The Wordsmith's Forge

LiveJournal is still missing a lot of my posts from Dreamwidth.  Here are recent poems:

"Rise Above the Earth" -- Groundhog and Cassandra have an adventure while visiting a park.

"The Peter Pan Maneuver" -- Groundhog and Cassandra get a lesson from Highliner.

"The Strongest Souls" -- Cassandra turns to Groundhog for help.

"To Keep Your Balance" -- Aidan and Groundhog have a surprise for Cassandra.

"The Gathering in the Grasslands" -- Just when people thought they were safe, more dragons come.

"Between the Visible and Invisible" -- The history of Easy City is dark and complex.

"Friendships Are Like Clothes" -- Eric realizes that he's outgrowing more than a t-shirt.

Looks like I forgot to post a free epic for the December 6, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl reaching its $200 goal. So I'm sharing this one, the sequel to "The Candle Burns Not for Us." It was spillover from the December 6, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl inspired by a prompt from dialecticdreamer. It also fills the "branding" square in my 7-16-16 card for the hc_bingo fest. This poem belongs to the Dr. Infanta thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

WARNING: This poem includes content that many readers may find disturbing. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers and possibly triggers. It features war, serious disability, refugees, homelessness, food insecurity, survivor guilt, racism, Nazis, extremely graphic torture, hostile use of superpowers, confession of atrocities, Europe in ruins, war trauma, and other mayhem. This poem primarily concerns the relationship between Alicia and Aidan, along with their activities during WWII; it adds detail, but the gist has been mentioned elsewhere, so skipping this shouldn't leave too big a gap. If these are touchy topics for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before deciding whether this is something you wish to read.

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LJ still isn't copying properly from DW.  Read "Their Anguish Terrible," in which Aidan and Alicia travel through war-torn Europe.  A Nazi war criminal gets his just desserts.

This month's theme was "All the news is dark, so light a candle."  I worked from 1:15 PM to 5:15 AM, so about 14 hours allowing for lunch and supper breaks.  I wrote 9 poems on Tuesday and another 10 later in the week.

Participation was lively, with 26 comments on LiveJournal and another 55 on Dreamwidth.  There were no new prompters.

Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the December 6, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:

"Become Music Again"
"A Brief History of Heat"
"The Candle Burns Not for Us"
"Changing the Conversation"
"Dreams of New Zealand"
"The Gathering in the Grassland"
"If I Can Accept Others"
"Keep the Home Fires Burning"
"One Nation, Indivisible"
"The Sharpest Dose of Reality"
"Their Anguish Personal"
"This Infinite Light"
"Valley of the Shadow"

"The Golden Peaches of Peace" (Path of the Paladins, 5/19/15 fishbowl)


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, see the unsold poetry list for December 6, 2016. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.

Currently sponsored poems from this session have all been posted.  There were 9 donors this time: janetmiles, DW user Capriuni, DW user Redsixwing, DW user Gingicat, DW user Alatefeline, DW user Dialecticdreamer, DW user Nsfwords, Anthony & Shirley Barrette. Please welcome new donor Nsfwords.

The Poetry Fishbowl made its $200 goal, so "Their Anguish Personal" is the free epic.  We also made the $250 goal, so that's a third tally toward a bonus session.


The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.

Watch a robot solve a Rubik's cube.  I actually saw something similar not long after the cube first came out, but the robot was much clunkier.  This one is elegant, faster, and demonstrates a better grasp of physics.

This poem came out of the July 7, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from chanter_greenie. It also fills the "quantum theory" square in my 3-16-15 card for the genprompt_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by EdorFaus and daisiesrockalot.

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This poem came out of the July 7, 2015 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from chordatesrock and dialecticdreamer. It has been sponsored by EdorFaus and daisiesrockalot.


"The Big Crunch"


Candace felt terrible.

She had agreed to consider
the publisher's new contract
because she needed the money
and it was for three whole books
which her agent said was a miracle.

The problem was ...
the story was done  already.

She had introduced a problem,
complicated it, and solved it
all in 55,000 words.

There were no loose ends;
the plot was all tied up quite neatly
with a bow around it.

The Calliope of Mars
was meant to stand alone.

Now she'd let people
talk her into sketching out
the plot of a whole new trilogy
"just to see what happens" ...

It was a disaster.

Finally Candace did
the only thing she could.

She looked at the thumb drive
which held the contracts and
and her terrible, horrible notes for
The Organ-Grinder of Uranus.

Then she brought her foot down
upon it with an almighty CRUNCH.

The Calliope of Mars
was finished, damn it, and it was
going to stay that way.

This poem is from the June 2016 crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by prompts from alexseanchai, chanter_greenie, ng_moonmoth, and rhodielady_47. It has been sponsored by EdorFaus and daisiesrockalot. This poem belongs to the Antimatter & Stalwart Stan thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains some intense topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. It features homophobia, stereotypes, extremely vulgar language, in front of children, attempted assault, nonconsensual minor restraint, verbal abuse, duct tape gag, which Hefty lectures Stan about and then abruptly changes his mind to agree with, stress, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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