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This week topic: Something Sad. 

It's the dark days of winter (unless you live on the southern hemisphere), so why not write a poem that makes stuff even more depressing? This week's prompt is to write about something sad. Again, it's a broad topic, and most things will be accepted. Want to write about a horrible death? Fine. About a loss that has haunted you for the majority of your life? Also fine. About that one time you dropped your ice cream on the ground and a seagull flew off with it? Fine as well. Just write a poem about something that includes some sadness and you're good to go. 

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This week's optional requirement: Incorporate a form of alliteration. 

Last week, when we discussed rhyme, I focused mostly on end-rhymes (whereby the final syllables of a word sound similar). This week, I briefly want to discuss Alliteration, or rhyme in which the first (stressed) syllables of the words sound similar. I'm presuming most people already know what alliteration entails, but let me give a brief example for this week's topic just in case: 

O'er the grey docks sounds a solit'ry bell.
Lovers' last kiss, and a fleeting farewell.

I hereby bolded the alliterating words in each line. In the above example, the first letters of the alliterating words are similar, but this can for example also be done with letters or syllables that sound similar (a 'c' and a 'k' might sound similar for example). 

Now, generally speaking, alliteration means that the first stressed syllables sound similar. Words like 'always' and 'again' therefore technically don't alliterate, because the stress lies on their second syllables. (Conversely, 'always' and 'alliterate' are alliterating words). However, this definition is more of a guideline than a rule, and as long as it sounds good to you (and hopefully your readers) it's probably okay. 

Taking alliteration even broader, it;s technically speaking a form of Consonance, whereby the consonants of words sound similar. I won't go into much detail (as you might've noticed so far, I'm a bit short on time today), but consonance basically follows the same rules as alliteration, but might also happen if for example the middle of a word sound similar to those at the end of another one, and so on. Again, if some words sound similar, but don't have the end-rhyme we discussed last week, it's probably consonance. 

So for this week's exercise, the only thing you have to remember is: 

Alliteration: When the first letters of (the stressed syllables of) a word sound similar. 

In order to fulfil this week's optional requirements, just use an example of alliteration somewhere in your poem.

Have fun writing!

@Bannerlord @Crescentstar @Orange @Mizal @Lancelot @Mayana @Betaband @Kwism1127 @Leoscales7 @bbshark

Here's the updated point list. I have some feedback for last week's poems, but I'm unfortunately a bit short on time this weekend. I'll reply in the previous thread somewhere in the coming days.

Bannerlord:    4
Leoscales7:    4
Mayana:        4
Orange:     3
Crescentstar:    2
Kwism1127:    2
Bbshark:    1
Betaband:    1
Lancelot:    1

As always, giving feedback is encouraged, but please don't reply to the entries directly, so people can still change them if they want to.

As Time Ticks

Time ticks and the clock clicks
The fire faintly burns
Small sticks in brown bricks
The world takes another turn

I sit and nervously knit
Green gloves for winter's haze
"What would he do if he were you?"
I ask my measly self everyday

He frantically fights for Russian rights
My baby dares to dream
Of a communist country, finally free
From the Czar's tyrannical team

Months pass in major mass
I wait for the war to be won
Not a whispered word or messenger bird
From my one and only son

Time ticked passed and at long last
A lengthy letter came
A detailed death stole my breath
On sight of a familiar family name

With my son dead, I simply said
"Life lives no longer in me"
I looked over a ledge, then jumped off the edge
Into the raging, ravenous sea

A gold-encrusted autumn leaf
Falls softly from a dying tree
And dances, dances in the wind
Until it lies in front of me.

Azure horizons fill again
With grey and ghastly weeping clouds
As shadows fall on summer fields,
Enveiled once more with mournful shroud.

And vibrant glades are once more stilled
By dormant silence - to soothsay
A season filled with loneliness,
As fragile nature fades away.

As always, feedback is welcome, I'd love to know what to get better at.

Just a bad day

I'm nervous, but there's no reason,
I'm crying, but I can't see why,
not sure, maybe it's the season,
or maybe it's just a bad day?

It's a memory long forgotten,
when we used to reach for the sky,
of a future never gotten,
a angel's song that just won't play.

You left me in pain and broken,
you cut my wings, no way to fly,
left so many things unspoken,
so many things I'd like to say.

But my love, I still can't hate you,
you'll come back, no need to deny,
you will return, my dear Andrew,
and then I won't let you go away!

College Cold

"I want to remember."

Drunken fire on your lips,

The broken beat and swaying hips,

Idle chatter that matters little

As simple sorrows now forgotten

Fade from memory.

Blank bearings, clean slates

For those wishing a fresh start.

But bearings can be long lost friends

And trash thrown in the deepest dark.

"What?" I ask to fill the silence.

"This."