20 Questions: A Confessional Poetry Challenge

No new question today: take a chance to do one you might have missed. Tomorrow is the last question :) Thanks for playing!
 
Questions so far:
Premature Question: What about baby poop?
Question 1: Whats the closest thing to you that's red?
Question #2: Given the chance to go back again, would you still kiss the first person you kissed?
QUESTION #3: Have you ever prayed?
Question #4: When was the first* time you saw your mother** cry?
Question #5: Where was your face before you washed it this morning?
Question #6 Explain the circumstances surrounding the last time you genuinely laughed at yourself.
Question #7: Do you believe in ghosts*?
Question #8: What makes you look twice at another person?
Question #9: Who* was hanging on your wall as a child**?
Question #10 I wanna know: "Have you ever seen the rain comin' down on a summer day?"
Question #11: How was it the first time you were naked in front of others outside your immediate family?
Question #12: Have you ever won a prize based purely on chance?
Question #13: Is a dozen usually enough?
Question #14: If you could rename yourself, what possible names would you choose?
Question #15: What color is your crayon?
Question #17: Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near?
Why do stars fall out of the sky, every time you walk by?
Why do fools fall in love?
Question #18 Tell me, why did you lie?
Question #16: What happened to 16?
Question #19: If you could have dinner with any 1-3 people (living or not) who would you invite?

Question #20 Why do you always squeeze the tube in the middle?

(I haven't played, anna - but I have been reading the results. Great challenge, you're da best.)
 
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#20

First there is the soft beachy fuzz
of static--the dream is beginning
in the middle of something because
that's the sort of dream it is. A bad

dream, but not in the obvious way
of monsters or machine guns. In fact
sometimes I notice the scenery, the red
curtain and the polished people, standing

but not merely standing. That's where
I pick up the queasy feeling: the woman
next to me is not just standing but is posing
(I'm pretty sure not for me, either, so I look

over my shoulder and there's another one!)
Another woman posing in the Sears catalog
I-just-happen-to-be-in-third-position way.
In fact, I notice that the room is tinseled

with women as if we were the decorations
for some holiday cruise. In fact
the women are wearing swimsuits! All of them
swimsuited and festooned in sashes declaring

regional affiliation, all of them beautiful and just
dissimilar enough to make one feel like a collector,
gawking at the blonde, the brunette, which one
will I pick? But I am not in the audience, oh no.

That would be a dream and not a nightmare. This,
make no mistake, is the latter. Suddenly I'm aware
I'm on a stage blinking my bare eyelashes,
just blinking at the sliding curtain, at the beauty

pageant contestants on either side who widely smile
to stacked rows of spectators already shifting
internal abacuses in a score only so long as each leg.
And to the right and left of me, all flamingos.
 
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18 tell me why did you lie



today
knife in chest,
heart in hand,
the damning drum still synced
to stomachs slapping wet and dull,
echoing off the plaster
of pietra serena walls.
a triumphant dive off the cliff to the smoking alter,
a daily pilgrimage, sycophants
hunt their own tortoise
on the backs of elephants
till sunset swallows all that is real
till sunrise supplants what is remembered
with hope the taste will go away soon
 
#20

At the helm of the world
I oft distress
For the love I have is
To great to pass
And so I calmly wait my time
For some other
To be the one to do the crime
As destroyer
 
Question 18 Tell me, why did you lie?

The truth: I loved you!............................................iamb iamb partial.....(2.5)
cosmic and compelling - how could you not know?....................trochee phyrric trochee iamb iamb iamb.....(6)
The whole truth is my fears forced my feelings to fall fallow.....iamb iamb iamb iamb trochee iamb trochee.....(7)
Intimacy impossible inhibited inside.............................trochee phyrric iamb phyrric iamb partial.....(5.5)
Nothing but the truth:.............................................trochee iamb partial.....(2.5)
did you demand I demonstrate my devotion..........................iamb iamb iamb phyrric phyrric trochee.....(6)
Separated by school's start I send.................................trochee iamb iamb iamb.....(4)
a dozen red roses, no doubt about my desire.......................iamb iamb iamb phyrric spondee iamb.....(6)
Did you lie to yourself...........................................iamb iamb iamb.....(3)
putting me in a platonic place,....................................trochee iamb phyrric trochee partial.....(4.5)
like me unable to lead into love?..................................iamb iamb iamb iamb iamb.....(5)


I modified my meter program to work with the forum (vB), rather than outputting pure html. This wasn't a good poem for much meter, and don't know how to add spaces for the forum syntax.
 
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Question 1: Whats the closest thing to you that's red?

1 or the book that gets around

The only red in the room
the book we share
we lovers three
first he, than him, than I, then he again, finally I can finish
in moments stolen from reality
where bliss intrigues the mind
and love shares the soul
 
Question #20: What is your worst fear? Phobia? Nighmare? What would be in your Room 101?
to feel it as they slide across sinew
and tendon, open the package
to see the beauty of love
inside my chest.

to be aware as the wires are cut
pulled free of the bone
they've kept me together this long

to be unable to explain the horror
of dying as I expel my last
breath through a machine designed
to save my passion.
 
to feel it as they slide across sinew
and tendon, open the package
to see the beauty of love
inside my chest.

to be aware as the wires are cut
pulled free of the bone
they've kept me together this long

to be unable to explain the horror
of dying as I expel my last
breath through a machine designed
to save my passion.

oooooooooo Champie am all of a shudder now
 
Given the chance to go back again, would you still kiss the first person you kissed?

2 or a poem as clumsy as we


rough clumsy brute
lips softer than velvet
tasting of boiled beef
always of boiled beef

adrenaline rush that filled my buds
justified the lies that filled his heart

devastation, destruction
taught one another
with edges razor sharp
drawing blood from unseen wounds

We survived what should have only been a kiss
 
QUESTION #3: Have you ever prayed?

every breath a tribute to the gods or 3

Mother shows how to be merciful
Bacchus's will show us who lies
Freya smacked the smile into me

today was a good day
with bounty full and sweet
hours so perfect i want to weep

such craft leaves me speechless
desiring only
the knowledge to be grateful
 
Question 15: What color is your crayon?
Sometimes I colour invisible what hurts to look at, a path I should have avoided, a message never acknowledged. If I can't see then my mind won't dwell even though my heart leaves an invisible drop of me beside it.
 
go and play away! encourage others to join you, it is always more fun with more than one. okay, often.
 
sent via pm by Madame Champ herself....Thanks!



Question #6 Explain the circumstances surrounding the last time you genuinely laughed at yourself.
Did you remember your phone?

It's small and compact
I rarely go without it
of course it's here
tucked inside this pocket


or this one


maybe it's in the car


it must be sitting forgotten
at home

We shopped, we played
we slept and in the morning
I heard it ring

Looked in the pocket
where I always put it
and well

How did that get there?
Hello? Did you remember your phone?
 
Thanks UYS and EO.... it was a long trip, well worth every minutes. I have written one poem all summer-- am in such a WORK mode

anyone in the Austin area wanna run a charity 5K? 1K?
 
Thanks UYS and EO.... it was a long trip, well worth every minutes. I have written one poem all summer-- am in such a WORK mode

anyone in the Austin area wanna run a charity 5K? 1K?

My son is in Austin and participates in runs (usually connected somehow to UT), but right now he's trying to get his cell phone working.
I haven't written much lately either - summer doldrums and then taking it easy after my vacation accident.
 
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My son is in Austin and participates in runs (usually connected somehow to UT), but right now he's trying to get his cell phone working.
I haven't written much lately either - summer doldrums and then taking it easy after my vacation accident.

what vacation accident have I missed something?
 
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