July 2015 Challenge: The Imitation Game

[GuiltyPleasure]

I felt my initial efforts fell short thinking they were more parody than imitation so I withdrew from the challenge but I'm seriously impressed by the volume and talent therein. s to all

 

[Magnetron]

personally, i didn't come up with anything new for this challenge; the piece i offered was written without any intent to seriously emulate, only an acceptance of trying to write freer, bigger, and to address topics more universally.

I likewise phoned in an almost 10 year old entry, which I felt was more in the heart of the author and less in the vein of his/her technique, style, whatever.

 

[Tzara]

Just two more days to go (officially--but I'll be out of town through the weekend, so anything showing up to mid-day Sunday PDT will be fine). I'll start going through and putting names on poems next Monday.

Thanks to everyone who has participated. The goal, as in any challenge, is mainly to get people to write something and to, I hope, have a good time. I think the submissions were all quite good (including those by Tess and Mag--you guys are underestimating yourselves). Some of the poems were truly outstanding.

 

[Angeline]

I wrote and may write more. I had fun. Great challenge as always from you, and thank you for putting in the time to organize it.

 

[Magnetron]

Just two more days to go (officially--but I'll be out of town through the weekend, so anything showing up to mid-day Sunday PDT will be fine). I'll start going through and putting names on poems next Monday.

Thanks to everyone who has participated. The goal, as in any challenge, is mainly to get people to write something and to, I hope, have a good time. I think the submissions were all quite good (including those by Tess and Mag--you guys are underestimating yourselves). Some of the poems were truly outstanding.

There's a difference between selling oneself short and seling oneself cheap.

For $7.50 hourly, I will come to your home dressed in a shark costume and improv Katy Perry lyrics.

Baby, you've been fired from work
Baby, who would hire such a jerk
Oh, oh oh shit ......

 

[AlwaysHungry]

I think that number 30 pays an effective tribute to its source poem, in particular by coming up with an entirely different but nonetheless effective take on the all-important last line.

 

[butters]

most of them leave me awestruck; it's as if a whole new level has opened right in front of us... scary. yet exhilarating to read the achievements. looking down, there's no safety net, but then i remember the ones wowing me belong to others and i've both feet safely grounded

 

[AlwaysHungry]

I hesitate to return to the topic of meter, but I must give props to the author of number 4, who has produced a very graceful and confident iambic pentameter, accompanied by sly wit.

 

[Tzara]

I hesitate to return to the topic of meter, but I must give props to the author of number 4, who has produced a very graceful and confident iambic pentameter, accompanied by sly wit.

Yes, I thought that was a thoroughly excellent example of blank verse, which is a form I personally have trouble with.

The poem is also interesting, funny, clever, and really well done.

One of the things I've really liked about this challenge is how good, how interesting the response poems are.

You people rock.

 

[AlwaysHungry]

I found number 38 to be an interesting dialogue between the two poems. But I will say that in the response poem, I felt a little let down by the closing line. I was anticipating something more surprising and provocative, in response to the source poem. Actually, in the source poem, there are two shocks, beginning with the parenthetical part about half way through, and then a gentler, more ambiguous shock in the final line. The response poem goes in a very different direction, starting with the title, which I like very much. The final strophe starts strong with the first three lines, but I was hoping for a bit more of a jolt or a twist at the end.

 

[AlwaysHungry]

Yes, I thought that was a thoroughly excellent example of blank verse, which is a form I personally have trouble with.

The poem is also interesting, funny, clever, and really well done.

One of the things I've really liked about this challenge is how good, how interesting the response poems are.

You people rock.

I went through a period of reading lots of plays by Shakespeare and Schiller, and before long I found myself thinking and speaking in blank verse. It's that infectious.

 

[Tzara]

Y'know, I've said this already, multiple times, in fact, but I've been re-reading the poems submitted for this thread and I really want to thank everyone who has participated. You all have written some freaking awesome poems. They are uniformly interesting, varied, intelligent, and way fun to read.

The challenge has worked out even better than I had hoped.

I am off for the weekend, but if any of you want to slip another poem under the closed door of the challenge, feel free to do so. I'll post any final entries when I get back late Sunday or Monday.



Musical coda, for Angie. And for Magnetron and for Pelegrino.

Just because.

 

[Magnetron]

Musical coda, for Angie. And for Magnetron and for Pelegrino.

Just because.

Thank you for that. A fine selection to get the juices flowing for the weekend.

And then I was so engrossed in it that the cast iron pan I was seasoning on the stove caught fire and sent all the smoke alarms screaming.

 

[Angeline]

Y'know, I've said this already, multiple times, in fact, but I've been re-reading the poems submitted for this thread and I really want to thank everyone who has participated. You all have written some freaking awesome poems. They are uniformly interesting, varied, intelligent, and way fun to read.

The challenge has worked out even better than I had hoped.

I am off for the weekend, but if any of you want to slip another poem under the closed door of the challenge, feel free to do so. I'll post any final entries when I get back late Sunday or Monday.



Musical coda, for Angie. And for Magnetron and for Pelegrino.

Just because.

You know what I like, T'zed.

ETA: A musical coda for the primo challenger.

 

[Equinoxe]

I feel obliged to note that I'm much pleased—so very much pleased—with the choice of inspirations for whomever it is that's responsible for Number 29.

Oh, and I hope they were here in 2008, so I can reasonably claim some sort of vicarious credit through them.

 

[Tzara]

OK, we're all done here. I am closing the thread for submissions (and opening it for more general comments on the poems.)

Thank you all for your brilliant poems and wonderful source choices. Both of those have been interesting, intriguing, and educational (at least to me--I'm always finding out about new poets and this thread jumpstarted that for me).

I found it to be way, way fun, and I'm delighted that someone even managed to get Equinoxe to respond to the thread. I'd love to say that that someone was Jakob Maria Mierscheid, but, alas, it was someone else.

At least she wrote tanka, which to my knowledge, JMM never did.

Good poems, all. Good night, and all of you be very well.

 

[Magnetron]

Well I'm guessing 28 is either Harry or Mag...

You guessed correctly or incorrectly.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

The last one posted is Greenmountaineer

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I own up to the parodies that some people seem to take exception to.

 

[greenmountaineer]

The last one posted is Greenmountaineer

I'm more than happy to admit it Annie, knowing you're as much a dog lover as I.

 

[Tzara]

OK, all the author's names are posted to their poems on the response thread. I hope I didn't screw any of these up, but if I misattributed one, please PM me and I'll correct it.

Thanks again to everyone who participated.

 

[Magnetron]

Impressed by all of yous who cranked out three or more entries.

I was working on a couple more, but a family emergency and a ton of yard work around the farm knocked me off my game.

 

[Angeline]

Wow! Those source poems elicited amazing writing, which is a testament to what a good challenge this is. Great idea as usual from you, Tzara.

I need to go through and comment on these a few (or less lol) at a time. It's a lot to process. I am interested in why people chose the poems they did and how the poem inspired them. What made you decide to take your response poem in the direction you did?

Also this should be a permanent challenge like five senses, passion, etc. It's such a great way to inspire poetry. It was for me.

Kudos to all of you. I was so impressed reading these. Our little forum is one of the best poetry writing sites on the web in terms of the quality of poems produced. I really believe that!

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Imitationpalooza!

Great effort all round. I too am interested in the whys and hows. I agree on creating a permanent thread, this challenge spawned some real winners. I'm going back to re-re-read.

 

[Equinoxe]

I found it to be way, way fun, and I'm delighted that someone even managed to get Equinoxe to respond to the thread. I'd love to say that that someone was Jakob Maria Mierscheid, but, alas, it was someone else.

At least she wrote tanka, which to my knowledge, JMM never did.

Good poems, all. Good night, and all of you be very well.

To my knowledge either. More's the pity, perhaps.

This was really quite a fun and fascinating challenge; I was only at all confident about one guess, which happily turned out to be right—though I suppose since I said nothing, everyone will just have to take my word that I correctly guessed the author of Number 4.

I had actually thought to enter the challenge, but I figured that guessing which was mine would be too easy for anyone who remembers me, just on choice of inspirations alone, and utterly impossible for everyone else. And yet, Number 29!¹ Besides which, I kept over-thinking things and going back and forth about how to approach the challenge, and then I was distracted by other matters and ran out of time anyway.

¹ Apparently, according to a quick Lit search, every post heretofore mentioning Ono no Komachi was made by me.