Day 13-18
Senior Moderator: Shivram gopinath
Pick one prompt from your week. What was your process in coming up with this prompt?
Day 17: The Big Debut Prompt
Like many, I grew up a wrestling kid; macho man randy savage fan, a Tatanka admirer, a suplexer of pillows. So when GrappleMax's 10th anniversary came up I didn't have to think very hard. I just wanted to channel my (slightly violent) inner child, and wield an excuse to make everyone else admit they had a finishing move too.
What were you looking out for, and what kinds of poems were you expecting?
I expected people to commit to the bit, which they did in fantastic ways. I also loved how some responses subverted the prompt. Honesty as fabulously flamboyant.
Can you share 1-2 poems that surprised you and why?
Birth of a Wrestler, or 2,500 Years of Pankration by Lim Wee Teck: I liked wrestling as a metaphor for all-pervasive and violent patriarchy, and especially this very imaginative description of an ultimately unequal fight.
“Raffles versus Hamengkubuwono II (1812): Your intercostals struggle to drag air into your defeat. Winner, Raffles.”
Select 1-2 poems responding to your favourite prompt. Were there any lines/poems you wished you had written yourself?
Stilettos by Evanescist: I really admire how they turned the prompt inside out; disregarding and embracing it all at once. I really like the pacing, like a gentle and deadly fire horse trot. Also, this delicious line:
“For something I have been doing my entire life, wrestling need not be violent."