FOP #3

2.7 nature

Elephants supply enough ivory
to furnish your home elegantly
tigers supply the fur
for your stripey rug
Panthers make a great coat
Rhinos a foot stool
But a tyrannosaurus
given the chance will eat you
That I would love to see.

2.8 double form

(acrostic senryu)

Despite my efforts
I have tried with all my might
Much confusion reigns

3.1 Selfie

Dear Darren
I am your future self
please listen to my plea
You could be a bigger me
if you take the right path
stop sitting on your arse
push yourself more
which will open many doors
but you just do not trust
this advice, I see disgust
that you are no so bald
and you look so old
but see beyond this test
and sit amongst the best
Oh and one more point of view
you and your past are through.

3.2 members name

Maple tree, grows brightly
when tended by Andrea
nature loving ray of light
one of the best.

3.3 war

It begins in the garden
between the boys
it carries on to government
starting wars
There is nothing more inhuman
than humans
a life means nothing
to fellow men.

3.4 money or sport

We are born and taught to learn
so when we are bigger we can earn
I would love to be that lucky sort
who earns trillions playing sport.

3.5 Wildcard

Leonardo was good with a brush
he had wild ideas and fantastic plans
a flying machine or battle tank
mega cannon and mona lisa
Madonna on the rocks
needs respect
the Florence madman
was one of the greats
(but why move to france?)

3.6 colour and shape

Throwing shapes on the dance floor
makes my daughters turn scarlet
how life has turned full circle
when I boogie as bad as my Dad

3.7 Nature

Polar bears in snow
have nowhere else to call home
melting ice a threat.

3.8 double form
(double acrostic)

Save the children noW
Treat them as delicate chinA
Only stopping the hate is cleaR
Preaching with guns killS

4.1 selfie

A message for yourself
I want you to read this and understand
that with only thirty odd years to go
you have so much to do
daughters to walk down the aisle
wedding anniversaries to raise smiles
grandchildren to spoil rotten
write that book, you have forgotten,
travel to Italy or Tokyo
move to Australia or Timbuktu
a bucket list to follow
a wasted life is tough to swallow.

4.2 members name

The purple pant wearing gnome
is hiding in his home
or maybe stuck in his shed
(I hope he isn't brown bread)
he used to cause such fuss
with his ranting and the odd cuss
Peter Edwards is his name
Winding him up, my favourite game.

4.3 War

I wonder what the wildlife thinks
when man goes to war
bombing their habitat
tearing their homes in two
burning forests with bombs
selfish acts formed in greed
imagine if the monkeys
had their own world war 3
no regard for existence
of our planets inhabitants

4.4 money or sport

There is a prize
of 147 thousand pounds
if you pot every ball
in the game of snooker
imagine having the nerve
to pot that final black
knowing that a miss
will cost you such a hit.

4.5 Wildcard

eagles watch from high
scurrying prey running scared
except the poacher

4.6 colour and shape

I painted a red star
on your door
to warn everybody
that you are in cahoots
with evil
you visit me in my dreams
marking my mind with taunts
you make me feel worthless
waiting for my soul.
but now I find strength
in family and me
You will be waiting forever
to get another claim on me.

4.7 nature

wasps annoy people
stinging and buzzing in ears
my swat wins the fight

4.8 double form

Learn to rise from a falL
Orchestrate your own chI
Vested interests can scofF
Evil intentions from above

(double acrostic)

5.1 selfie

Darren is a god
the god of indecision
sitting on the fence
splinters in my butt
waiting for the wife
to decide for us both.

5.2 members name

Lostforwords is anything but
poetry oozing from the mind
to the page
teaching us lessons
in metaphors and darkness
caught in your net
entrapped in your scribblings
your muse takes us to another world.

5.3 War

Children brandishing guns
turns angels in their graves
man was made to love
intolerance brought with the return
of the anti Christ.

5.4 money or sport

fans follow players
discarding their own dreams
to emulate their heroes
paying through the nose
to watch pampered pansies
falling on the floor
at the slightest touch.
Football was the working mans game
but these superstars are now locked away.

5.5 wild card

Barack Obama is rumoured
to be the anti Christ
the opposite of jesus
the champion of materialism
somebody should warn him
that his destiny could be
to disrupt the world order
and end humanity.

5.6 Colour and shape

Red square is a place
where the drunks all meet
vomiting at the feet
of all the inebriated revellers
I can only look on and think
in the morning your head with kill
the pounding and the throbbing
bar tenders finished their robbing

5.7 Nature

butterflies arrive
on silent sunburnt noses
tickle out a sneeze

5.8 double form

Quick over mud and scruB.
Usually rode by narcissI.
Against the wind no kick.
Driving rain a pain in the arsE.

6.1 Must write a poem to yourself, or about yourself.

Found myself in a box beneath your bed
one day, the embossed coin I sent
for christmas, and the 8-months-worth
of pictures, framing our friendship.
I've stopped expecting to find myself
in the first drawer of your desk, or
underneath your pillow -
waiting for a miracle.
All that's left of me, fits in the box
beneath your bed, only discovered
when you're vacuuming your room
once in a blue moon.

6.2 Must mention a member's username

The princess arrived with a dowry
in her hands, tattered mantle from fleeing,
and atop the gold, a foolish man's head,
and behind her aura, the grin of a skull.

6.3 War

We draw missiles with inspiring quotes
but don't know how it's like to be deafened
by explosions - angry slurs, perchance -
but that's as far as our imagination stretches
whilst another plane is shot down and tumbles,
scraps of aluminum raining down on another village.

6.4 Poem must mention money, or a type of sport

She's got your throat burning
on cigarette smoke and vodka.
Across the bar - a fine lady
shakes alcohol around like
a tropical dancer, and
with palms heavenward,
you give her 5 dollars
more than necessary,
and rest on her hand
5 second longer
than necessary.

6.5 Wild card

A little girl with dreadlocks
rollerskates between adults
as they yawn, waiting for the bus,
and thinking about their lil girl
cutting bell's pepper into uneven
squares, dropping it into
the boiling goulash soup.

6.6 must include at least one colour, AND one shape

Small, white-squared pieces
of chewing gum, arranged like
the tooth fairy's cushions,
tell me to exterminate
my onion breath.

6.7 Category : nature

Seeds slither like tadpoles
through her labyrinth -
six months later, her belly
bulges like a frog's cheeks,
inhale - exhale, like
seeing the sun peak
from behind the horizon,
and hide again.

6.8 Double Form

double tetractys

I
stumble
into fate
when he stands up
and grabs the german-dutch dictionary.
His hand rests on my shoulder, quiescent
like a squirrel
that's found home;
sehnsucht
sighs.

7.1 Must write a poem to yourself, or about yourself.

What will you do, girl,
when he no longer needs you
to sing him lullabies, when
the only word that holds you together
is loyalty, devoid of late night conversations
and the desire to send birthday packages
two months too early? What will you do
when he reads your diaries, a little
too accidentally, because your mouth's
sewn shut, out of guilt, and he
no longer has the patience
to undo the surgery?

That day, I said,
I will complete the embroidery,
and sew a line between us, thicker
than the membrane between love and hate.

7.2 Must mention a member's username

Like a doll with a frown, she sat
behind the toy store's owner,
just high enough to look past his shoulder.
She was decoration, at most, but too ugly
to be bought. Each night, he'd rub off
the ink that bled from her eyes,
smudging his sleeve, and ruined
the letter he was about to send
just like the night before.

7.3 War

The head rises above the heart
but the veins are crosshatching
from the inside, vena cava tying
a little too tightly, like
a child that learns to tie her shoes
for the first time, eager
to do it right, be a good girl.
But in the end, these neurons
are nudged to grab scissors,
despite the bloodrush,
and the head holds the threads
like fibrin again,
containing composure.

7.4 Poem must mention money, or a type of sport

Swam to shores, far from lighthouses
and disappeared in foam - that was her destiny.
The sun tore into her skin like daggers,
and little by little, like pearls
from a broken necklace, she returned
home, where oysters look up
with open mouths, singing
a last lullaby.

7.5 Wild card

Like an orchestra, teaspoons echoed,
wineglasses broke into an intermezzo
of abstract art onto the wall.

Like Son et Lumier, the camera flashed
and reflected in crystal, bounced
on marble, an aftereffect.

Like champagne and bowties, we were
artificial - shaking hands and hiding
the bruises we caused each other.

7.6 must include at least one colour, AND one shape

We place yellow hexagons like a beehive's,
honeythick sweetness slipping slowly
into the puzzle that would shape
your heart, and my home.