breakdown.
I competed in daily challenges on the Sims 3 forums. These consisted of weekly themes, and daily styles/forms. Not all poems had to be newly written for the contest.
- Wrote 19 new poems, and entered all but one day.
- Won twelve days (half of those were ties).
- Earned 2600 points ($26 of Simpoints which I got in stuff for my game).
- 1332 words of poetry written.
- Compliments on my poems, as well as small gifts from other contestants.
- Four new Sims friends (fellow poets).
- Overall winner (most wins and points).
- Eight poems packed with potential that need polishing.
I’m so glad I participated in the Sims 3 Forums rather than the Poetic Asides blog this year. It was much more intimate, and I think that helped to inspire me as the month went along.
I also composed two Book Spine poems, one which I shared in my last post. The other is one I did for the library contest. Below is my poem showing what the library means to me. It was a finalist (top ten of over 100 entries).
Brink of Chaos
The Great Escape
Gateways
Haven
Doing the book spine poem at the library also had another benefit. See that bottom book? I grabbed it solely for the title. I glanced at the front cover blurb due to the butterfly. Went on instinct, and checked out the book. Read it in two days. LOVE. The book is HAVEN by Kristi Cook. It’s a YA about a girl with precognition, who transfers to a school where everyone has some sort of psychic ability. In the author’s own words: Think X-Men meets Twilight. Loved the characters, the fresh spin on the plot. Could not put the book down. Immediately checked out book two, MIRAGE. Now eagerly waiting for book three to come out (this fall!).
To end the post, I will share with you one of the poems I wrote last month. A Villanelle.
The Author
A goddess, many worlds do I create
to fill with danger, passion, magic, flight,
with words alone manipulating fate.
A lonely princess on a grand estate,
a dragon in his lair just out of sight,
a goddess, many worlds do I create.
Each character is given a strong trait
then thrown into some unforgiving plight;
with words alone manipulating fate.
When countless suitors seek to procreate,
the dragon takes them out with just a bite.
A goddess, many worlds do I create.
A hero uses wit to then debate
and keeps the dragon occupied all night,
with words alone manipulating fate.
The dragon tricked to eat some poisoned bait,
the princess freed to her own tale rewrite.
A goddess, many worlds do I create,
with words alone manipulating fate.
annewestlund
feywriter
lin52
Margaret Fieland
Margaret
Michele
Poetic Muselings 
Comments on: "Mary’s Poetry Month Success" (6)
Mary, great post. Love the poem as well. Villanelles are fun but challenging, and you did a great job! Can you tell me more about Sims and the poetry group there?
Thanks, Lin. Sims is a single player computer game about life simulation. You create characters (Sims) and pretty much control their lives – move into a house, get a job, pay bills, have relationships. I didn’t think it sounded fun, but it’s addicting. 🙂 The poetry group isn’t a regular thing, we just come together during National Poetry Month, as one of the community members hosts the challenge/contest on the forums. Here’s the main thread where the individual days are linked to: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/663417.page
Congratulations to you! It sounds like a good month.
I do the Poetic Asides challenge. It’s kind of like posting in a mosh-pit however, so I don’t comment/post. I ended up with a fair number of poems to submit so that’s good.
Good luck in finding homes for yours. I really like the poem you shared.
Thanks, Jennifer. Grats on your own poems as well!
“Poetry: the best words in the best order.” ― Samuel Taylor Coleridge , The Collected Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Volume 14: Table Talk.
And—and I say this as a professional fiction writer—the producers, scriptwriters, and directors who create these video/audio worlds do not know how much of their content is true. In other words, they are victims of their own product, along with us. Speaking for myself, I do not know how much of my writing is true, or which parts (if any) are true. This is a potentially lethal situation. We have fiction mimicking truth, and truth mimicking fiction. We have a dangerous overlap, a dangerous blur. And in all probability it is not deliberate. In fact, that is part of the problem. You cannot legislate an author into correctly labelling his product, like a can of pudding whose ingredients are listed on the label… you cannot compel him to declare what part is true and what isn’t if he himself does not know.