Obsidian Wings

ObWi Poetry Slam #2. It's Coming.

July. Past the Fourth. In school, it's the long slow slide: past the pool, past camp, past the games of catch-the-firefly. When you get older (when I got older) there was the gathering threat of High School Football practice -- the American kind -- in the August heat with forty year olds who are still living a dream, and not a good one, and not too well. You don't want to hit until you hit someone, good, and they fall down. That it's not proper or right or mature or anything you'd want to be is part of the pleasure.

Boxing, I tried it once or twice. But I'm too slow and my swing goes wide round, a rounder to the place between the hair and the ear, not straight out with a snap. Not to the nose, like I know it should (but I can't make my arms behave). It's not the same. Not like football. I was terrified until the end, and then I started to terrorize others and the fun started. And then, too soon, it ended. Not too much as a surprise after you've been worn down a bit but, at eighteen, it was a bit of a shock.

The slam. Feels good; let's replay it. It's time to slam again. This Thursday at eight o'clock in the evening, please. It's on. (So to speak.)

A taste of the last round follows. Trust me, you want to read them.

Emergency Haiku Thread

A cool river flow
To wash out bad blogging chi -
- And no politics!

Moe

Reason #45632A Why I Love My Girlfriend

Because she not only points out to me [edited by author for clarity] things like this; she can recite it with the proper accent*. Just a taste:

Ike was a sturdy Skraeling hare
Disporteth through the Greene
Ik scoopen-up the fielden mice
And smacken 'em on the heede
And wo' - oh wo' the tragedye
That I ha' comen to,
For I was caught by the Fayerye Queene
And now I am a goon.

Take it from me: this is a serious envy-generator for your average SCA bard, of which I modestly aspire to be, on my good days. Check it out...

It's fragging hot out.

The thermometer creeps
up on me, patient, sly,
freezing itself when I
give it my evil look
(Kills flies on sight! Perfect
for all home, garden use!
Copyright applied for)
It knows, oh yes, it does;
it knows that I am not
As patient as it is.

It can wait for my guard
to drop, light up a smoke
(Dammit, dammit, dammit,
Why did I quit smoking?)
just like in those movies
where the sentry is just
waiting for the hero
to come by and kill him -
Yes, very soon I'll stop
drop my eyes, read more blogs
and the thermometer
creeps up just a bit more.
Stealthy commando, yeah,
ready for zero hour;
Making my life sweaty.

And not in a good way.

Slam it...

...jam it and diagram it: the second ObWi Poetry Slam is here.

Tax Slamming

A Private email has requested another ObWi Poetry Slam. We live but to serve. The Slam will go up on April 16, 2004, starting at 8:00 PM EST; I won't tell you to write about taxes, but given the date I won't be surprised, either.

And now, to bed. Getting posts out tonight was like pulling fragging teeth.

The ObWi Poetry Slam Entry Page has arrived.

Have at it.

ObWi goes Slamming...

In comments here Reader sidereal said:

Obsidian Wings poetry slam impending.

After reading up on the subject... sure, why not?

Rules:

1) Do your own work;
2) Keep it... hmm, thirty lines or so maximum;
3) If you're looking for a topic, Spring is almost here.

I'll create an actual Poetry Slam entry page that'll autoload at 8 PM on Tuesday. Under the gun, sure, but what the heck. Stretch you folks a bit.

Silence and Cold

I beg your indulgence, all of you, for one more attempt at versification. This is a bad attempt at Spanish verse form: 8 syllable, abbaabba and consonant rhyme. I tried to make it sound the way classical guitar sounds to me; somber, almost sad, but with purpose. Dunno if it worked.

Again, our prayers and good wishes go out to the people of Spain.

One Night in Orthanc...

The folks at Crooked Timber (who - along with Brad DeLong - don't need my traffic, as a look at our referrer logs will readily enough show) is talking about the latest "No way! Way!" to hit the buzzosphere: Lord of the Rings musical planned. I don't know about the rest of you, but I tried to avoid mashing that in with any number of Broadway musicals.

I failed.

(UPDATE: I also failed to say what it was ripped off; the Terrace Duet from the musical Chess, more or less)