How about a shootout challenge?

[tungtied2u]

It's been a long while since we had a shootout challenge ! I remember them quite fondly. They inspired some wonderful words, a fun sense of suspense, and some clever interchanges from within the Lit Poet community.



We need a couple participants, 3 judges, and, of course a framework for the challenge. Lauren was a great one for that, but all suggestions are welcome. We can hammer out the details here first....then set a timeframe and let the festivities begin.

What say you Litsters? The streets are empty and dusty, the sun is getting high and too many of us are inside the saloon drowning our miseries. Let's take it to the streets.

YEE- HAW !

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Great idea, ttu2! (thanks for PM) I found a link for those interested but baffled.

Link

 

[tungtied2u]

Great idea, ttu2! (thanks for PM) I found a link for those interested but baffled.

Link

Thanks Tess for the Link...it does a good job laying out the general groundwork.

and as anyone who has participated , either as a gunfighter or bystander, can attest...lots of the fun is in the foreplay...(as in so many other things..)

I can think of several newcomers to these here parts who may want to make their mark, and become a legend..... ...of course, there's some oldtimer's hereabouts who ain't dead yet....and have no qualms spilling words.

 

[My Erotic Trail]

I like the idea!

 

[tungtied2u]

I like the idea!

Thanks Art for your interest! Now..anyone else?.. judges ?, combatants?... bloodthirsty bystanders ?.....Local press corp?...

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I'll moderate if you don't set it for too late in the day (any day).

 

[tungtied2u]

I'll moderate if you don't set it for too late in the day (any day).

Mucho obligato Lauren! ...as late in the day is relative to where you live... what hours would that be in Eastern Standard time?

Oh...any chance you'll throw in the old James Bond derriere view AV for the occasion?

( I know I'm pushing my luck...but what the heck... )

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Mucho obligato Lauren! ...as late in the day is relative to where you live... what hours would that be in Eastern Standard time?

Oh...any chance you'll throw in the old James Bond derriere view AV for the occasion?

( I know I'm pushing my luck...but what the heck... )

I'm in no condition to stay up after midnight, these days, so it should all be done and over with by 7PM EST. Ideally for me, it should start at 5 - 5:30.

And sure, I'll get all the guns out.

 

[tungtied2u]

I'm in no condition to stay up after midnight, these days, so it should all be done and over with by 7PM EST. Ideally for me, it should start at 5 - 5:30.

And sure, I'll get all the guns out.

Well...for that reason alone, if I can't stir up enough interest, not only will I be the judge, but I'll play with myself...ermmm...compete against myself....

 

[My Erotic Trail]

Thanks Art for your interest! Now..anyone else?.. judges ?, combatants?... bloodthirsty bystanders ?.....Local press corp?...

I'll be a... combatant! (~_~)

 

[Remec]

I'll be a... combatant! (~_~)

Me too...that time of the day is best for me on a Saturday or Sunday, but with enough notice I can make a weekday work too...

 

[tungtied2u]

Most excellent!

MET and Remec , thanks for your interest...and willingness to put your poetic skills and nerves to the test...Kudos!

and Lauren will be our mod...many thanks to her.

so we need 3 judges....any takers ?...and how about a few suggestions for subject matter and poetry forms....

I know we can make this an entertaining and educational experience for all who take part.

Since it's peak leaf season here in the mountains, may I suggest an Ode to Autumn?

This may be too much to ask...any other suggestions?

Here's a basic definition of an ode:dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Odes originally were songs performed to the accompaniment of a musical instrument.

And for an exampleercy Bysshe Shelley. 1792–1822

Ode to the West Wind

I


O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,

Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,
Pestilence-stricken multitudes! O thou
Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed

The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,
Each like a corpse within its grave, until
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow

Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill
(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)
With living hues and odours plain and hill;

Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;
Destroyer and preserver; hear, O hear!

II


Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,
Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed,
Shook from the tangled boughs of heaven and ocean,

Angels of rain and lightning! there are spread
On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head

Of some fierce Mænad, even from the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge

Of the dying year, to which this closing night
Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre,
Vaulted with all thy congregated might

Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere
Black rain, and fire, and hail, will burst: O hear!

III


Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams
The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,
Lull'd by the coil of his crystàlline streams,

Beside a pumice isle in Baiæ's bay,
And saw in sleep old palaces and towers
Quivering within the wave's intenser day,

All overgrown with azure moss, and flowers
So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou
For whose path the Atlantic's level powers

Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below
The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear
The sapless foliage of the ocean, know

Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear,
And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!

IV


If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;
If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;
A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share

The impulse of thy strength, only less free
Than thou, O uncontrollable! if even
I were as in my boyhood, and could be

The comrade of thy wanderings over heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision—I would ne'er have striven

As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
O! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

A heavy weight of hours has chain'd and bow'd
One too like thee—tameless, and swift, and proud.

V


Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own?
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
Like wither'd leaves, to quicken a new birth;
And, by the incantation of this verse,

Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth

The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

 

[Remec]

Threadjack question

Here's a basic definition of an ode:dignified and elaborately structured lyric poem praising and glorifying an individual, commemorating an event, or describing nature intellectually rather than emotionally. Odes originally were songs performed to the accompaniment of a musical instrument.

After reading your example, I was wondering what was the elaborate structure involved? Is it always 14 lines (like a sonnet) arranged 3-3-3-3-2 like the example? If so, is the rhyme scheme of aba bcb cdc ded ee also a standard?

Yeah, my poetic education is both a little light and a little bit in my past. (Think it's been, like, over 20 years since I had a poetry course. Maybe even 25.)

 

[tungtied2u]

After reading your example, I was wondering what was the elaborate structure involved? Is it always 14 lines (like a sonnet) arranged 3-3-3-3-2 like the example? If so, is the rhyme scheme of aba bcb cdc ded ee also a standard?

Yeah, my poetic education is both a little light and a little bit in my past. (Think it's been, like, over 20 years since I had a poetry course. Maybe even 25.)

I confess my poetic education is probably less than yours Remec.

But here's a definition I picked up from the Academy of American Poets. After reading about the 3 different types, I think the irregular Ode is probably the best one to use in this Challenge. What do you and MET think ?

Poetic Form: Ode

"Ode" comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant, and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric poetry. Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments, the ode can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.

There are three typical types of odes: the Pindaric, Horatian, and Irregular. The Pindaric is named for the ancient Greek poet Pindar, who is credited with inventing the ode. Pindaric odes were performed with a chorus and dancers, and often composed to celebrate athletic victories. They contain a formal opening, or strophe, of complex metrical structure, followed by an antistrophe, which mirrors the opening, and an epode, the final closing section of a different length and composed with a different metrical structure. The William Wordsworth poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood" is a very good example of an English language Pindaric ode. It begins:

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;--
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

The Horatian ode, named for the Roman poet Horace, is generally more tranquil and contemplative than the Pindaric ode. Less formal, less ceremonious, and better suited to quiet reading than theatrical production, the Horatian ode typically uses a regular, recurrent stanza pattern. An example is the Allen Tate poem "Ode to the Confederate Dead," excerpted here:

Row after row with strict impunity
The headstones yield their names to the element,
The wind whirrs without recollection;
In the riven troughs the splayed leaves
Pile up, of nature the casual sacrament
To the seasonal eternity of death;
Then driven by the fierce scrutiny
Of heaven to their election in the vast breath,
They sough the rumour of mortality.

The Irregular ode has employed all manner of formal possibilities, while often retaining the tone and thematic elements of the classical ode. For example, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats was written based on his experiments with the sonnet. Other well-known odes include Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind," Robert Creeley's "America," Bernadette Mayer's "Ode on Periods," and Robert Lowell's "Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket."

As I said before, the Ode is only a suggestion. I'm certainly open to other's input.
What say the rest of you Litsters? PLease chime in...please!

 

[champagne1982]

Considering the gunfighters in this shootout I for one think you have chosen the best weapons and ammunition for the confrontation. Both MET and Remec have admiral rhyme and metrical skills and the irregularity permitted in the Pindaric Ode should give these two gunfighters ample room to dazzle us with their fancy shootin'.

As to theme, I'd like to see them perform an Ode to Grandpa's Beard or something equally silly, but autumn is nice too .

 

[Remec]

Considering the gunfighters in this shootout I for one think you have chosen the best weapons and ammunition for the confrontation. Both MET and Remec have admiral rhyme and metrical skills and the irregularity permitted in the Pindaric Ode should give these two gunfighters ample room to dazzle us with their fancy shootin'.

As to theme, I'd like to see them perform an Ode to Grandpa's Beard or something equally silly, but autumn is nice too .

*bows*
Thanks...just remember that we shouldn't know what the shootout will be until we have it...(luckily leaving us, hopefully, a reprieve from Grandpa's Beard. hehehe)

 

[tungtied2u]

*bows*
Thanks...just remember that we shouldn't know what the shootout will be until we have it...(luckily leaving us, hopefully, a reprieve from Grandpa's Beard. hehehe)

Oops...sorry.

It's been so long, I forgot about the element of surprise...duh.

Lauren's going to help out, I'm pleased to say (and VERY thankful) !

So who knows...maybe the format will change...as long as we have fun and can get some other's involved, that's what counts.

I volunteer to be one of the judges....good news for the combatants, as I can be bought..heh heh.

Hopes you guys are polishing up your weapons.

 

[Remec]

Hopes you guys are polishing up your weapons.

*pushes hat back on head*
*leans back in seat*
Well, now, too much polish makes a weapon hard to handle. Kinda gets all slick an' stuff--spins too freely when ya go fer a twirl or a fast draw.

*puts feet up on the table*
Let's jus' say, they're always nearby and, mostly, ready ta go.

 

[tungtied2u]

*pushes hat back on head*
*leans back in seat*
Well, now, too much polish makes a weapon hard to handle. Kinda gets all slick an' stuff--spins too freely when ya go fer a twirl or a fast draw.

*puts feet up on the table*
Let's jus' say, they're always nearby and, mostly, ready ta go.

Don't get too comfortable my friend. I am certain somebdy other than Tess, Lauren, Art, you and I will be dropping by soon to help stir some interest in this idea.

If not, I may be forced to visit other threads and do some minor hijacking to alert others...

 

[arienette]

This is the coolest idea I've seen around in a while. I'm very interested, if it's still open.

 

[tungtied2u]

This is the coolest idea I've seen around in a while. I'm very interested, if it's still open.

Welcome arienette! Thanks for dropping by. I believe we have our 2 wordslingers. My Erotic Trail and Remec...I haven't heard fro MET in a few days.

But we do need 2 more judges, as well as standers-by to whip the fervor into a fanatical frenzy....

It had been so long since we had one, I announced the format and subject matter too early, so that may have to be revised....I'm leaving that to Lauren and will let her know when we are ready for her to set the stage....

Until then, tell all you know to come 'round this dusty old cattletown and pick their poison,....TT2u

 

[AChild]

I'm down. I could be a judge maybe.

 

[tungtied2u]

I'm down. I could be a judge maybe.

Thanks AChild ! Welcome to town. So a recap of where we are. Remec and My Erotic Trail will be the wordslingers; AChild and myself will be judges with the addition of possibly arienette (say yay or nay, ari ) and Lauren will be the Mod who sets the format and subject matter!

All you I've mentioned here please post your acceptance, or I'll have to come find you. It's almost showdown time...

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Started the thread.

 

[arienette]

Thanks AChild ! Welcome to town. So a recap of where we are. Remec and My Erotic Trail will be the wordslingers; AChild and myself will be judges with the addition of possibly arienette (say yay or nay, ari ) and Lauren will be the Mod who sets the format and subject matter!

All you I've mentioned here please post your acceptance, or I'll have to come find you. It's almost showdown time...

I'm in, I'll judge.