As You Like It

A. C. Warner, , , , , , , , ,

Since everyone seemed to enjoy “Tea with Trolls” (PDF, by the way, is now available for download on the page), I did a quick poll of what you all wanted to write about next, and dragons won by a landslide. Which is fitting, since the year 2012 is the Year of the Dragon, specifically the water dragon.

I will take small poems until Wednesday December 28th about dragons and/or water and/or fire (something to warm us in the middle of winter) to prepare a post for New Year’s Day. As before, I will take up to 5, and you’re guaranteed at least one poem just for sending me something!

Theme/What to write about: Dragons and/or water and/or fire.

What form: Haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka, gogyōka, renku, haibun, haiga (doodles most welcome!), small stones, etc.

How many: As many as you want! I will take as many as 5 and no less than 1.

When: Send them in by Wednesday, December 28th (I will wait until the whole world has reached the 28th); I will post a PDF on this blog on New Years Day.

Where to send: Either leave a comment to this post or send an email to aubriecox [at] gmail [dot] com!

Other important stuff:
Things you should keep in mind/include:

• Most journals will consider these works published

• If your work is already published, include the publishing credits (it’s kind of important and a nice thing to do)

• You, as the writer/artist/poet/etc, retain the rights to you work before and after it appears on my blog/in the PDF.

• If you want me to link back, please send along the name and link of your blog/Twitter account/website/etc! Also, make sure your have your name listed as you would like for it to appear.

As You Like It

71 thoughts on “As You Like It”

  9. Susan Shand says:

    first frost
    we practice breathing
    the breath of dragons

    water dragons
    watch over the sword
    of Dozmary pool

    Goen Bren
    where Fowey river rises
    dragons sleep

    Reply

    2. Susan, these are lovely. I would like to use this one for the collection:

      Goen Bren
      where Fowey river rises
      dragons sleep

      Susan Shand

      Is there anything you would like me to link back to in return for you?

      Reply
      1. Susan Shand says:

        Thank you Aubrie, please help yourself. 🙂 I don’t have a blog running or anything like that so probably not on the links, thanks anyway.

        Reply

        1. Great! I’d love to include it with the others to be posted on New Year’s.

          Is there any site you’d like me to include, Terry? And how would you like for your name to appear?

          Reply
    1. Brandy Bockewitz says:

      Hmmm…tried to leave a reply to add on another, but not sure it worked. Let’s try again…

      pitter-patter
      from the cobblestone
      dragon hunt begins

      Reply

      1. For the other tanka/kyoka: My mother told me a story about that when I was young. The dragon was an ally to that Nguyen prince; it is the key to the Nguyen Dynasty. Without the dragon, there will be no future king. It kind of reminds me of Prince Arthur. Without magic, there is no future king (or Merlin for that matter) in Arthurian literature. However, the prince’s adviser urged him to kill the dragon, and so the Nguyen Prince did. Because of that, it was the downfall of the Nguyen Dynasty, and now a king no longer exists.

        The funny thing is that Nguyen IS my last name, a very common last name as it is to Smith or Johnson. It also depicts the last of the dynasties in Vietnam. 🙂 I love telling stories in my poems. 🙂

        Reply

      2. I thought I would experiment and use that wonderful science fiction movie “Forbidden Planet” which has certain similarities to the “Tempest” “and has that incredible monster from the id. The particular scene I am interested in is where the viewer sees only the monsters footprints appear in the soil of the planet Altair IV and bend each step of the space ships boarding gangway. I thought of tweaking my “wetland chill” attempt like a film editor, just a small tweak, into this…

        Dragon blood paddy
        a patch of ripples reappears

        Reply

            1. Martin,

              No need to apologize! People can post all they want.

              Yes, the cutoff date was yesterday so I can get everything together and neatly arranged. But don’t let that interrupt the creative flow!!

              ~Aubrie

              Reply

          2. I didn’t know they call it Rice Dragon Blood. I’d always eaten it, and yes, I know the rice you speak of from Vietnam (at least I’m sure this is what you’re referring to). It is called xoi, or steamed glutinous rice (some like to call it sticky rice). http://www.vietnamfood.org/entry/xoi-steamed-glutinous-rice.html It is lightly sweetened and is eaten as a snack (I don’t know why that article says it’s fast food. Maybe for much poorer areas in Vietnam and with sticky rice, it’s easier to carry around). Here in America, of course, it is more abundant in the Vietnamese communities.

            along the cobblestone
            the dragon dances
            past platters of xoi
            I pray for good fortune
            from the heavens

            Reply
      2. snowbirdpress says:

        Your haiku brings thoughts of a terrible night in German history… and the world still mourns… and we still pray as best we can to follow the path of peace and love.

        Reply

        1. Kristallnacht, Ah yes…
          I had no intention to allude to that event in my attempt. Unfortunately, it continues and free democracies, especially us do not act to stop it even with military force. For example, Cambodia with Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, Kosovo and finally, we acted, but not for Rwanda, Darfur, and it goes on and on… Thank goodness, we acted in Iraq to stop the slaughter of the Kurds and the draining of the Iraqi Marshes by Saddam Hussein in revenge against the Shia Marsh people. I agree with the late Christopher Hitchens that the war to remove Hussein was necessary to prevent genocide against the Kurds and the starvation of the Marsh people of Sothern Iraq.

          drained Iraqi Marsh
          the cracked lips of children

          Reply
          1. snowbirdpress says:

            This time of year, when our awareness of perfection collides with the reality of what our actions and in actions have caused create images in our mind that are triggered with a word here or a word there… So much of the world can not be changed and yet it changes all the time, every moment, and each of us are asked to find the way to peace…true peace within each of us. I had just been drawing my dragon at the same time preparing for Epiphany…and your use of the word crystal with chess pieces … seemed to rise to the power of a symbol.

            first killing frost
            the cancer patient – my friend
            denied fuel assisance

            I surely hope we do better in the coming year.

            Reply
            1. snowbirdpress says:

              Funny how Martin’s haiku brought me across the line from myth to history to felt experience…. A word here or a word there will do that… Thanks.

              Reply

              1. 🙂 Yes, it often happens. A very important thing I learned about the haiku world is that we all inspire each other. It is always fruitful for me to read how so many possibilities of stories that can develop from a ‘ku! 🙂

                Reply

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