April Agon: Week 1: Which Line is it Anyway?


During the month of April we're going to be posting several small writing contests to the forums each Monday. These threads will be closed at Midnight GMT on Friday. Winners will be announced on the Sunday.

In addition to weekly prizes, at the end of the month certain participants will be awarded prizes based on things like frequency of participation, overall quality and so on.


Week 1: Which Line is it Anyway?

Choose any line from the poem below and use it in whatever way you like (as an opener, a central theme, etc) to write your own poem or piece of prose. The limits are 40 lines for poetry, 1000 words for prose.

Submit these to your galleries and post a link here. If they're particularly petite, you can probably get away with just slipping them into the thread. You may enter as many times as you like. Please make sure to include the chosen line in the deviation's description, or in the forum post if you choose to post your entry directly to the thread.


The winner of each competition will receive a 3 month subscription and a lit mug of their choice.

The poem:

THE LANGUAGE NEST by Andy Brown

You reason with our children in your mother’s tongue –
gentle; laughter flying like flags – whilst mine
hefts its weight as if in a wood chopping logs.
When I am done with working it,
I sit on the steps of the temple
of your conversation and let it float
until your words are clouds and, theirs?
their words are cloud shadows
falling across the fells of my nature;
their answers more than grace notes
in this counterpoint of curiosity.
You have made of them bright insects,
buzzing, as if the swarm of words
gave warmth; a green light to the back of silence.

--
mimesis, the poetry journal

Buy Mimesis issue one here.
Buy Mimesis issue two here.