The Wordsmith's Forge

This poem came out of the April 1, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by librarygeek. It also fills the "holding hands" square in my 3-30-14 card for the cottoncandy_bingo fest. This poem belongs to The Ocracies series.  It matches "Temperate in Politics" (the Duarchy of Twale) and "Casting for Answers" (the Patriarchy of Darthalem).

( Collapse )

This is the freebie for today's session. It was prompted by peoriapeoriawhereart. It also fills the "Seeking / Finding love" square in my 3-30-14 card for the cottoncandy_bingo  fest.

Torn World is a science fantasy shared world.  This is the character sheet for Tetefii (who is adoptable, by the way).  One interesting thing about Northern culture is they don't have rigidly defined professions or dress codes according to gender, although there are a few gender-specific rules.  They're also pretty loose about sexual orientation, although of course some people have strong preferences.  Far more important in most people's lives is their occupation role: domestic (working in the village) or ranger (working in the wilderness).  But there are always some people who blur the lines ...


"Outdoor Men and Indoor Men"


Tetefii likes men.
She likes them tall and short,
old and young, funny and solemn.

In particular, she likes
indoor men and outdoor men.

During the long winters,
she cuddles up with domestics,
their soft hands finding
all the right places.

During the brief summers,
she runs wild with rangers
who show her hidden grottoes
where nobody will notice
if they are not, for a few minutes,
actually gathering food and craft materials.

Tetefii likes men,
but not just  men --

she enjoys the company
of men who wear dresses and raise children,
who are not so loud and fierce
and always concerned about
putting a bead on somebody's necklace

and, sometimes, she looks to
the women who wear breeches
and take snow-unicorns on long journeys,
their arms full of adventure instead of infants.

The thing about middle work is this:
you're never only a domestic or only a ranger.
You're always a little of both,
a bridge binding the two halves together,
a rocker between age-mates.

The thing about flexibility in love is this:
you find a lot more of it that way.

Thanks to a donation from janetmiles, "The Feast of Saint Valentine" is now complete!  Find out how Victor and Igor work through their relationship issues.

 kay_brooke has written "Striving" based on my prompt.  This is a beautiful and heartbreaking story that completely redesigns the idea of "cheating" on someone.  Because sometimes, "the other woman" isn't a person at all ...

Here's a useful set of observations about love.

The top 5 points are generally applicable.  The later ones deal more in cultural differences between men and women, and/or Ask-Hint communication styles.  In particular, an Ask couple (or moresome) will run high to explicit communication, a Hint couple will be mutually fluent in unspoken agreement, and a mixed couple will have the cited disagreements about "talk to me, I can't read your mind."

This month's theme was "dragons."  I worked from 1 PM to 2:30 AM, so about 12 hours 30 minutes accounting for breaks.  I wrote 16 poems on Tuesday and another 7 later.  They ran shorter this time, although all lengths were represented, and all free verse. 

Participation was enthusiastic.  There were 49 comments on LiveJournal and another 22 on Dreamwidth.  No new prompters this month, though.


Read Some Poetry!
The following poems from the March 4, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl have been posted:
"Clockwyrms"
"The Dragon Nebula"
"Dragon Whiskers"
"Here There Be..."
"The Island Dragons"
"Saving the Maidens"
"The Scales of Justice"
"Sharing Features"
"The Treasure of Her Keeping"
"A Weedy Specimen"

"Lawless, Winged, and Unconfined" (Fledgling Grace, 2/4/14 fishbowl)
"Gifts from the Spirit Wind" (Beneath the Family Tree, January 2014 Creative Jam)


Buy some poetry!
If you plan to sponsor some poetry but haven't made up your mind yet, read the unsold poetry list from March 4. That includes the title, length, price, and the original thumbnail description for the poems still available.  There are still several verses of "Lawless, Winged, and Unconfined" remaining, which you can reveal by linking to the unsold poetry list or a favorite poem from the March fishbowl.

Currently sponsored poems have all been posted.  Backchannel copies of the rest have been sent to their respective prompters.  Per the $200 goal, "Gifts from the Spirit Wind" is the free epic.  Per the $250 goal, there will be a bonus fishbowl featuring Polychrome Heroics on Tuesday, March 18.

Donors this month include DW user Redsixwing, itew, janetmiles, laffingkat, Anthony & Shirley Barrette.  There were no new donors.  The donor perk is "Dragons," posted here on LJ now that the friends group function is working again.


The Poetry Fishbowl project also has a permanent landing page.

Thanks to a donation by LiveJournal user Baaing_tree, there are 8 new verses in "The Feast of Saint Valentine."  Victor and Igor try to talk about their relationship.

Thanks to a donation from janetmiles, there are 9 new verses in "The Feast of Saint Valentine."  Igor wakes up, and Victor attempts to discuss what happened.

Thanks to a donation from LiveJournal user Patina, there are 17 new verses in "The Feast of Saint Valentine."  Victor rouses more help in search for the absent Igor. 

Today is the last day of the half-price poetry sale in Walking the Beat.  There is one poem left, "Sweetening the Pot" at $29.25, which features community problem-solving as Pamela wants to take up beekeeping and some neighbors are alarmed.  Links to all the sponsored poems appear on the sale page, so you can go read those in case you've missed any.