Sunday, February 14, 2010

Newsfeed Subscribers, CombatVerse is Moving to CombatWords

Not enough critical mass here and I'm impatient. Anyhow, by moving to CombatWords, you can now battle all writers--not just poets.

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Friday, February 12, 2010

Moving Traffic to combatwords.blogspot.com

Based off web hits, there was equal curiosity for combatprose and combatverse at first, but there's not much traction for either. I think it would make more sense to migrate both to http://combatwords.blogspot.com to make things more lively. Also, categories are restrictive.

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Thursday, February 11, 2010

Okay, since this place is dead compared to combatprose

I thought I'd offer a slightly different challenge: defeat Today's News Poem.

Victory conditions are variable: you could riff-off it (no rewrites--that's some lazy shit right there) or you could just outdo it. So here's the news poem: I'll see if anyone wants to enter the kumate arena.

War by Wires and Liars

No, atoms aren't the only building block
Requiring nuclear-force to bind what seeks
To free itself. Take enterprise and stock:
Those rogues—like particles— need wise techniques
To bind what otherwise would break—subvert—
Conjoined alliance. Murder's still a crime
So bind them tight with lies and let covert
And able agents sway the greedy slime:
So war becomes a suicide. And wealth?
That war by other means. With trade, the way
To kill is starve the foreigner by stealth,
And take his land, her kids: they're simply prey—
A profit center needs the casualties.
Without the gore—no war PTSDs.

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A different approach, Feb 11, 2010

I'm in the mood for some Mexico City Blues. I'm also in the mood for Godzilla and some wargames. So, here's my thought: the first poster on this thread can take any poem from Mexico City Blues and riff off it any way s/he chooses (but cite the inspiration). Challengers must write a riff off the same poem. Then the challenger gets to pick. By then, a mob should have formed and if they are here, the mob may choose the final poem.

Mob: please score poems with one to three stars. Then we'll tally the score and declare the champ. Come on! Let's see if we can finally get some bloodsport in here.

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Monday, February 8, 2010

Canned Combat, Feb 9, 2010

It's early, but here's today's canned combat:

-trochaic quadrameter
-any rhyme scheme, but no blank verse
-Any ol' topic. Let's see you folks warm up.

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Canned Topic

A specific type of idiot. Just someone you can't stand. But let's see if you get anywhere with the verse: can you do more than obsess over the thing you hate? I'm not going to write verse here: you know I can do it. I want to see if you can do it.

You're not going to get stronger by being chicken. Let's see some kombat!

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Sunday, February 7, 2010

Feb 7, 2010 CombatVerse!

Whose cuisine shall reign supreme?

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The Rules for CombatVerse!

1) Challenger picks time and tempo between posts.
2) Defender gets to pick meter and topic.
3) Challenger must then copy meter and stay on topic.
4) Scoring:
a) Points:
i) If there's meter, each time the meter is off, -1. Someone who completely ruins a line of scanning could lose -10 if she or he ruined all 10 beats.
ii) Every off-topic sentence, line, clause, or other unit of thought loses a point.
b) Gambits: Introduced conceits, symbols, narratives and turns of phrase are the only ones I can think of now. Each gambit is worth 10 points.
c) Audience: Audience members can use a single vote to add or subtract a point from a poem. This helps mitigate the objective metrics used for the game.
5) Time: Compositions are due at time. There is a 1 point deduction per minute the composition is late.

Not only is this a fun game that we used to play informally on craigslist litfo, but it will sharpen your chops too. Have fun!

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