Saturday November 6th, 2010

The exercise:

A four line poem about: the trophy.

The garden was mowed down and rotovated this morning and I spent some time tossing out our cover crop seed in the afternoon. Still more to do tomorrow - it takes a while to cover an acre with seed when you're doing it by hand.

Writing? As of right now, I'm at less than 300 words for today. Time to get to it.

Update: day six. Thankfully the words started flowing again.

Mine:

I watch the tractor mow down the garden
As it makes its way towards me.
There's a dead sunflower stuck to its grill,
Like some demented trophy.

8 comments:

summerfield said...

marc: eagerly awaiting today's.

-o0o-

It all boils down to the damn hard fact:
no matter how hard you work and try your best
the loser gets a mere phony handshake
but to the victor goes the trophy.

Anonymous said...

Rent flushed into machines, life savings too
Gone the pensions and dreams and dignity
Broken pained gambler with 12 steps to do
earned each year clean a gold coin, a trophy

gada said...

A beautiful woman in his life
her name is probably Sophie,
the millionaire's wife,
sadly she is but a trophy

Greg said...

@summerfield: there's a bald statement of fact in just four lines! I hope it's possible to escape from that rat race though.

@Allycatadventures: There's quite a lot of depth to your poem! It kind of feels like there might be more to it though. Maybe?

@Gada: ah, the trophy wife! Nice interpretation of today's topic :)

@Marc: An acre has always sounded quite large to me -- something like 40,000 square feet? And since a foot was supposed to be the length of a foot, you're talking about 40,000 step (roughly) -- so about 2 whole days walking I should think.
I like your poem a lot, especially the demented trophy bit.

The Trophy
When Perseus slew poor Medusa,
He took her head as trophy and prize,
And learned her gaze had not died with her;
Now all statues bring tears to his eyes.

Watermark said...

The Trophy

At lightning speed he gallops and runs
While basking in his glory
In a race or not, to win or lose
For the rider, the horse is his trophy

***

summerfield: sadly true but I like the poem! :)

allycat: very fluid!

gada: nicely done :)

greg: beautiful and I like the last line! :)

marc: enjoyed your day 6 and love the image of the sunflower as a demented trophy! :)

Zhongming said...

Marc – lovely poem! And I shall read your day six right after this! :)

Summerfield – great poem, although bittersweet but that’s the fact :)

Allycatadventures – beautiful poem! :)

Gada – the idea of trophy wife, nicely done! :)

Greg – cruel and harsh scene, very vivid too. Great poem!

Watermark – Nice horse race! Very vivid descriptions :)

The trophy

The runner’s competition in Olympic,
Had all the spectators chant in their names.
If the runner breaks the world record,
He is presented with a special trophy.

morganna said...

Green stalk topped by leaves
The cauliflower stands alone
Leafy reminder of failure
Climate's trophy of victory over the gardener.
----------------
I liked seeing Estelle's perspective today, Marc.

Marc said...

Summerfield - nicely done.

Allycat - wonderful take on the prompt. The first two lines were particularly powerful.

Gada - hah, nicely handled.

Greg - funny, I was wondering just yesterday how many square feet an acre was!

Great take on the prompt.

Watermark - love it. Wonderfully conveyed sentiment.

Zhongming - well done.

Morganna - great imagery :)