Bio-poem game

[justTripn]

I wish I hadn’t hesitated
Like a coward
And I dream only of new plasma injectors
I am their captain
I used to think I would do anything to save Earth
But now I know otherwise
I seem to have no good options left at this point
But I'm really committed to our least worst option


Sorry! It's too easy . . . but it's done.

[justTripn]

The person who guesses this one is pre-cleared to write the next poem, lol . . . You could probably guess as soon as you knew it was my turn to write the next poem.

[Alelou]

yep!

[Distracted]

I'm guessing Archer, since no one else seems interested.

I wish I was not a slave
Like these humans, who have no masters to beat them when they fail
And I dream of a time when a tender touch didn't mean betrayal
I am just a tool to my masters
I used to enjoy the touch of another's mind to mine, an intimate caress
But now I detest myself for what I am forced to do
I seem to others to be cold and heartless
But I'm really dying inside

[Alelou]

That was Lorian, wasn't it?

I know who you mean in your bio-poem, but it seems we're the only folks playing this game. Anyone else up for it?

[Distracted]

Not Lorian. He's not a slave. You can take this one literally. And I guess we can always just trade off until the thread catches someone else's interest. I think we're it right now, but we got JT to play. That's an achievement.

I tried to do a shorter Diamante format in another thread but SB called it a grammar lesson and everyone else ignored it. I guess nothing's as short and easy as a haiku, and people have lost interest in that, too. Any ideas?

[Alelou]

I meant I thought jT's was Lorian. I assume yours was Rajin. Maybe I'll come up with something tomorrow in this format.

Here's a format from shadowpoetry.com that wouldn't be guessing, just throwing stuff in:

Clerihew

A Clerihew is a comic verse consisting of two couplets and a specific rhyming scheme,
aabb invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) at the age of 16. The poem
is about/deals with a person/character within the first rhyme. In most cases, the first
line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name
of the person....

Example #3

Star Trek's frowning Klingon Worf
challenges a squeamish metamorph
to eating a wormlike gagh dinner;
Worf of course was the winner!

Copyright © 2004 Diana Dalton

It bodes well that they already had Star Trek in the examples, right?

[putaro]

I'm not really a poetry person myself and the haikus were getting too difficult to be fun. Maybe something that doesn't involve guessing? We were off for a few days at a tropical resort and now I'm in the middle of a big coding project so most of my creativity is going into that and business conflicts are sapping the rest of my energy.

[Alelou]

Well, the one above doesn't involve guessing. Is it too difficult?

[Cogito]

I guess nothing's as short and easy as a haiku, and people have lost interest in that, too. Any ideas?

What's short and easy for you experienced writers is hard work for some of us less gifted folks. One thing that puts me off joining in these threads is that coming up with my own attempt takes much more time and energythan I can spare at the moment. It's not lack of interest (in my case), just lack of time and energy.

[Kotik]

Somehow I get the impression that we're clutching at straws to keep this joint alive

[justTripn]

OK, so I guess it was hard. It's Lorian.

I wish I hadn’t hesitated
Like a coward
And I dream only of new plasma injectors
I am their captain
I used to think I would do anything to save Earth
But now I know otherwise
I seem to have no good options left at this point
But I'm really committed to our least worst option

[Distracted]

Oops. Guess I went out of turn, then. Your turn, Alelou.

The problem with something that doesn't involve guessing is that there's no good way to choose who goes next. If the writer just chooses the next person, how will we know if that person has the time and inclination to follow through? Also, that would leave out any lurkers who might decide to participate, since we wouldn't know their names to invite them to go next. And just waiting around for volunteers generally doesn't work either. If people are reluctant to guess because they know that a correct answer will mean that they have to write a poem, then eliminating the guessing doesn't solve the problem. They still don't want to devote the time and energy to writing a poem.

*shrug* People move on. They have other priorities. That's the issue here. I don't think that's fixable.

So... back to Alelou's bio-poem...

[Alelou]

Well, my thought with the clerihew format (or however you spell it) is that people could just jump in with poems for the characters, without waiting to be designated "It." But it does have to rhyme, so maybe it's too much of a pain, too.

I'll come up with a bio poem at some point today or tonight, but I'm thinking that format is too intimidating or time-consuming for most. I really ought to be focusing on my next fic chapter, which is coming soooooooooo slooooooowly.

Maybe we should practice doing non-Twitter twitters -- i.e. 149 characters, or whatever it is. (What is it?)

[Distracted]

I have no clue. I don't tweet.

If you want to do a clerihew thread, go for it. I'm game. We'll see what happens. Maybe you're right. Maybe people will jump in and volunteer. It's been my experience, though, that unless they know that people are waiting for them to go next, nobody volunteers.

As far as this thread goes, I thought a non-rhyming, no syllable count format would be less intimidating. Guess not. *shrug*