Notes On My Poems

For those people who care, here are a few comments on each of the poems. A lot of these comments will make even less sense than the poems if you never played Nexus, but I would need a whole website just to explain it all.

• Bekyun's Tale
• CalmWind's Last Stand
• Comes the Fire
• For a Friend
• Honor's Price
• Leaves on the Wind
• Nagnang Song
• Curse of the Nameless One
• Suddenly Strangers
• The Traitor
• The Unexpected
• Warrior's Sky

This was my first Poetry Revel win (Honorable Mention) a very, very long time ago. All the way back in Inktomi's day, in fact. In form, Bekyun's Tale is a Shakespearean sonnet. Yes, most people write sonnets about how beautiful their lover's eyes are. I write them about my character's weapons.

I wrote this one after Carnage one night, a Carnage that had seen a comeback victory by a team shaken by disqualification of its top players during the penultimte round. I was on that team, and yes, we were fighting mad, but the thing I found most memorable was not our sweep to victory, but the fact that the last survivor on black was not the usual invulnerable poet, but CalmWind. Warriors are never the last person standing, but he was, and as I (or at least my ghost) watched the last moments of the round, the poem began to form.

Read this one out loud ... it's fun. It was part of the lead-in for a Nexus event that never happened. Yes, I know what it's all about. No, I won't tell you.

I wrote this one for Jon Ford, when he lost his first character because of an imposter and there was some question as to whether he was even really himself. It is the only poem I've ever entered in the Revel that didn't win something.

This was a poem I wrote for the Revel but didn't enter in time. Imagine this sung or recited around a campfire in a camp of refugees, or perhaps raiders, from Nagnang. I imagine it in six voices, one per verse, decreasing in pitch from a young girl to a brawny warrior, with all six of them joining together for the final verse.

I strugged for a long time to give this poem a final verse, and I couldn't. So the poem I actually submitted, which won first place in the Poetry Revel, was just the first four verses. I was driving home up Route 3, a couple of weeks later, and the last verse just came to me. So here it is, complete.

This poem is a work in progress. I'm still not happy with it, especially the first couple of lines. If anyone wants to make suggestions about what I'm doing wrong here, please feel free.

So, even I don't always write poetry that rhymes. Notice, however, the strong meter. It compensates for all of the asymmetry in the poem (odd numbers of syllables, odd numbers of lines, etc.) and ties it all together.

One of my favorite poems is Rudyard Kipling's Ballad of the Clampherdown. (A singer named Leslie Fish has set that to music, incidentally) When the Poetry Revel topic was "Curses" I knew right away that I had to write a poem about an ex-Shaman who sold out subpath secrets to the Spies. I was tired of my usual four-line verses and simple meter, so I lifted the meter and rhyme patterns from "Clampherdown". I suppose I did something right, since I won second place for it. I do seem to have an inordinate fondness for ballads.

This was another Honorable Mention winner. The theme for that week was "Nightmares" and the whole situation with Gogeta and Wimp had just occurred. What I had on my mind, though, was a friend who had lost his character to an imposter -- someone who convinced Nexon that they were him. Eventually Nexon just did what was quick, easy, and unfair, and deleted JonFord. The shock, though, of seeing a friend, and then finding out that he wasn't my friend, not the person who he should have been, stuck with me. I knew I had a poem growing in my head, so when I went to relax with a hot bubble bath, I kept a clipboard handy, and wrote Suddenly Strangers in the bathtub.

The Shaman subpath in Nexus has always been known for great path cohesion and loyalty. So it is a shocking occurance when someone -- especially a Guide, someone known and trusted by all -- goes bad. Unlike the person in Curse of the Nameless One, the traitor did not sell us out as such. But, long after being pardoned by Elder Wildhair for attempting to oust her from the Eldership, she harbored simmering resentment. When she was to be demoted as a Guide because of inactivity, she bided her time, then afflicted the Elder with the Shaman's Curse, in defiance of all path rules and traditions, and had the further gall to claim that JaydePhoenix, the founding Elder, approved. Some people get mad ... some people get even ... I write poetry.

I finished this poem too late to enter it in the Revel. For those who are curious, the events never actually happened, but they could have. Personally, I think they should happen more often.

A few of us in Phoenix Clan had been posting poetry to the clan board, and we got to talking about it one night in the clan hall. I said I could write an impromptu poem on any topic, just pick one, and Yosen said "the sky". Ok, so I have a grim and bloodthirsty outlook. Remember, I'm the person who wrote a sonnet about my character's spear.