Poetry Writing Meme

[john_amend_all]

What I memed from lost_spook was:

1. Pick five fandoms. List them in alphabetical order.
2. Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it's an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and — you guessed it — list 'em in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it's always been about creativity.)
3. I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting — make your brain explode!), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don't have to include it in the half-drabble — it's just inspiration.
4. Bravo! Have a cookie.

The fandoms I came up with were:

1. Babylon 5
2. Blackadder
3. Doctor Who
4. Sapphire and Steel
5. Star Trek: The Next Generation

Then I had the fatal thought: If it's called 'Poetry Writing Meme' surely that requires the demi-drabbles to be poems? Or at least verse.

1. Babylon 5: From out the envious black branches.

(line from "Aux Imagistes" by William Carlos Williams)

Replenished armies of their ancient race,
Organic, dark, a nightmare spawned from space,
Spiderlike vessels gath'ring in the sky
Destruction swiftly following their cry,
Wreaking their wrath with amaranthine light,
Against their power few indeed could fight;
Their very presence torturing the mind,
The Shadows came, leaving no life behind.

2. Blackadder: man wants. I crack my final claw singly,

(line from "Dream Song 84: Op. posth. no. 7" by John Berryman)

Disaster lies upon the land;
Our heroes' story now is ended.
The monarch's dead at Ludwig's hand
And to the throne he has ascended.

Blackadder, Blackadder, his lordship may be gone:
Blackadder, Blackadder, the dynasty lives on.

Blackadder, Blackadder, however fate may frown,
Blackadder, Blackadder, you'll never keep them down.

3. Doctor Who: They sent me here, they sent me there,

(line from "Romance" by Robert Service)

[This one needs to be read in Lucie's accent for the rhymes to work. I'm so sorry.]

There was a young lady from Blackpool,
Who wasn't particularly tactful.
  When the Time Lords gave her
  To their mate the Doctor,
Her life was with incident packed full.

When faced with disaster she'd curse it,
Shoot killer droids down with her first hit,
And her limericks ended with tercets.

4. Sapphire and Steel: My life is in the open air,

(line from "Flower Gardener" by Robert Service)

[Considering S&S is about as studio-bound as a show gets, I have to cherish the irony]

Then out spake trusty Sapphire,
  Upon that ill- starred moor:
"Within this ancient circle,
  "Fell deeds were done of yore.
"The blood of countless victims
  "Was spilled upon the earth:
"Dark life welled up, and waited here
"For many a long and patient year
  "And now it comes to birth."

5. Star Trek TNG: erroneous impression that he

(line from "yonder deadfromtheneckup graduate... (V)" by e.e. cummings)

[Oh, joy. I actually got an e.e. cummings]

Hastily the captain scurried
Through a land of utter madness,
Dodging Data's headless body,
Circumventing purple fairies,
Deftly ducking dancing dolphins.
"Q!" he called. "This is your doing!"
In a flash of white effulgence
His tormentor made his entrance,
Gazed upon the endless chaos.
"No," he said. "It really isn't."

[Smiles, but not as Sultans smile, and *brainasplode*]

This entry was originally posted at http://john-amend-all.dreamwidth.org/46540.html. Feel free to comment there or here.