What made this challenge into one I thought no one would take seriously wasn't the mixed nuts part, but the 100 lines part. I've never written a 100 line poem of my own, though I do have one translation of that length.

But don't worry, Julie. I never thought you were taking it too seriously. The restraining order was just a precaution.

The last time I wrote 100 rhymed lines, they all said, "I will not talk in class."

Julie, that is hilarious -- as I've just had the occasion to demonstrate while in the office getting odd looks, it's laugh out loud funny. Strike, Muse!

Ed

Julie, if Ringmaster Roger turns this circus into a democratic process, I am stuffing the ballot box with all my votes for you. (Which doesn't imply that the other contenders aren't good, they are, indeed.)

Nice work, Julie! I love it!

It's funny -- Mary and I had a PM exchange about how we had both used the same form...and indeed, you have as well. There's something about iambic tetrameter that lends itself for writing quickly. It's almost like there's an invisible metronome hastening a 120 bpm 4/4 tempo. Plus, terza rima, rhyme royal, crown sonnets etc. can't fit the strict 100-line limit, and I'm pretty sure no one's daft enough to write a 100-line villanelle or sestina. (Anyone? Anyone?)

As with both Mary and Julie, I took this "competition" as more of a personal challenge, than anything. I'm not sure my own is fit for publication, but sometimes it feels good to write for any reason, serious or no.


Ah, but I'm Canadian! Happily living in America, to be sure, but the first 30 years of my life were spent North of the border. Which isn't to say that I don't lack sense, mind you.

A recipe for madness, for sure.

Really enjoyed doing this, though, and reading E. Shaun's and Julie's. So I propose that Roger's idea become a new form - not the subject, but the 100 lines in rhymed couplets and tetrameter. It could be called the Slater or the Schechter.

Shaun: You will be assimilated. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile. We appropriated basketball from Canada, and we'll get good use out of you, too.

Mary, as the declared winner, you get to pick the topic next time. Congratulations! But I think this event should be like the Olympics--held no more than once every four years. That's about the limit of our ability to handle the excitement of...how did Shaun put it in post #84?...a two-dog race in the same boat.

But Bill Lantry still gets the gold medal for the speed event. 36 minutes is hard to beat.

Canada, America, potato potahto.

Tet couplets sounds good. Perhaps the only hope that people will actually read what the contestants create. I've never once read a sestina and wished it had been longer.

Hilarious, Julie! And the 100 lines sped by entertainingly fast.

With 3 entries thus far, I'd now say this thread has earned a move to Drills & Amusements, with its sense of nostalgia of the D&A's of the days of yore ... so, keep 'em coming if you can!

Cheers,
...Alex