Discovered in Poetry...

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

There's a new Dialj guest challenger coming up in February, but I thought we might start 2011 a little before that, by granting a request to probodie, who was hoping for a challenge for Valentine's Day... *g* And this year I thought I might combine it with another idea that's been wiggling around, and so we have... the Discovered in Poetry challenge, which also has the advantage of being as pro- or anti- or un- Valentine's Day as anyone might like!

For those who are Valentine's-minded (and perhaps those who are not...) here's a wee history of Valentine's Day - it begins quite promisingly with the Roman Lupercalia, where "young men would strip naked and use goat- or dog-skin whips to spank the backsides..." well, and then it's a fertility thing, but I bet it was occasionally... well, adapted too... *g*

It's an old tradition - and Shakespeare himself brought poetry to it in Ophelia's lament in Hamlet:
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.

Then "In 1797, the The Young Man’s Valentine Writer is published, suggesting appropriate rhymes and messages, and as postal services became more affordable, the anonymous St Valentine's Day card became possible."

But the challenge doesn't have to be about Valentine's Day, though we'll make that our deadline - midnight on the 14th of February 2011 in your time-zone, and if you happen to move to Pago Pago for the duration, then that's fine. *g*

But otherwise it's about the lads and poetry - Alone and palely loitering...... ...to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship.........rage, rage against the dying of the light......The boy stood on the burning deck... *g* Do they read it, do they write it, do they simply live it? What d'you think...?

If you'd like to join in it'd be fab if you commented below to let us know there might be goodies, and if you'd like a prompt then please do comment below and a prompt shall be yours! And if you'd like to sneak quietly into the comm with something poetically-related (whatever it might be - story, vid, art, poem - anything at all!), between now and the challenge deadline, then that would be good too.

Finally - do remember when you're posting to put "trailer information" (see the User Info page) at the end of your post, and under a cut so as not to spoil those who don't need it, and yet be easily found by those who do, and most of all, to enjoy all the thoughts of the lads you'll have while working out your plot!

Would anyone like to play? *g*