Project DFC 2011

Nov 26, 201117 min read

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Published: Nov 26, 2011

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ProjectDFC is hosting another December Form Challenge!

DFC [December Form Challenge] is a challenge that spans the whole month of December where poets are asked to write a poem each day using the fixed form listed for that day! This is a perfect way to try out various fixed forms and give yourself a bit of a challenge.

This year's DFC features two elements; 31 forms, one each day, and 6 prompts. These prompts are every 5 days and are there to give you added inspiration, as well as an extra challenge.

With anything prompt related, you can choose your own interpretation. As long as it is loosely based on the prompt, you are fine.

Please send all of your submissions to ProjectDFC's DFC 2011 favorites folder!

If you have any questions comment below or note ProjectDFC, kiwi-damnation, or myself [HugQueen].

This challenge will begin on December 1st [12am GMT] and end January 1st [12am GMT].

kiwi-damnation has made an amazing chart to help you understand each form [complete with examples].

DFC 2011 Form Chart

December 1st: Alliterisen

Example: DFC 6: FidelityFoolish fidelity, daring to dream;
Locking loyalties with serpents' cunning to scheme
And purport a plot, heavy-handed;
Oppose opposition, constant and candid.
Walk with acknowledged assurance
I, indelible even endurance,
am ever so much more than I may seem!

December 2nd: Kyrielle

Example: Behold the Devil...as red seeps down, in rivulets,
it forms a pool of decadence.
the fallen, in the night, attacks.
behold the devil dressed in black.
his winter coat comprised of fear,
he smites them all, each you hold dear;
each one a voice upon the stack.
behold the devil dressed in black.
their lives are forfeit, only death
will rid of us of this soul bereft
of love, compassion; all he lacks.
behold the devil dressed in black.
until the demons claim his soul;
until the fires consume him whole,
beware and show this man no slack.
behold the devil dressed in black.

December 3rd: Rispetto

Example: DFC 09 - I Put a Spell on YouWith gentle charm and clarity of voice
I can persuade a mortal in their act –
Eliminate abilities of choice
With gentle subtlety and wordless tact.
I place them soft beneath my careful spell,
A power which no mere human's mind can tell,
To steal them far from ever-fading light
And through their blood, be free to roam the night.

December 4th: Glosa

Example: DFC 17: Love AutopsyBlue bottles, beer cans and trash
Overturned notebooks, empty guitars
Soiled sheets and cigarette butts
Blue bottles, beer cans and trash
as empty as me, left alone, forgotten
Cast aside, crumpled up, eaten out
I wasted too many nights on you
Overturned notebooks, empty guitars
singing the dust song, rending the air with whispers
The poems won't write themselves
and I can't be bothered to play the blues
Soiled sheets and Cigarette butts
rifled through, searching for that last ecstasy
I lay here gutted, sifting through ashes
twisting the sheets, always at a loss

December 5th: Lai Nouveau
[Plus! Prompt: ‘kissed with nightshade’]

Example: Off dA Example

December 6th: Haiku

Example: White WinterIce smothers the earth,
purifying the landscape,
white flakes of the sky.

December 7th: Rubaiyat

Example: Insatiable GreedContempt and hatred, selfish greed,
A populace that seems to breed,
Of damaged goods, and cut-throat souls,
Love, to some -an empty creed.
Insatiable in word and act,
One must offend and not react,
As money, power is the goal,
Fiction squashed by heartless fact.
Distasteful politicians reign,
And public power starts to wane,
Petty squabbles take the place,
Of what they promised to maintain.
Insatiable in word and act,
The need for objects does distract,
Many from reality,
The selflessness they often lack.
Christmas is a time of peace,
To cherish, love and to believe,
Not a time for food and toys,
A time to give, not to receive.
As Christmas comes and as it goes,
One must never lose one's hope,
For love and giving conquer all,
They're everything one needs to know.

December 8th: Indriso

Example: DFC 5 - BreatheWhen you breathe, a cool autumn
breeze chills my skin, hot from fusion
with yours. Fire rages just beneath
my surface. Your slumber masks
any such sensation. Overheated,
yet shivering I crawl from your arms.
I wish I had stayed.
Would it have made a difference?

December 9th: Lilibonnelle

Example:

Mature Content

December 10th: Cinq-Cinquain
[Plus! Prompt: ‘Atlas’]

Example: Smearing Makeup Like Its WaterHate me.
Because I do.
My words can be poisoned
and dipped into your sharpened knives.
Love me.
Disown
the guilt pent up
months of pulling hair
and slowly gritting my rusty teeth
Freak out.
I cry
I scream; it hurts
pins puncture through my spine
splitting me open with barbed wires.
Saved.
Open
fingers spread out
like fans of shattered glass
it stings when you rip at my words:
Too late.
Hate me.
Because I do.
Fragmented lies on silk,
cushion the pounding of my heart.
Love me.

December 11th: Monotetra

Example: :thumb148610227:

December 12th: Cascade

Example: WunderbarJust once she wanted to try something new
She forgot to be faithful, tried and true
And now she sinks, bloody into the ocean blue
I watched her with her husband all day
In and out, the same thing again and again
Just once she wanted to try something new
I told her a place where dreams and fantasies take form
And she went and filled her mind with wondrous excitement
She forgot to be faithful, tried and true
Her husband found out when she went out one night
I watched him wait, and when she returned his rage came forth
And now she sinks, bloody into the ocean blue.

December 13th: The Canzone

Example: Off dA Example

December 14th: Naani

Example: BreatheAs you breathe,
You sing into my ear,
That you are soon to leave,
(the life that I did fear).

December 15th: Sestina
[Plus! Prompt: ‘Subtly reference an important day in your life.’]

Example: CinammonI told her to breathe
the air; I told her it tasted of cinnamon,
and she opened her mouth, threw back her hair
as we drove too fast down narrow avenues.
I said 'turn up the radio, cos it's my favourite Song!'
We drove until we reached the mountains.
I feel small in the shadow of those mountains,
but it's only here that I can really breathe.
I can hear my heart beat in time to this song
and the air really does taste of cinnamon.
Hurtling down life's long avenues
with a flower in her hair,
and love and laughter in her hair
as we slide like airborne leaves down the mountain,
navigating its snaking avenues,
and I can hardly breathe.
Our car is the colour of cinnamon
in this light, and we sing along to my favourite song.
It's a good song, a love song
about a woman with flowers in her hair
and breath like cinnamon.
We're alone on the mountain,
and suddenly it's not so easy to breathe.
Here we are, lost down life's dark avenue.
A brick-walled, rain-dripping avenue,
and the car radio still pla

December 16th: Ghazal

Example: :thumb148634694:

December 17th: Terza Rima

Example: Trapped in LiesI wish to see the truth hidden by lies
This web I have spun has me entangled
It feels like it is covering my eyes
Every word I speak my mind has mangled
All the voices I hear tell twisted fiction
I am sure my thoughts are being strangled
This concocted life’s my one addiction
As I attempt to break free of these walls
Even a breeze can shake my conviction
Far away I can hear a voice calls
I’m moving on to change what I’ve become
Yet time and time again my frail hope falls
I want to change but I feel I succumb

December 18th: Sedoka

Example: A Thousand Desperate WarsNow you know why these
phantasms haunt me tonight,
face buried, silken pillow.
Every ghost from a
thousand desperate wars dance -
I can only offer tears.

December 19th: Triolet

Example: Spread Love

Let’s spread love everywhere we go
To every city and every town
Let’s not forget the ones we know
Let’s spread love everywhere we go
Yes let us make it so
Let’s leave no town sitting with a frown
Let’s spread love everywhere we go
To every city and every town

December 20th: Villanelle
[Plus! Prompt: ‘Transmigration’]

Example:

December 21st: Tableau

Example: little by littlethe shadowy ones
surround the young girl
with all of their ways
'till the old world's gone
'till the new one fills
the girl - now a ghost

December 22nd: Pantoum

Example: DFC 04 I.P.A.S.O.Y. PantoumA world ends on wings of her breath
She whispers in my ear insanity
So things once true turn out stale
Leaving me paralysed-hypno-enticed
She whispers in my ear insanity
And I'm wishing it all away
Leaving me paralysed-hypno-enticed
Eyes like sparkles iced dew smiles
And I'm wishing it all away
Like a blood washed hurricane
Eyes like sparkles iced dew smiles
Whorling sleet mud and flesh
Like a blood washed hurricane
So things once true turn out stale
Whorling sleet mud and flesh
A world ends on wings of her breath

December 23rd: Lai

Example: DFC.2 - ArchangelOf average height,
The eyes blue and bright
With cheer,
You hide in plain light
All colors of white.
Sincere,
You find such delight
In guarding this sight
So clear.
Your stand by your fight
May old souls incite
To tear.
While dreaming of flight
My will do ignite
Sans fear:
With your breath inside,
The triumph, the plight -
Both dear.
So struggle despite,
My own precious sprite,
Stay near.

December 24th: Epistle

Example: :thumb105889553:

December 25th: Trijan Refrain
[Plus! Prompt: ‘Lurking along the edge.’]

Example: DFC 09 - Full MoonWithin his corner, all alone,
   His soul eats from within.
The window shines the light of home;
   It itches in his skin.
He sees the light of gleaming night,
A fearful, bold, enpowering sight.
   He sees the light,
   He sees the light,
And knows the time has come to fight.
The moon, she shines, a perfect ball,
   A softly shimmering sphere.
He shuts his ears against the call,
   Pretends he cannot hear.
He feels the rage in him engage;
His body's now his only cage.
   He feels the rage,
   He feels the rage -
It eats him blank, an empty page.
He loves and fears and loathes these nights
   For reasons never known -
He knows not of his cause to fright;
   He's always on his own.
He never sees the grim release,
The grisly transformation ease.
   He never sees,
   He never sees,
For he is lost by inky trees.

December 26th: Anacreontic verse

Example: Off dA Example

December 27th: Quadrilew

Example: Memor FidelisMemor fidelis,
They fought for their country,
Now they lie lifeless,
In earth and in memory.
They fought for their country,
In battles so grave,
Surrounded by bodies,
Courageous and brave.
Now they lie lifeless,
Names mark their tomb stones,
The sacrifices,
For the ones left at home.
In earth and in memory,
Decayed blood and flesh,
There was no victory,
Just sadness and death.

December 28th: Diatelle

Example: DFC 16 - Thunder RolledCrash!
The sky -
a lone cry
divides the night.
Do not the gods defy
lest they best you with roaring might.
To reach this end, Trouble do not invite,
he will only be greeted by wrath and a flash
of the jagged spear angry gods ignite.
This furor you must not incite.
Should you, the grave is nigh.
They will, in spite,
let you fry.
So why
clash?

December 29th: Diebhidhe

Example: EclipseBrazen ones of demon blood,
Come to brave the muck and mud,
Watching, waiting for the moon,
May it make its presence soon.
Silently on sandy shores,
Angels come, they can't ignore,
This displayed divinity,
As they bask in its beauty.
Energy eclipses here,
Fire, frenzy, doubt and fear,
As the light and happiness,
Wage their war on darkness.
Bitter battle; brethren bleed,
Hastened as no warnings heed,
Destruction brings only death,
Beings breathe their final breath.
As angels ask for timely peace,
Demons cut; they cannot cease,
Nasty nightmares they create,
Or oft they obliterate.
Varied vices show their ways,
Angels love and live to save,
While wretchedness wears away,
Razing, death and devastate.
Angels gather all to give,
Free the flesh, forget- forgive,
Test yourself, explore the truth,
Query, question, all you knew.
Kisses or a killing spree?
Blessings or brutality?
Hearty love or hateful greed?
Which one would you rather be?

December 30th: Rondeau redoublé
[Plus! Prompt: ‘Fixing the unfixable.’]

Example: DFC 31 Unforgiving Rondeau R..A line might form inside my head
Though words should gush forth from my heart
Designing worlds to leave for dead
The crime ignorance we call art
Thoughts quite thunderous softly tread
Some enough to be veiled in part
Blast creativity apart
A line might form inside my head
Stifled by the template ahead
The things meaning swiftly depart
Finding that tomorrow I dread
Though words should gush forth from my heart
Something else that I'd tried to start
The forge roars rivers molten red
Life dawns and I fail to impart
Designing worlds to leave for dead
Smiles and applause naught but a thread
Ghastly reviews would prove your smarts
Reading has obviously fled
The crime ignorance we call art
Can't you save me from what I've said
Wheel away my mind in a cart
Just who knows what is even read
Victims one slice away from tart
A line might form

December 31st: Abcedarian

Example: DFC - Day 1: AbcedarianConfinement
alone, barring candles dwelling,
each flame getting heated.
immature joking kisses leaves
many nameless older people
quickly rummaging sacks,
though under vicissitudes,
wandering Xander yells "zoom!"

Past December Form Challenges

© 2011 - 2024 HugQueen

Comments31

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It's great to see folk encouraged to try out new forms.