SLAM!

To get ready for our Spring 2006 SLAM!, we are hosting a "practice round" which will run from now until midnight Friday, May 12. This round will NOT count toward qualifying for the finales, and you don't have to write for it in order to particpate in the offical SLAM! It is merely intended as a "warm up" to get your SLAM! muse in gear, your poetry muscles warmed up, AND to make sure everyone understands how to properly post your entries.

Post your questions, etc. in the Green Room "The SLAM! Green Room"  and let's keep this forum only for the SLAM! practice round (and Prelim Rounds) from now on.

When a new round begins, the "prompter" for that round will post the new prompt, as well as a sample poem. Please hit REPLY to this post, and paste your entire poem into your reply. You may provide a link to the item if you created a static item in your portfolio, but that isn't necessary or required. You may edit your entry as often as you would like, up until midnight (w.com time) May 12. A special GP prize will be awarded to the best poem(s).

Here we go!

Your prompt is to write a poem about Bad Habits. We all have bad habits. Or had them. Write about a "bad" habit you had/have, or write about trying to lose the habit, or write about how much you enjoy your bad habit even though you know it's not good for you.

Please limit your poem to 30 lines or less - and you may write your poem in Free Verse, or using a form (please identify the form).

"Gum In My Hair" 

In the movie version of "The Divine
Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood," at the
very end Sidda's mother, Vivi, tells Sidda
that she, Vivi, has always worried over
things - that she deals with a problem like
gum, chewing on it until all the flavor is
gone, then she sticks it in her hair - and I
loved that line because there are so many
reasons for sticking gum in one's hair,
like saving it to worry over later or maybe
even creating something new to worry about
(having gum stuck in your hair, for instance) and
no one seems to understand that except
maybe Vivi, or at least she used to until she
reformed, evidently, after the blow-up with
her daughter Sidda, which has been repaired
now that the entire basket-dropping incident
has been redeemed and that is all
well and good for them but here I sit
still wondering about the gum in her hair.


My "form" is "stream of consciousness," which is a technique that presents thoughts and feelings as they occur; it seeks to describe an individual's point of view by giving the written equivalent of the character's thought processes, usually without any closing punctuation until the very end. It is supposed to read as if it's being spoken quickly, without pause, as a sort of stream of consciousness.



Remember to hit REPLY to this post - and paste your entire poem into the reply post.

Sophyween