The Poetry Game: First Match

I just know y'all are ready for some poetic foolishness.

I came across a stack of old poems my friends and family and I created while playing a poetry game. It is super fun, and beats the crap out of pictionary or charades. (Oh yeah, my family can be old school sans cel phones)

I actually thought the game up (or remembered it from somewhere, I can't remember which) after my tape recorder busted. My friends and I used to sit around with guitars and a bon fire going singing blues songs in which each of us had to create a verse. We also did the game where you have to make a fiction story where each person contributes 2 minutes of dialogue. (Sure beats sitting around griping...) We like having a tape of it, because some of the stuff you come up with over drinks and cheetos can actually be brilliant. (Most was totally hilarious crap that was used as future embarrassment fodder, however.) So...

I thought poems would be just as fun, and it would make us sound twice as smart.

Enough of that run on:

Here's the game: Have someone designated as the scribe. (The person who writes all the snot down.) Decide on a rhyming scheme, length, and how you are going to break down the stanzas. Then, just go around the table and have each person contribute their line of poetry. Each person has to contribute and no one gets to butt in and do it for them. (Really, it brings out the pushy people, let me tell ya...)

I like it because it teaches people to think, speak up, and be creative. Also, in the case of my family, it forces pushy people to step back, be patient, and give the others the floor. When I used to volunteer with an after school kid care program, this was one of the games I always played with the kids. It was fun, educational, and gave some of the kids some much needed attention.

It can be good clean fun, or can be a censor person's nightmare. (It all depends if you're playing with Dr. Suess or the Earl of Rochester) It is equally fun and intimidates people around you when you tell them about it. (They'll think you are like crazy professor smart.)

Below is the first creation of my eldest brother, my nephew, and myself. It is a crazy, fun, trip, and kinda makes me think we have issues. (...only with feline vomit and condiments, though...)

You've been warned:
Like a Latte on my buttocks, [a]
I sit there and I ponder, [n]
On my choice of peanut butter, [ao]
And other condiments out yonder. [j]

I ask myself why and I wonder, [n]
Spinning, spinning like frog in blender, [a]
A cold, ghastly chill ran up my sleeve, [j]
Then I sing all night in sleepless bender. [a]

Food now gone, Boredom anew, [j]
Now I have to ask myself why, [n]
The cat puked again in my shoe. [a]

Turning and Peeling an apple blue, [a]
It was then I knew, oh yes, I knew, [n]
When that sound from out cat came, [j]
Snick, snick with claw, blood they drew. [a]

I wish to talk much with you, [j]
But I'm dying by my foul smell, [n]
I was bored before and couldn't poo, [a]
This is the end, that is no longer true. [jna]

Early September 2008: Adam, Nick, and Jenn

Have fun with it. Make it your own.

Hope this made you laugh,
Or at least made you feel more normal,
Still a' hatin' peaches,
Jenn