THE CLUB'S POEMS AND SCORES #2

* IF YOUR NAME ISN'T ON THE LIST BELOW, PLEASE DO NOT POST HERE. THE ONLY POSTS ALLOWED ARE POEMS FROM THE TC TEAM LIST. THIS LIST CANNOT BE CHANGED. ANY COMMENTS AND DISCUSSION SHOULD BE TAKEN TO THE "MARATHON" THREAD.

* CONTEST STARTS 00:00 3 OCT PNQ TIME

* MODERATORS: If this thread goes beyond 100, please don't lock it, but I will try to make new ones on time if need be. Also, please delete any posts here that aren't poems (unless they're from me!).

TC TEAM LIST AND SCORES: 1713 (includes 420 bonus points from Happy Hour #2)
silvershoes: 7+10+8+7+8+9+9+9+9+6+8+8+9+9+6+8+7+8+
8+9+7+8+7+7+8+6+9+8+9+6+7+7+8+7+8+7+8
+9+7
Monster: 9+8+9+6+8+9+9+8+8+9+7+7+8+8+8+8+9+8+
9+9+7+8+7+8+9+8+9+9+7+8+8+7+9+8+7+9+10
Nicko: 8+9+8+8+7+7+3+7+8+8+8+3+7+9+8+7+7+7+
8+8+8+8+7+8+7
Hellon: 7+9+7+8+8+8+8+8+8+8+8+9+7+9+8+9+8+8+7
+8+7+7+7+9+8+7+8+8+8+7
sibyllene: 9+10+9+8+8+8+8+8+9+9+9+10+9+10+8+9+9
+9+8+9+9+10+9+9+9+8+10+9+10+8
Kevin: 0

THE THEMES FOR EACH ROUND

THE POINT SYSTEM
* Each submitted poem, if it complies with the theme of the round, will earn an easy 5 points straight away for your team, regardless of quality.
* Poems will also be roughly judged for quality- a maximum of 5 points can be earned for a high quality poem (giving a maximum total of 10).

HOW TO RACE
* The Great Marathon starts on 00:00 3 October, PnQ time.
* Anyone can start the race by submitting a poem for the first round in this thread.
* Another team member then completes the second round, and so on.
* A person who has submitted a poem MAY NOT submit another entry until TWO further rounds have been completed by other members of the team.
* All poems MUST be new and submitted here by the authors themselves.
* You may plot your team strategy within your club. CLUB LEADERS, it is up to you to do all you can to get your team's entries racing along. Bribe, threaten, shame, PM, blackmail...but get those rounds completed!
* With each entry, PLEASE LIST the Lap #, Round #, and the theme with your title.
* If all 13 rounds have been completed, the team can start from the Round 1 theme again to earn more points in further laps. These laps are unlimited.
* The team with the most points wins. Individual team members who gain the most points will also be recognised.
* It all ends on 00:00 9 October, PnQ time.

GOOD LUCK!!

Lap 8
round 9
PnQ member

Now Jane of mod fame
is a pirate of great note
with her three breasted bra
and her swashbuckling coat
the leader of our little band
who likes to get tanned
shes been here for years
not shy to shed tears
or tell of her fears
a great sense of humour
in fact a bit of a hoot
he speaks in whispered tones....
bloody attractive to boot

Lap 8
Round 10 - Alliterative

Silvershoes on Saturday

Silver slippers for her shoes
and "sunnies" on her starry eyes,
she's suited up for summer skies
in skimpy sash and skirt.
She'll flash the fools and fawn the foxes
and flirt for fun, in fashion.

Lap 8
Round 11
5 lines

Dawn broke red over Ithaca,
where Penelope woke
with tears in her eyes and a hand on her loom.
Even in dreams, husbands waver
like mist on a too-calm sea.

Lap 8
Round 12
Halloween

Black Cat

Ghouls and goblins
tittering in the shadows
where you cannot see.
To your left you spot
a few pairs of glowing eyes -
hairs prickle up
hisses and screams
cackles and growls
all spout from your
little throat.

Lap 8
Round 13 - Toilet

Round and round, we swirl around the laps,
too fast to be scooped up,
like flushed poop in a toilet bowl.
Seriously... try and catch us!

Lap 9
Round 1
21 syllables

Like a blue heron,
full of graceful beauty,
you totally poop over everything.

Lap 9
Round 2
Tanka

Wisecrackers

Children are like small
sponges, so watch what you say.
They'll spit at you and
tell you things about the world
in all manners most subtle.

Lap 9
Round 3 - Water

Thanks a lot, Abby

Scouring images of leering Niagara Falls,
foaming rapids of Yosemite,
and still likenesses of Lake Placid,
I search for inspiration.

I scrounge far into the outskirts of my mind
for something, anything, to write
about water.

Alas, all I can think about is #13: Toilet.
Water swirling in a toilet bowl.

Lap 9
Round 4
Free Verse

I saw life in
an acorn. Not in
its miraculous growth
from tough globe of a seed
to kingly oak, but in
the wealth
of white worms,
burrowing inside.

Lap 9
Round 5
Include the word "microscope"

Conspiracy Theory

Tampering with my beverage
here at this shady establishment?
I think not!
I'll have a bottle of water
instead.

What's that? No bottled water....
Is this your manager?
Sir, I think that you've rightly
lost your head!
Alas,
I am thirsty so I will
take a glass of ice water.

Let me look at it under
my handy-dandy microscope...
Looks fine.

It's funny,
my hands sort of feel like
rubber right now.
It's sort of nice...but how?
Then, what sort of tomfoolery?
I suddenly feel the urge
to vote conservative!

Haha, I knew it!
I'll let the whole world know
what they've done to the water
in this place.

Lap 9
Round 6 - Wild [Free]

My brain is sizzled bacon on a frying pan,
dry and burnt,
but the crispiness might appeal to some.

Lap 9
Round 7
Cats

I love cats.
Their slyness, their
smugness, their soft fur
and ability to bite
the head off a vole, delicately.
But I swear if I have to write
one more poem in their honor,
I might switch to canines.

Lap 9
Round 8
aabab rhyme scheme

Not My Forte

My ability to rhyme on time,
although my flow can turn on a dime,
is lacking and sounds quite forced.
But rhyming at random's not a crime
even if it does sound a bit coarse.

Scoreboard updated. You only have one HH remaining. (Apart from the general ones I put up.)

Lap 9
round 9
PnQ member

Kevin
i'll gie ye a skelpit lug
yer Skinny Malinky Longlegs
no doubt Yer oot yer face
get here or i'll kick yer bahooky
yer braw poet
prove it!

Lap 9
Round 11 - 5 lines

Innate

A wanton child, without the iron fist of authority -
or enough good influence to curb his vile temper -
will learn to torment his juniors without mercy.
In later years, he will be the wolf in your alleys...
one who hunts prey on a satisfied stomach.

Lap 9
Round 12
Halloween

that night the doorbell didn't stop ringing
bunches of little snot noses
pressed up against my front door
yelling and singing
dressed up like clowns
demanding goodies
well what right
i screamed out that night
i laughed my head off
gave a few one hell of a fright,
off they took back down my drive
wont be back next year
i give you the tip
kids wanting lollies
makes me sick

Lap 10
Round 1 - 21 syllables

I know when he says, "I'm going home now,"
it's a test to see if I'll ask him to stay.

Lap 10
round 2
Tanka

Breathlessly onwards
unseeing unseen
across the shifting sand dunes
to push and dampen
some would say the wind of time

Lap 10
Round 4 - Free

There is a letter that I keep
hidden
in a cinnabar box by the sea.
Buried deep, it rests beneath
fallen ivory pillars that
have seen more centuries of men
rise and fall,
like crashing waves,
than you or I have seen a colony
of seagulls on the beach.
One day it might be found -
dug up by a dog,
bulldozed,
mayhap eroded with time
as years turn to ash -
or someone else might find it.

Scoreboard updated.

Lap 10
round 5 - Microscope

Mike Scope was no normal lad
6'3 tall and lean he was,
He had a passion did Mike
And that was boats
Not big flashy boats
With motors and such
Nor ones with sails
No, the boats mike loved were long and lean
Just like him
And when he was in them he was quick
darn quick
All others were in his wake
Oh yes he could row that bloke
Thats why we called him
Microscope

Lap 10
Round 7 - Cats

Cougars

There's one felis catus you may not know
She comes in any shape, shine, or shade
Though one standard fact is always known
She's more like her breed each decade
Her habitat is seemingly strange for a cat
For she thrives on mood light and ruckus
You may have guessed her name from that
If you haven't, well, you're not yet luckless
This feline's prey is young, lean, and male
Scoring high on extraversion and openness
And unlike most prey, he will pay her bail
After she's fed and feeling quite hopeless
If truly, all reported, you still cannot guess
Perhaps you should look to your mother
She may not have the right answer, unless
She classifies as this felis catus, "Other."

Lap 10
round 8 - aabab

How can i be so dumb
must be thinking with my thumb
to get my syllable count wrong twice
makes me wake up feeling glum
To pay the price for not being precise

Lap 10
Round 10
Alliteration

Anchor Bar

Home to hillbillies,
hipsters, and honest
blue-collar bus drivers,
the air is soaked with the smell
of grease. Walls are garbled
with grungy gear, trash and
tchotchkes from the world wide.
Ships' figureheads with meek maidens
tyrannize the tap, dimpled
demurely, breasts brazen and shining.
Flies fizzle around haystacks
of fries, quickly tossed from the kitchen.
In the hot haze of the air, the
scent of smoke lingers:
sign of a more luscious, liberating time.

Lap 10
Round 11- 5 lines

Potato peel is wasted I feel
as its lovely on its own
cook it quick
to make thin chips
yum yum says Mr Nick

Lap 11
Round 13
Toilet

High school bathrooms must be
the frothing cesspools of
teenaged angst.

Here, girls squint into mirrors,
picking at their mascara and
plucking school lunch from between
their teeth, imagining flaws both
fatal and cosmetic.

Boys flex and preen,
whip out their willies,
engaging in some classic
animal posturing.

Love notes are scrawled
on metal with black tipped markers.
(K.L. and F.W forever)

Rants of hate are
scratched into doors
(Lindsay is a lesbo, Karen
is a slut)
with nails lifted stealthily
from 3rd hour
shop class.

Lap 12
Round 2 Tanka

The bees sweep and dive
With beautiful morning song
They buzz flit and soar
Before giving lifes reward
Blossom on my apple tree

Lap 12
Round 3
Water

He is a still pool,
surface broken by the tip
of my hand, outstretched.

Lap 12
Round 5 microscope

Microscope poems are hard
cats a bit of a curse
Alliterative verse is even worse

Lap 12
Round 7
Cats

The lions of Assyria were
shrunken things - short
and thin and rather more
domestic.

They were kept in large pens,
to wait on the occasional
scheduled fury of the king,
who would go out with much
pomp and armor, glittering
in the Mesopotamian sun,
in order to
shunt them into corners
and perfunctorily, with great precision,
spear them to death,

thus proving,
beyond any doubt,
the triumph of civilization
over savagery.

Lap 12
Round 8 aabab

There was a man called Kinkade
Who loved to drink lemonade
They said he was daft
In need of some aid
When he floated away in a raft

Lap 12
Round 9
PnQ Member

The Godfather

Larry, as like to like,
feels affinity for the oldest things

in the entire world.

Like stone Buddhas, the hierarchy of
granite lions, and
other various rocks.

Also such things as jade colored justice,
hematite humor, and igneous integrity,
not to mention
high culinary passion, which has
nothing to do with stones.

All of which are more ephemeral
entirely
than the rocks are old.

Lap 12
Round 10 - Alliteration

Sneaky Snails slippy slide
Across my drive
To chew my
Delicate delectable dandelions
Then gracefully glide
Back home

Lap 12
Round 12
Halloween

In 1991,
in Minnesota,
on Halloween,
all the jack o' lanterns
were tamped out by
piles of snow.

The witches hurriedly swept
snowdrifts from their doorsteps.
The belly dancers poutingly donned
their snowsuilts,
and astronauts went door to door
collecting popcorn balls, towed
by plastic sleds.

I cried for ages, because
fairy princesses need their wands
as much as their wings and royal status,
and the wand's poor batteries were
frozen beyond hope, fizzled, sparked,
popped and dulled into nothing.

My brother, a red devil
with a forked tail, yowled
and laughed at the blizzard,
daring it to ruin his fun.

Lap 12
Round 13 - toilet

A place to ponder read and reflect
Is small compact
and gets the job done
shaped just right to fit your bum

Its normally white
but have seen one blue
called many names
but often just the loo

if a house is a mans castle
a place he calls home
then his pride of place
is to sit on the throne

Lap 13
Round 1
21 syllables

Nervous Tock

This clock
is
ticking -
tick-tock
tick-tock
BANG-BANG.
It hurts
my head.
It should
sing songs
instead.

Lap 13
Round 2
Tanka

A caterpillar,
bristled with black and rust hairs,
tastes the chilly air...
and he prophesies how long
we will copy his thick coat.

Lap 13
Round 3 Water

Water

the shimmering haze
stretched onwards
in all directions
only the sun moved
ever forwards never back
on its relentless timeless march
across the aching sky,
nothing breathed
nothing dared
worn rock to sand
shifted under my feet
leaving indentations
that would wait for the coming breeze
eradicating my passing,
If you listened you could almost hear
the ancient call of the earth
baying for the blood of the sky
pleading, pleading if only for a drop
that could glisten magnify
christen
this barren land