Nonet Poem

I've been off to another writing site the past few days, enjoying some 'competitive' writing and some intensive reviewing. I learned early on Fanstory.com that most reviewers fear giving out less than 5 stars when they review someone's work.

I say this is a disservice to the writer. Without honest feedback, how will they ever improve? Many of the writers there need massive help. I got to where I couldn't make it past another opening paragraph with near a dozen lame, passive, virtually useless "to be" verbs greeting my eyes.

In order to make Fanstory worth your while, you need to review others' work. I love reviewing and critiquing work, but if I must temper that because egos are far too fragile, it becomes tedious. Then, of course, out of the blue, a piece of writing blows me away. These works of art make plowing through the bulk of pedantic, plodding poetry or short stories worth it.

The poetry. Why do people attempt to rhyme? Most, and I mean most, cannot pull this off without the poem sounding forced or childish. I did run across a couple rhyming poems that came close to being good. In fact, one entertained me quite a bit. The only rhyming poems I feel confident in reading are limericks, usually because the writer tends to make light of something.

While mining the poetry writers for reviews, I stumbled on a poetry contest. Write a 'nonet' poem in 24 hours and the winners will be announced 24 hours later. I decided to take this on. A nonet poem is a poem that contains 9 lines, the first line having 9 syllables, the next line 8, the next 7, and so on until the last line contains 1 syllable.

My entry lacked two votes from winning, alas, but writing the poem gave me loads of enjoyment. Without further adieu, my entry in the contest:

Snowbound Serenity

Slipping, sliding, soft silken snow sheets
Sipping cider, scorching, searing
Seeing stores' short stockpile sold

Siren soliloquy
Sending silly signs
Saying "sit still"

Soothing scene
Steals show
Sigh.

Of course, these poems do not have to be buried in alliteration, I just did that to be different and hopefully win the contest. While the experiment did not work, I wrapped my brain around the project and came out of it satisfied, which is all a writer can ask for.