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The NeoGAF Poetry Corner - Challenge #42: Eve of Destruction
Theme: Eve of Destruction
The theme this week comes from the title of Barry McGuire's 1965 protest song 'Eve of Destruction' that dealt with growing fears over nuclear war, but feel free to interpret it however you see fit.
Optional Secondary Objective: Chōka
The 'Chōka' (literally meaning 'Long Poem'), is one of the most complex forms of Japanese poetry and is made up of three or more 'Katauta' (poem fragments), which are 3-line stanzas consisting of either 19 or 17 'Onji' (syllables) in a 5-7-7 or 5-7-5 pattern, similar to haikus. A pair of katauta stanzas are usually linked by theme, or even as a question and answer, but there's no upper limit on the number of katauta you can use. You can mix 19 and 17 onji katauta as you see fit and also later chōka poems often included a 2-line mini-stanza of 12 syllables, divided as 5-7, which could be used to mark the mid-point or end of a poem, or indicate a turn in theme or change of narrator, etc. Here's an example layout of a chōka that mixes 19, 17 and 12 onji katauta;
1st stanza; 5-7-7
2nd stanza; 5-7-5
3rd stanza; 5-7
4th stanza; 5-7-5
5th stanza; 5-7-7
Or, a more simple layout;
1st stanza; 5-7-7
2nd stanza; 5-7-5
3rd stanza; 5-7-7
But you could simply stick to a 5-7-7 or 5-7-5 style throughout. Also, it must have 3 or more stanzas, as a 2 katauta poem is a 'sedōka'.
Poetry Thread Rules 2.0
For poets entering:
Submission Deadline; (PST)
Voting Deadline; (PST)
The NeoGAF Poetry Society: Previous Challenges:
Poetry Challenge #01: Reflection
Poetry Challenge #02: Making the Blind See (+ 5W poems)
Poetry Challenge #03: Interior (+ Incorporate a song or album title)
Poetry Challenge #04: History (+ Dream Song poems)
Poetry Challenge #05: A View From Afar or Within (+ Clerihew poems)
Poetry Challenge #06: The Surreal and the Fantastical (+ Haikus)
Poetry Challenge #07: Expectations versus Reality (+ Ode)
Poetry Challenge #08: Mirror's Edge (+ Rhymes)
Poetry Challenge #09: Look on the Bright Side (+ poem must end with _________________ as it's last line)
Poetry Challenge #10: Obsolete (+ Ink)
Poetry Challenge #11: Pride (+ Kanye West)
Poetry Challenge #12: Passing By (+ Allegory)
Poetry Challenge #13: Take this Society (+ Ballards)
Poetry Challenge #14: The Dark (+ Add Zombies to taste)
Poetry Challenge #15: The Great Winter (+ Elegy)
Poetry Challenge #16: What Nature Reclaims (+ Lay)
Poetry Challenge #17: Storm Clouds Rising (+ First Person)
Poetry Challenge #18: The Phoenix (+ Enjambment)
Poetry Challenge #19: Psychopomps (+ Assonance)
Poetry Challenge #20: Death in the Family (+ Limericks)
Poetry Challenge #21: A Night on the Town (+ Didactic Poems)
Poetry Challenge #22: A Letter to the World (+ Inside Outside Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #23: The Blues
Poetry Challenge #24: Space, Above & Beyond (+ Prose Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #25: Futurism (+ Avoid Technology)
Poetry Challenge #26: Prove you Exist (+ Lyrical Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #27: Love, Happiness, Peace, Summer & Pixar! (+ Couplets)
Poetry Challenge #28: Dying Earth (+ Blank Verse)
Poetry Challenge #29: War (+ Narrative/Epic Poems)
Poetry Challenge #30: Dreams (+ the return of First Person)
Poetry Challenge #31: At Gunpoint (+ Epic Poetry/Broetry)
Poetry Challenge #32: Two Sides of an Epic Coin Toss (+ Metre & Rhythm)
Poetry Challenge #33: Lust (+ Poetry Slam)
Poetry Challenge #34: Fear (+ Lyric Poetry *To Accompaniment)
Poetry Challenge #35: Detachment (+ A return to allegory)
Poetry Challenge #36: Open (+ Throw Paint on the Wall, See What Sticks!)
Poetry Challenge #37: Chained (+ Cinquain poetry)
Poetry Challenge #38: The Human Experience
Poetry Challenge #39: Of Plants & Trees (+ The return of the Limerick)
Poetry Challenge #40: Homelessness (+ Etheree)
Poetry Challenge #41: Escape
Theme: Eve of Destruction
"The eastern world, it is explodin',
violence flarin', bullets loadin',
you're old enough to kill, but not for votin',
you don't believe in war, what's that gun you're totin',
and even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',
but you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction."
-- "Eve of Destruction", Barry McGuire, 1965
violence flarin', bullets loadin',
you're old enough to kill, but not for votin',
you don't believe in war, what's that gun you're totin',
and even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',
but you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction."
-- "Eve of Destruction", Barry McGuire, 1965
The theme this week comes from the title of Barry McGuire's 1965 protest song 'Eve of Destruction' that dealt with growing fears over nuclear war, but feel free to interpret it however you see fit.
Optional Secondary Objective: Chōka
The 'Chōka' (literally meaning 'Long Poem'), is one of the most complex forms of Japanese poetry and is made up of three or more 'Katauta' (poem fragments), which are 3-line stanzas consisting of either 19 or 17 'Onji' (syllables) in a 5-7-7 or 5-7-5 pattern, similar to haikus. A pair of katauta stanzas are usually linked by theme, or even as a question and answer, but there's no upper limit on the number of katauta you can use. You can mix 19 and 17 onji katauta as you see fit and also later chōka poems often included a 2-line mini-stanza of 12 syllables, divided as 5-7, which could be used to mark the mid-point or end of a poem, or indicate a turn in theme or change of narrator, etc. Here's an example layout of a chōka that mixes 19, 17 and 12 onji katauta;
1st stanza; 5-7-7
2nd stanza; 5-7-5
3rd stanza; 5-7
4th stanza; 5-7-5
5th stanza; 5-7-7
Or, a more simple layout;
1st stanza; 5-7-7
2nd stanza; 5-7-5
3rd stanza; 5-7-7
But you could simply stick to a 5-7-7 or 5-7-5 style throughout. Also, it must have 3 or more stanzas, as a 2 katauta poem is a 'sedōka'.
Poetry Thread Rules 2.0
For poets entering:
- You are allowed one entry based on the theme; and an optional second entry, if it meets the secondary objective.
- There are no word counts. Interpret the theme as you wish.
- If you're a brave soul, there is a 'super secret' optional objective: performing the poem. Don't worry - we will only judge your official entry (the written version). Try it out. Poetry Slams are always cool.
- You can vote even if you haven't posted a poem.
- Vote for your three favourite poems. But remember that:
- you can't vote for your self
- you can't pick two poems from the same author
- you can't vote for an entry labelled 'ineligible'
- You cannot win unless you vote.
- The contest runs for two weeks.
- The deadline is on the last Friday. Once the final entry list is up, the voting begins; it finishes at the end of the weekend.
- How we count the votes:
- 1st place is allocated 3 pts; 2nd is allocated 2pts; 3rd is allocated 1pt
- If there is no outright winner, we add half a point to 1st place, so that the person with the most first place votes win. If we still don't have a winner, we then leave it up to the op to decide how to best go about it; or to choose the outright winner
- The winner gets a round of applause. They are then in charge of the new thread. If you can't make a new thread, just ask somebody in the current thread, and they might do it for you.
- This thread is not merely for winning or losing, but for critiquing and improving your own craft.
- We like to keep the finale on the alternative week to its sister thread: the creative writing thread. Every so often, we get interrupted, such as during E3, and/or Nanowrimo.
- The archives and the op templates are managed by Bootaaay. If you have a question about it, you can pm him.
- A big thank you to him, and everybody else who manages the thread week in and week out. We would be worse off without them.
- Everybody is welcome to enjoy the poetry on offer, or just vote, or just critique.
Submission Deadline; (PST)
Voting Deadline; (PST)
The NeoGAF Poetry Society: Previous Challenges:
Poetry Challenge #01: Reflection
Poetry Challenge #02: Making the Blind See (+ 5W poems)
Poetry Challenge #03: Interior (+ Incorporate a song or album title)
Poetry Challenge #04: History (+ Dream Song poems)
Poetry Challenge #05: A View From Afar or Within (+ Clerihew poems)
Poetry Challenge #06: The Surreal and the Fantastical (+ Haikus)
Poetry Challenge #07: Expectations versus Reality (+ Ode)
Poetry Challenge #08: Mirror's Edge (+ Rhymes)
Poetry Challenge #09: Look on the Bright Side (+ poem must end with _________________ as it's last line)
Poetry Challenge #10: Obsolete (+ Ink)
Poetry Challenge #11: Pride (+ Kanye West)
Poetry Challenge #12: Passing By (+ Allegory)
Poetry Challenge #13: Take this Society (+ Ballards)
Poetry Challenge #14: The Dark (+ Add Zombies to taste)
Poetry Challenge #15: The Great Winter (+ Elegy)
Poetry Challenge #16: What Nature Reclaims (+ Lay)
Poetry Challenge #17: Storm Clouds Rising (+ First Person)
Poetry Challenge #18: The Phoenix (+ Enjambment)
Poetry Challenge #19: Psychopomps (+ Assonance)
Poetry Challenge #20: Death in the Family (+ Limericks)
Poetry Challenge #21: A Night on the Town (+ Didactic Poems)
Poetry Challenge #22: A Letter to the World (+ Inside Outside Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #23: The Blues
Poetry Challenge #24: Space, Above & Beyond (+ Prose Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #25: Futurism (+ Avoid Technology)
Poetry Challenge #26: Prove you Exist (+ Lyrical Poetry)
Poetry Challenge #27: Love, Happiness, Peace, Summer & Pixar! (+ Couplets)
Poetry Challenge #28: Dying Earth (+ Blank Verse)
Poetry Challenge #29: War (+ Narrative/Epic Poems)
Poetry Challenge #30: Dreams (+ the return of First Person)
Poetry Challenge #31: At Gunpoint (+ Epic Poetry/Broetry)
Poetry Challenge #32: Two Sides of an Epic Coin Toss (+ Metre & Rhythm)
Poetry Challenge #33: Lust (+ Poetry Slam)
Poetry Challenge #34: Fear (+ Lyric Poetry *To Accompaniment)
Poetry Challenge #35: Detachment (+ A return to allegory)
Poetry Challenge #36: Open (+ Throw Paint on the Wall, See What Sticks!)
Poetry Challenge #37: Chained (+ Cinquain poetry)
Poetry Challenge #38: The Human Experience
Poetry Challenge #39: Of Plants & Trees (+ The return of the Limerick)
Poetry Challenge #40: Homelessness (+ Etheree)
Poetry Challenge #41: Escape