2009 Red Hot Pawn Verse Awards

Originally posted by ChronicLeaky
Since I'm into motivation and inspiration, I wonder if any authors would like to discuss the motivations/inspirations behind their work. To what, if any, experiences or abstractions or whatever are you giving voice in your work? Do you know why these stood out enough in your mind to be chosen as the topic of poetry?

The two Obama girls are the ones in "Through a Glass Darkly". The historical reference was to the Birmingham church bombing in the '60s. I just felt it was a timely poem to juxtapose the two experiences of the bombing and Obama's inauguration. Like SJ, it was like hot oil for me too.

Originally posted by Nordlys
Congratulations to all the winners! Hibiscus makes a good tisane, by the way.

I hope those who didn't win will speak up and tell us which poem they wrote, too. Naturally I am especially curious about the non-winning poems I voted for (Belgrade 1999 and Forest).

I wrote Belgrade 1999 and The beggar, both back in 1999. At that time Belgrade was in the process of being bombed to hell and was all over the papers.
The beggar was based on someone who used to sit with his dog and a plastic cup in the same place in Manchester all day and every day. People always avoided looking at him as they walked past and stock answers when you ask people are, "He probably asked for it" or "He's probably got a stash of money somewhere".
I'm glad both the poems got some votes!

Originally posted by davejacks
I wrote Belgrade 1999 and The beggar, both back in 1999. At that time Belgrade was in the process of being bombed to hell and was all over the papers.
The beggar was based on someone who used to sit with his dog and a plastic cup in the same place in Manchester all day and every day. People always avoided looking at him as they walked past and stock ans ...[text shortened]... r "He's probably got a stash of money somewhere".
I'm glad both the poems got some votes!

Nicely done! I almost voted for The Beggar, too.

Originally posted by Nordlys
Nicely done! I almost voted for The Beggar, too.

Thanks. I nearly voted for it myself 🙂

Originally posted by SJ247
Mine flowed like hot oil, after I woke from a nightmare about one of my kids. The nightmare content was totally unrelated, but as ugly as the feeling in my writing. The subject of my "poem" was tucked away in my mind, from a conversation I had years ago with an ex lover. Pillow talk, of sorts. Very demented pillow talk.

I don't write often. When I do, ...[text shortened]... e two of my first place votes discounted. Frankly, that sucked.

Congratulations to all.

That fear comes across very effectively; this poem evoked the strongest feelings for me among all entries, because it is very ambiguous in a way, like when someone tells a joke that some of the listeners complain is "in poor taste" while I nod soberly, laugh my ass off on the inside, and remember the joke in case I ever find myself in a church full of old ladies. People often use wit to sort of blunt their fears, and I like how this poem uses wit to amplify fear instead. Also, the matter-of-factness is positively chilling.

Finally, I apologise for how the votes were handled. At best I can reassure you that those votes were treated that way because of the rules, and not because of any bias or anything. The next verse competition will hopefully have clearer rules.

Originally posted by kirksey957
I was disappointed my racist rant "Through a Glass Darkly" did not do better, so as I could dedicate it to Red Night on the eve of Obama's inauguration.

Nevertheless, thanks for the watermelon. Bitches.

Ha. Well, it looks like it tied with "Inaugural Address", so Red Night has plenty of ammunition in the Sesame Street Squad anti-"racism" crusade.

Actually, "TAGD" does a fear-and-unease kind of thing for me much like "Walter" does. It's a little less about the Serious Uncertainty Willies and more about anger (that there are people who bomb churches) and discomfort, because I can't decide how to interpret the juxtaposition of those two groups of children. On one hand, the four girls in the church in Birmingham were brutally murdered while the Obama girls seem to have a lot going for them, as you make clear ("soaring"😉. On the other hand, by making a comparison, some of the vulnerability that the murdered girls represent gets projected into the present from the past, and makes me think about the things we are vulnerable to now.

Someone should write a poem about hot oil as a metaphor for writing.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Who let's a little technicality stands in the way of winner-hood? You should
both feel like winners!!! 😠🙂

Originally posted by SJ247

I don't write often. When I do, I can't resist the urge to make it rhyme. In this case, I think the rhyming makes it even creepier..

I voted for your one because the form fit the subject matter well, however hackneyed the latter may have been 😛

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
hackneyed

Is Hackney in London the etymological source for 'hackneyed'? 🙂

Originally posted by Palynka
Is Hackney in London the etymological source for 'hackneyed'? 🙂

I look forward to your commentary on "Through a Glass Darkly"?

Originally posted by Palynka
Is Hackney in London the etymological source for 'hackneyed'? 🙂

Tortuously, yes ...

1.

The actual name 'Hackney' was first recorded in 1198 AD and is probably derived from an island or a raised place in a marsh (an 'ey'😉 in the vicinity of the River Lea, together with the name of a Dane called Haca or Hacon, who owned it.

http://www.hackney.gov.uk/xp-factsandfigures-history.htm

2.

hack (2) Look up hack at Dictionary.com
c.1700, originally, "person hired to do routine work," short for hackney "an ordinary horse" (c.1300), probably from place name Hackney (Middlesex), from O.E. Hacan ieg "Haca's Isle" (or possibly "Hook Island"😉. Now well within London, it was once pastoral. Apparently nags were raised on the pastureland there in early medieval times and taken to Smithfield horse market (cf. Fr. haquenée "ambling nag," an Eng. loan-word). Extended sense of "horse for hire" (1393) led naturally to "broken-down nag," and also "prostitute" (1579) and "drudge" (1546). Special sense of "one who writes anything for hire" led to hackneyed "trite" (1749); hack writer is first recorded 1826, though hackney writer is at least 50 years earlier. Sense of "carriage for hire" (1704) led to modern slang for "taxicab." Hacker "one who gains unauthorized access to computer records" is 1983, said to be from slightly earlier tech slang sense of "one who works like a hack at writing and experimenting with software, one who enjoys computer programming for its own sake," 1976, reputedly a usage that evolved at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (however an MIT student from the late 1960s recalls hack (n.) being used then and there in the general sense of "creative prank," which clouds its sense connection with the "writing for hire" word, and there may be a source or an influence here in hack (1)). Hack (v.) "illegally enter a computer system" is first recorded 1984.

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hack

Originally posted by kirksey957
I look forward to your commentary on "Through a Glass Darkly"?

How far is it?

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
I voted for your one because the form fit the subject matter well, however hackneyed the latter may have been 😛

It was hackneyed, wasn't it. I forgot to count my syllables. I think for the rewrite, I'll count it out better, and add the detail that the limbs were to be used for the feedings.

Thanks for your vote, it amazed me. You're sick.

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I'm sorry, I forgot my humble pie yesterday.