A of acclamation for all of those who participated in DFC last year. The four who completed it fully are LadyTana who is a new member with us, MagicalJoey, Parsat and LaBruyere. Your work was astounding and I'm glad I was able to help you realise these pieces by giving you a platform. Please check out these four artists and their favourite four pieces of DFC to the left of this blog entry.





February Form Fiesta has really become a tradition. While DFC has been going since 2008, February Form Fiesta has only existed since 2009. It, with a lot of our other challenges, have become a fixture in this group and I am really excited to introduce the forms which will make up this year's contest.


These forms are:


The Mirror Sestet


The Mirror Sestet was created by Shelley A. Cephas. It comprises of one or more 6-line
stanzas. The guidelines are as follows:

Line 1: First word and last word rhyme.
Line 2: First word = last word of Line 1. Last word = first word of Line 1.
Line 3: First word and last word rhyme.
Line 4: First word = last word of Line 3. Last word = first word of Line 3.
Line 5: First word and last word rhyme.
Line 6: First word = last word of Line 5. Last word = first word of Line 5.

This can also be done without rhyme so ignoring all rhyme on odd numbered lines.


Example:   DFC 2014 10: NGC 5195Abide with me where galaxies collide,
collide with mammoth force as stars abide
bright as a pulse of inundating light.
Light that erupts to make the whole sky bright.
Crash and explode, we watch as as they smash;
smash into fractals when you and I crash. and EucharistRed the wine they shared and blood he shed,
Shed like pieces of my heart stained red,
Living by his grace, his hand forgiving,
Forgiving all the wayward ways I'm living.
Bread and wine as blood and body dead,
Dead to living by my self-won bread.

Entries thus far: CapstoneBuilt with power by the living stones,
Stones with which His temple's strongly built.
Rejected once as worthless to the worldly,
Worldly standards now by God rejected.
Crowned with glory, Christ the capstone stands,
Stands atop the stones He newly crowned. BlissWho knew things would turn out this way? I've always had an inkling, but no, not you.
You and your reckless thoughts and your ruthless words, spat and screamed out to the world, directed to who...
I never really know. Is it me, is it her, is it him or is it them- and then you ask, "Why"?
Why, oh, why, does the world treat you so? But I can never really answer you - how could I?
This world hardly ever treats us right. So, tell me, just what is bliss?
Bliss? A blessing from Heaven? A blessing from the world? A warning to tell us, "I'm sorry, but you know what's coming after this." Can I Love?Can I love?
3-2-15
Care for me, love me, I want to know that you are there,
There with romantic gestures, holding my hand, showing you care.
Miss me when I’m gone, complete me when we kiss:
Kiss me deeply, strongly, make me miss
You when you scamper off, as what needs doing you must do.
Do what you need to do, but be at rest ‘cos I will miss you.
I want to know your love, want to see it in your eyes,
Eyes so full of romantic ideas and plans for you and I.
Cling me close least I drown in earth’s lonely ring.
Ring in a new day for us, a new romance on which to cling
To with my heart dying for company with you.
You, my love, it’s you I love and want to cling to.
Scared of being alone forever, scared of only liking you, my boo bear
Bear with me in my fears and I will take upon my heart all of which you’re scared;
That’s what friends do, and friends can turn ‘like’ into ‘love’ with the turn of a hat,
Hat tricks aside, ControlGrind your teeth and clear your tattered mind.
Mind your business; get back to the grind.
Project indifference, don't be the reject;
reject the notion that you're our project.
Hear the whispers, but have no fear–
fear the things you do not hear. That Poor GardenOne and two, the royals who are mean,
Mean the world to the dandelion-headed one.
Purple insults the rose for its thorns, and pink plucks it, saving it only to doom it.
It is a shame, how the sunflower grows tall but cannot earn the respect of the purple.
Pink tries her best to rescue, tries to be heroic,
Heroic stands won't stop the cruel from picking on the pink.


Rime Royal/ Rhyme Royale


The rhyme royal or rime royale is an old English form popularized
by Geoffrey Chaucer. It features one or more 7-line stanzas, each 10
syllables long. The rhyme scheme is: ababbcc


Examples:   Scale Splotched (DFC 2014)In curling branches, frayed red ribbon blows;
splotchy scales in dark pond slip out of sight.
In night-painted sky, only the moon knows
owls watch, hooting calls--fish in soft light.
Twitching long feathers, they fall one by one;
snatching quick breakfast, owls on the run.
Red ribbon above pond, empty in sun. and

Mature Content

Entries so far: Don't Use Me PleaseDon’t Use Me Please
3-2-15
What strength one holds within a simple gift
To another? Can the gift of a heart
Given freely mend all the broken rifts?
Is it likely that this gift is the start
Of something new? Things that should never part.
Oh I so wish it were but that simple
To mend rifts with hearts that are like thimbles.
Love me, please love, don’t make me beg again
For I cannot be alone anymore
In this world filled with lovelessness and pain.
I’m scared to die alone, that’s what’s in store
For one like me, whose had her love all poured
Out to the breaker and the abuser;
The one who cannot love but can use her.
I live to find a love that mirrors mine,
One that would show love in simple gestures
Like a cup of tea and love note, so kind,
But with more meaning than bolder measures.
Love comes in other forms, other fixtures,
But once a romantic falls they fall flat
And hard; walls break – can you imagine that?
Love me, that is my cry, my It Could Be A Candle InsteadHatred is a flame, sets people ablaze,
But for me, it brings warmth throughout my soul,
Some people get trapped, stuck inside a maze,
Some people get buried deep in a hole,
My fire is small, under my control,
Loving everything is impossible,
Saying you can is simple denial. EnamouredIt had been a long while since I last saw
The moon lighting the sky up with glamour.
Splattered blots - frosty clouds waiting to thaw,
Bright stars winking in the sky like a stammer,
Fading, glowing… I was soon enamoured.
But the cool wind was pulling me away,
Warning me softly that I could not stay. Great-GrandfatherI never knew the man whose book I held,
Those pages filled up with his tidy scrawl
And steady characters. The hand that held
The pen and wrote as deep as he was tall
Lives on, beyond the passing time and pall
Of death that he bore witness as a youth
In wartorn times, both pierced by loss and truth.
They tell me that his gift, which lived in lines,
Was now in me, three generations passed.
Alas, would that I match his skilled designs
Not forged by intellect, but heartaches past!
And yet I sense his anguish did not last;
His hope could not be contained in pages,
But looked beyond for joy in coming ages. WoodlotIn the holy season of December
To the suburbs to buy a Christmas tree.
The sky was steel-gray, a covered ember
Waiting to flare up and shake itself free.
A day like that brings out the life in me.
I grinned, hands in my pockets, and looked hard
At every tree that leaned up in that yard.
I tapped one on the shoulder as a friend;
A pagan tree to bring back home to hearth,
A fellow traveler in this strange land,
A fragment of the holy barren earth
Naked in the time of death and rebirth.
Not quite majestic, but a Christmas tree -
Weedy suburban wood, a thing like me.


Symbi

The Symbi is a form that combines Western and Eastern
influences to create an engaging set of messages. It is a sixline
stanza with the syllabic count 5, 5, 7, 5, 5, 7 with the
bolded lines (Lines 1, 3 and 5) being either a haiku, senryu or
katauta. You can write this in italics to emphasise it.

The rhyme scheme is aabccb.

Example:    Contemplating the Futurelaid to final rest
past the foregone crest
never again to draw breath
ever consuming
the future looming
there is a life beyond death and :thumb501618766:

Entries so far: This Nagging Unrestrestless in the night
though black fills my sight
and sleepless during the day
though wearied within
wounds from closest kin
burn deeper than I might say Small LumpSmall Lump
5-2-15
A small lump was found,
Turns lives around,
In six months you must go back.
Why six? Why not two?
What else can you do?
Here you can’t afford to slack. au pont mirabeauI look down the bridge
bent over the edge
at the water so pretty
the water so tame
tranquil and aflame
with the lights of the city

Mature Content

SummerCold chills come at night
With shining moonlight
While dawn brings the morning song
And the burning heat
The cue to retreat
Knowing well where I belong


  The Inverted Refrain


The inverted refrain is, by no surprise, another invention by Jan Turner. This one features a paradelle like ending to each stanza. There are four 6-line stanzas with no specific meter.
The first four lines of each stanza rhyme like abab and the last two lines summarise the content of the four lines before them and they can be either ab or ba depending on your preference. So it can be ababab or ababba with obviously 3 more stanzas afterwards. The last two lines are tabbed for emphasis.


Examples:   Doth Cometh WhenceDoth Cometh Whence
20-12-14
Why doth the vampire feast at night,
When moon is out and stars are up?
From whence cometh his fear of morning light?
Why doth he only in darkness sup?
     Truth be told, he’d get a fright
     And burn in light from yonder blup.
Why doth the vampire speak so strange,
With vowels long and hisses so?
From whence cometh these sounds so deranged
That awakens snakes from hibernation’s glow?
     Truth be told its in the weakening of the age
     That sounds so sinister do go.
Why doth the vampire drink nought but blood,
Why not cola, or cool-aid still?
From when cometh this taste for human mud
And this wont to bend us to their will?
     Truth be told he’d be a vampire dud
     If he no longer felt blood’s chill.
Why doth the vampire look so pale,
So deathly white, not at all peachy pink?
From when cometh his looks within the vale?
Dot and Old WinterWhen comes the old man winter in,
Comports himself like king and crown
There's naught to do but let him win
For bones have no defense deep down
    We might as well just let him win;
    There's no resisting king and crown.
Perhaps the host can bid him sit
Beside the logs in fireplace
Make him comfortable--to wit
Warm him through from foot to face.
    Perhaps he's happy just to sit
    If we warm him foot to face.
Perhaps his frosted hands will rest
And icy breath turn into steam
His head could lay upon his chest
And be enticed mayhap to dream.
    If we could merely bid him rest
    Perhaps his ice will turn to dreams.
And there, maybe, by fire's glow
He'll sleep until the winter's gone
Mild and warm, convinced to go,
And let the spring come early on.
    Oh let him mellow, let him go,
    And usher spring in, early on.

Entries so far: To FriendsTo Friends
6-2-15
I speak to the friend who found the lump there,
How terrible it must be to wait for six
Before finding out what you need to bear:
Has it grown? Must it be nixed?
     Go in six, with prayer and thought, and down at them stare
     For ‘twas their idea to make it so when two would have it fixed.
To the friend revelling in newfound love and joy,
Oh how wonderful it is to find your “to be”
Upon these rocky times. Girl met boy
And it didn’t take long for love to seed.
     Go, my friend, though life be coy,
     Go and treat her out of want and need.
Oh, teacher darling, I trust you so
To teach me what you would.
I trust that as deeper into poetry we go
I will learn things that I should.
     Come into my world of noes,
     Enlighten them with new talk of yeses and coulds.
To the one with whole worlds resting upon her shoulders,
They are not you

Mature Content

MysteryOn rushing thermals hidden from the eye
The eagle soars, and who could know its way?
In circling, swooping, or in gliding high,
Its sojourn stretches on throughout the day.
A mystery too deep to fully say:
The way an eagle flies up in the sky.
In crags too cavernous to truly map
By anything except the rattlesnake,
It sidewinds til it finds a proper gap
To slither in, and gives its tail a shake.
The way a snake crawls on a rock, perhaps,
Is quite the mystery too hard to break.
As waves rock past, and breezes high up blow,
Its creaking timbers amble towards the shore.
And borne by currents in their unseen flow,
The wanderlust of mankind can explore
The mystery. I cannot claim to know
The way of ships on sea, by sail and oar.
Is it in sparkling eyes that melt the heart
Or grace in words that paint her fair in fair?
Regardless how a romance finds its start
Or end, the way two souls unite to share,
The way of men and maidens, how they fare
In love or hate is mystery in art.


  Pentelloum


The pentelloum was devised by haijinik and it is a combination of the
villanelle and the pantoum. Any meter or syllabic count is fine, just be consistent
throughout the piece. It features at least two 5-line stanzas with refrains and a strict
rhyme scheme. The first and last lines of the first stanza invert and are used in the last
stanza. The template below is a three stanza template.


A1, B1, A2, B2, A3 | B1, C1, B2, C2, B3 | C1, A3, C2, A1, C3


Examples:   EveningThe capillary rasp of tongues,
I know nothing but chattering
As warm air trades its place with young;
A shiver starts resurfacing
Within the walls of little lungs.
I know nothing but chattering,
Wintery gust I taste your braid;
A shiver starts resurfacing
As degrees fall in centigrade,
The weaving wind is circling.
Wintery gust I taste your braid
Within the walls of little lungs,
As degrees fall in centigrade
The capillary rasp of tongues
Will end all things that I have said. and   You EndedYou Ended
28-12-14
The other day I played a ‘game’,
To try and keep you out of mind.
But once again it was the same;
That’s being emotionally blind.
All I have is you in frame.
To try and keep you out of mind,
When I think of you each day,
That’s being emotionally blind
For you will never go away.
If only God would be so kind.
When I think of you each day,
All I have is you in frame,
For you will never go away;
The other day I played a ‘game’
And tried to forget, as is my way.

Entries so far: Marching With PrideMarching With Pride
6-2-15
Hey you with that placard standing over there,
Promoting death and destruction for all who are gay.
Do you really think a father with arms open to hug like a bear
Would kill someone because of how that someone was made?
Yes, I march with them. Why do you stare?
Prompting death and destruction to all who are gay
Is like bringing hell’s wrath upon those with brown hair.
Would you kill someone because of how that someone was made?
I wouldn’t, it’s stupid and certainly not fair.
So come one and come all – it’s time hatred was stayed.
It’s like bring hell’s wrath upon those with brown hair.
Yes, I march with them. Why do you stare?
I wouldn’t, it’s stupid and certainly not fair.
Hey you with that placard standing over there,
We march for freedom, for unity and for you...cos we care. Written in the Color of My LoveBlackest ink, the color of my love,
Has carved the snowy footsteps in the night;
Compelled to venture where the land grows rough
And wrapped in breathlessness like candlelight,
Composing notes you may find good enough.
Be carved in snowy footsteps of the night
And melting snow. With ink as warm as blood,
Come wrapped in breathlessness like candlelight.
I am in search of truth in cedarwood;
A wanderer enamored of the right.
Melted snow with ink as warm as blood.
Composing notes you may find good enough,
I am in search of truth in cedarwood.
Blackest ink, the color of my love:
I write and yet remain misunderstood. My Heart, Your HomeIn the weary stillness of my home
I thought of you, and found such solace
Within your every prayer. My heart could roam,
My mind could wander where a promise
Bloomed on stormy waves like ocean foam.
I thought of you, and found such solace
Sweetly, how you soothed my suffering!
My mind could wander where a promise
Waits to make my life an offering,
With winter's clutches weak and clawless.
Sweetly, how you soothed my suffering
Bloomed on stormy waves like ocean foam!
I wait to make my life an offering
In the weary stillness of my home
To thank you for your heartfelt comforting.





Rules

You can only enter one piece into each form. This means you can enter up to 5 pieces.
The piece(s) must be new, original and in English.
You must either note this group or kiwi-damnation with your entry for it to be counted.
All entries must be submitted by March 7th  12.00am GMT.
Have fun!


PRIZES

Each first place winner will receive a   6 month subscription!

Each second place winner will receive a 3 month subscription!

Each third place winner will receive 100 points.

If there are not more than 3 entries in a form category, the entrants will each receive 100 points.