The Open Challenge - Come in Adventurers

This is not a contest; no winners, no judges, only minds' sqeezing.

Anyone in for an open challenge? So whoever takes the following challenge should post that they snatched the title instantly to avoid duplicates. The first to post that they want the challenge ( if anyone :P ) is the one eligible to take the turn.

When done, post your poem and then set your own challenge for the next poet to snatch it.

Choose a title, a challenge, a genre, whatever you want, make it easy/hard, it's all up to you, but make it appealing and interesting.

There is only 1 condition, no poem shall exceed 15 lines, users can make their own condition regarding line/word count but no poem should be more than 15 lines.

Make them quick reads, nice and creative! Challenge yourself!

Challenge # 1

Title: Lemons and Brown Sugar

- 12 lines
- it should be a sad poem/sad feelings/be hopeless <3
- use the following words: black, wound, fruits
-free verse*

Neat challenge, Rania! This should be fun. I also like how you call it "mind squeezing" :)

Lemons and Brown Sugar.

I've watched the wound grow on your heart,
depression- an angry black spot you can't rub off.
We used to pick the shiniest fruits at the market,
inventing new names for how they made us feel.
But soon, you stopped drinking sunshine
and instead used shovels to find your food.

Now, your hands are always caked with dirt,
worms crawling inside your mouth as you frown,
turning from the sun that softly raised you.
You bury the produce Mother Earth gifts us,
locking away light, entombing any ripe emotion.
And what else can I do but watch you wither...

__________________________

Challenge #2:

Title: Without breaking the yolk

- 10 lines
- must use these words: dawn, bed, cracked
- cannot use the word "egg"
- free verse

Mary Anne! You should thank me for pushing you to write such an amazing poem lol very well done !!

If you, anyone of you, believe it easy
for a man like me to shed his bedclothes
and face the dawn with purity and strength,
then you are mistaken.
I try so hard to enter the cave - snatch the dragon's loot -
and retreat without notice. Often, I am able...
but lacerated veins leak claret thick as yolk
and I am emptied of all the good - all the hope and goodwill
that I tried so hard to shower those around me with.
I am frail and I fail; cracked, inside and out - and I am sorry.

challenge 3

-Title - Into the Fire
-lines - 8
-rhyming couplets

Into the Fire

The sky smothers me with showers of cold
but I grin as though, I am soaked in gold

Shall rain choke me, shall it reach my soul
I fear not anguish, I fear nothing at all.

Let ice crawl to the core of every bone
I'm bold like iron, and hard like stone

I'm numb & cold threatens not my empire,
let more rain fall, I'll plunge it into fire.

********

Challenge # 4

Title: Bitter Pie

- free verse
- 6 lines
- use: chocolate, white sugar, divorce

Title: Bitter Pie

Lady,
Before him, you were unsweetened chocolate.
Later, he added white sugar into your life
but your bitterness was too strong;
The pie, you, both, cooked, turned bitter.

Divorce was the best taste you both had, right?

******

Challenge #5

Title: Hummingbird

- Rondeau

Hummingbird (Rondeau)

In yonder meadow flowers bloom
cascading colours and sweet perfume
it's where the hummingbird doth play
amidst the marigolds of May
and swaying yellow spanish broom.

This tiny bird of colourful plume
while gathering nectar I assume
will stay and while the summer away
in yonder meadow.

When summer ends and winter glooms
hummingbird I now assume
will fly away without delay
to once again return in May
when spring arrives and summer looms
in yonder meadow.

Challenge #6

A Limerick...you choose he title

Limerick
Hell On Wheels

The lassie from Scotland ran away
‘twas said ‘cause she had gone astray
but the Aussies don’t care
she has such a flare
and the wine pours free every day

Challenge # 7

Syntuit [http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/articles/684]

Ha ha Larry...I love it! First time I've had a limerick written about me :)

To Taste a Strawberry
Syntuit

Why are strawberries
at their peak deliciousness
when they are dying

Uhh, I think I did that right..

Challenge #8
Shape Poetry, can not use any circular shapes.

OK here goes a little difficult as I cannot centre the piece but hey ho...

I
a volcano
have waited to erupt
for some hundred years
now I have decided to take a bow
after giving my record breaking show
and my goodness wasn't I extraordinary
for I took no prisoners - life's always at stake

Challenge #9 write a rhyming acrostic poem about beauty (the word cannot be beauty though)

Aching souls scatter
Nearby alleys clatter
Gutter ways cry
Endless hearts die
Labled streets smother
Indexed as sister, brother
City of angels, hover and recover.

Challenge #10
Title : Scattered Seedlings
In haiku form

cascading seeds spin
through the cooling air, resting
on last years scorched earth

Challenge #11
Title: Troubled waters

English Sonnet NB. if this is too daunting - try this:

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/top10facts/621378/10-things-FIBONACCI

1. The Fibonacci sequence, named after a medieval Italian mathematician, begins 1,1,2,3,5,8? with each number equal to the sum of the previous two. 2. Fibonacci was the name given to Leonardo Pisano who was born in 1175 and died around 1250

Troubled Waters

Why
do
we say
"keep swimming"
when words are anchors
and we can't seem to part the sea.

_______________________

Challenge #12:

A 4 line poem on your favorite way to enter a room.

Silouetted tip toes hush
Crossed a threshold of invitation,
Hips sway as sparkles ignite a smile
Swan gliding, as laughter begins; she trips.

#13 challenge
3 line poem about dust bunnies

Sunbeams warm a fairy's gift, that
waltzes on a wisp, lifting it - up, up, up:
a random, woven parcel of, dusty cat fur.

#14 challenge

Title: 'Oh, to be young again'

Edit: rhyming couplets

Oh, to be Young Again

To play with friends till street lights come on
Run home racing the setting sun

Sleepovers where we would seldom sleep
All around the house we'd creep

Stolen glances in the halls
Soft kisses and late night calls

Waiting for my woman in white
She walks down the aisle, a lovely sight

Take them to their first day of school
Listen as they debate what's cool

Watch as the cycle of life repeats
With you in my arms, a lovely treat

And when I find it hard to stand
Lying in bed, you holding my hand

You'll remind me of love, we'll reminisce
And you'll lay me to rest with a tender kiss

Oh... to be young again

#15

Title: I Can't

Quatrains

May I just say what a fabulous thread this is, Rania. Well done.

Fabulous poets & poetryy <3

I Can't

One more month, then it'll be a year
but yesterday you were just here
Strength woven behind a tired gaze
a smile overshadowed concluding days

Then endless tears fell upon cold hands
when God enacted his final plans
An angel ascended to golden thrones
a naive child left...to mourn alone

Now, late "I love yous" plastered upon stone
regretting days when love wasn't shown
I can't believe she's left me here
and in just one month, it'll be a year

Challenge # 16
Senryu Chain
Title: Hope

Hope (Senyru string)

if there should be one
single place within us, let
that light, shine so bright

if there should be one
single burst of truth, let see
that star, shine so bright

if there should be one
ray of hope - a new born's smile:
hold that love - tonight

Challenge # 17

Acrostic

Title: Spring is everywhere or Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung

Seems every tree has decided to attack;
pollen drifts like yellow powder grenades
ready to blow up my sinuses and leave
incendiary raw flesh down my throat;
no prisoners taken in the annual fight
gathering only survivors gasping to live.

how can trees be seen as such peaceful
agents of nature when they are so cruel
sacrificing us all to their prurient pursuits.

scorn those who blithely wax poetic
preening in flowers gracing their hair
rail against the injustice of torture
ulcerated wounds from allergy pustules
nauseate me all this season long
growing pains indeed, their growth my pain.

Challenge # 18 Tanka

“Crossing the Bridge to You”

"Crossing the Bridge to You"

Cherry blossoms play
as you try to chase the sun
but love blinds the lost.
We can never meet again;
doomed, stuck between horizons.

____________________

Challenge #19 A diary/journal entry to your favorite song

Dear diary
I met this boy today -
his smile to die for
his love I pine for

but
he didn't notice me
wanted that cheeerleader

she wanted him too

I guess the winner takes it all
(I know it's rubbish)

Challenge #20 free verse, title - a long way from home.. Use words- children, mortgage, house, free, control and secure

A Long Way Home

I mourn for you,
for the children often
roaming without direction,
for the graves you must dig
when everyone else says
"now they are set free"
like it's instant consolation,
when it's really just another
hashtag of "justice for ______"

A house torn between racial wars
as you have to raise your child
before you pay your mortgage,
before you can go back to school.
Day to day life is never secure;
I watch while students
call your children names,
administration dismissing you
for being too sensitive.
Your children question
their identity, not even sure
where they can walk without
their hair touched or prodded,
put on display like African American
is something to be picked at,
not proud of.

Which route home will be the
safest? Which officer will help
them cross the street? Who can
they truly trust? Who will be
victim to another "they asked for it,
they had aggressive tendencies"
The world feels so out of control...

- - - - -

Challenge #21:

If you could taste the rainbow, what color would you want to taste?
7 lines, cannot use the following words:
rainbow, mouth, taste or color.
You can write the name of the specific color.

Taste the Rainbow

A bright arc of hues adorns the sky
And on my tongue and for my lips
I'd like to feel the sweetness spread
I want to know a violet kiss
A fiery red to set me alight
Mixed with blue to cool the bite
A purple buffet of delight

-------------------
Challenge #22
Title: Jekyll and Hyde
Rhyming couplets

-Clouds and rainbows-

Inside of us there are two sides,
one we show, the other we Hyde.

Jekylls' seem to be everywhere.
doing good and being fair.

When we suppress our darker ways,
it builds, it blocks our sunny days;

until all we see are stormy clouds
and lightning sparks in every row.

Embrace both sides as a compliment
be true to you, that's how we're meant.

Challenge #23
Title: Home comforts

Etheree

Etheree, created about twenty years ago by an Arkansas poet named Etheree Taylor Armstrong, this titled form, the Etheree, consists of ten lines of unmetered and unrhymed verse, the first line having one syllable, each succeeding line adding a syllable, with the total syllable count being fifty-five.This concise form is meant to focus on one idea or subject.

Home comforts (Etheree)

Rain
drips down
my book's spine
but the pages
I have memorized.
I make my bed in ink
so my soul sleeps with wisdom -
waterfalls refresh my senses,
I garden in canyons and deserts.
Home, a newly enlightened universe.

________________

Challenge #24:

Easter Egg Hunt
Tanka. Cannot use the words "grass", "egg", "Easter" or "bunny"

Weep and ye shall find (tanka)

Fluffy white snow shrouds
chocolate gifts this morning,
leaving children sad;
their crying falls all around
revealing a path to Joy

Challenge #25:

Easter Egg Hunt
Cinquain

or

A poem of 7 lines - must contain the words: Scarf, Candle and rain

Title - Sunday musing