Best Storytellas in Town Contest STARTS TODAY!

Just when the impish winter weather is finally cutting most of us (over here on the East Coast) some slack, I’m asking that writers and lovers of poetry pull out those keyboards and or pens, and join us in partnership with Concord Music Group, for our next ‘Best Storytellas in Town’ contest ...kicking off today. (April 1, 2014)

Now, just because this is a writing exercise, it doesn’t mean you must restrict yourself to indoors writing. Go on and get out. Find a corner in some gracious much wide open space, and then chill... tapping into those barricaded and compressed thoughts. Once you have a hand on what you're feeling, turn that abyss into poetic prose and send us your best lyric. Contest rules can be found on our website.

In the meantime, Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’ is an excellent example of what we’re looking for, among others. I also have an excellent example, spelled out below. It's one from my poetry collection... a favorite, and for an extra shout out, its my best-seller too, published in both Atlóta and GEM. The poem is a little longer than what we’re requesting (@almost 1200 words), but it is a perfect replica of storytelling in poetic prose. In this example, Atlóta is a narration of FIVE separate accounts expressed in one seamless lyric. Hint: It's epic, satire, erotic, dramatic speech, and an annotated memoir. 

Atlóta

Buried in a funky deep sleep,
psyched indeed with my own business
unperturbed, unreceptive,
and tucked in an acoustic abyss
adrift fluffy, plush, swanky silk pillars
besieged by dancing cherubs beneath halos
where neither noise an octave above loud,
nor voices ricocheting from a rioting crowd
could peep or seep this funky deep sleep.

A bliss so complete, like an immaculate dream
thy interlude to a hierogram of liquored Ballads playing
or Bacchus in Babylon it would seem,
between Hedonic and Hiatus
gyrating amidst a Confucius medley of glistening,
gospel slick masses championing existence wisped away
in an ephemeral zephyr,
vacuumed at thy frontier of resolve
frolicking in a crystalline euphoria,
a wicked tempest of fervor, Covetous copulation,
and unconscious Conjecture
relishing what was, as it was, for what it was,
while it was, as long as it was
... an entropy of a Cataleptic ecstasy.

Numb inference begged, “Leave me be!”
Craving brusque factions, oh finite contraire
whilst basking adrift confidant clandestine imambarahs,
swallowed by Curacao fountains, rippled Obscenite allure
heterogeneous belladonna trees—thy Chronic,
unforgiving ribbed sheaths—Caught!
A blanket sea of salty water, “Let me see, let me see!”
Syrupy sinuous manes, agitated pearled tears,
limbs er’verywhere.
Pusillanimous kitty cats, mannish brutes,
excited passels bare
rolled bouquets, seething fumes,
elongated prongs, superfluous cash
stretched fronts and voluptuous backs,
scrutineers, a sanguine bash.
Teats, harnesses, paws and claws,
risqué eyes and pining sighs
Nay uno, nay dos,
Así Así, er’very Adonis albeit for me.

Halt! Er go, Knock, Knock...
Who be it!
Good Lord, let’s Rock!
Let thy last be first and thy first be last
mangled fate whimpered only once,
trolloping anew, and galloping fast
end to end tanning whirls, saddle curls,
palsy pouches and stopwatches
crepuscular creeds, scabrous ad lib deeds,
acquiescence, turpitude, and tainted certitude.
Repent not! At thy crevice of St. Croix,
flam bam
is thy Arabian apprentice
before an ambitious demand.

Come, follow... darling wedded gladiolus
Retreat! Thy Au Fait has spoken
begged forsaken fortress and babes,
and jilted comrades
savored spirited splits,
a la mode reverence, and scarlet parades.
Oh God, clutching convivial spreads,
devoured self-reproach,
and admonishing thy rejected vow.
Praised postulated pistol on pious bookends,
and suckled ducts asking how?
Tilted pleas, a shriek anonymously, echoing excuses
before vindication on display, thy inimitable,
palpable, flagrant, and tangible.
Loving it, reveling it, mocking it,
wanting it, and needing it
Lord have mercy on me.

Don’t shake me, dare wake me
... just leave me be.
Gripping raving wild flames, enwrapped Paradise,
and entrenous games
embracing this pickled resistance, tickled essence
dancing spirit—a slavish tyrant soul,
and fixated quintessence
hailing a wooly prospect, an idle stance,
and celebrated fallacies,
as nothingness is grandeur...
to be magnified and glorified and upheld
for what was, as it was, for what it was,
while it was, as long as it was
... cradling acrimonious Deify longing.

Copious lions, Capricious lioness encapsulate
untaken phases.
Menaced reasoning bullied, inked notes annihilated
obliged captions in lieu suspiciously disguised
and reaved defenseless and perverse,
dismantled and chaperoned without surprise.
What’s that playing?
Let me wallow...
Muddled Saxophones, Flutes, Trombones,
thy Bass playa and oh glorified Drums
monotone voices, mellow manipulation,
racy whispers, and feisty hums
dialogues of all thy Kings horses,
and all of Gods men
a sanctimonious reprieve
to redeem an imaret hymn.

“Your Honor, High Ruler, oh gracious Masterful Worshiper...
let’s entreat, deliver from temptation...
and reign illicit revelation!”
To honor and serve, shield and protect
thy noble Messiah of metaphoric marvel,
massif facade and entangled debate
perpetuated upon labored peppery gasps,
and a feverish consummate.
To revere and dish up, preserve and shelter
grandiose panthered aquatic voyage,
amidst tenured birds of prey who stalk,
Benedict Arnold, thy Faulkner song,
Fiddler in thy brush all night long.
To venerate and serenade, realm and alter
a gasket and gamut, a largess overflowed
convened assembly chasseurs bestowed.
Goliath at thy frontier baptized Kingpin,
blessed Chevalier
ensue hallowed Stature, and chauvinist chandeliers
thwarted lances, intrepid chances,
machismos galore, a mi a more!

Dear Sir, and John, St. James, and Julius
masseurs of masochism begotten not
splendorous relic deracinate piquant magnolias,
extemporaneous weeds,
enigmatic pistillate narcissus bulbs,
and cooked geranium seeds.
Oh, Benedict betwixt majestic
theatrical orchestrate monsoons
hidrosis vista, unzipped bawds,
jittery veins, and pulsating balloons.
Irreproachable lust, irrecusable just,
irredeemable trust
ashes to dust, speared and robust
All thy Kings horses,
and all of Gods men an irresistible must.

Seized plunder, bestrewn anchor,
aggression blurred and marred,
misty boundaries aboard bosomed agnostic censure
as tedious labored gait pursued thy flagrant, stupendous,
bodacious Heroine.
Lament wails trounce obscurity
to awaken nebulous siestas, puckered nostalgia...
Oh, do read: The Scarlet Letter!
Stealth ardor fashioned frigid havens,
amalgamate masqueraded decorum, erudite and pivoted.
For hush be thy Chief who pilfers succulent innocence
in thy hour of dark,
funneled slippery slope aperture, deliverance inure
to harvest thirst, and hunger, and sequent variables
vacated red herrings, Straw-men, and fickle Parables.
Fissured admittance, an unpretentious egress,
envied consortium toys imprisoned, an efficacious digress.

Don’t shake me, dare wake me
... just leave me be,
Repent not, one for all, and all for one!
Thy solitaire twilight stance,
thy parvenu, endemic hodge-podge
a windfall moonstruck dance
and a myriad of arid mortals lodged.
Endowed merit, levy amiss
seaside shoreline, Lombardi incline,
and a hellbent savored kiss.
Exalted labyrinth stationary, addendum itinerant
stalled heath, services rendered, clogged and flogged
shrouded subterranean, coupé de ville fogged.
Cup overrunneth, gracious beings to see
over anchored thumbs, pedestal sling-backs,
as thy Traipse summits a trajectory path.

Nosh unencumbered Philanderers,
punctilious wedded Obligors,
whilst thy shadows befall Prince Eminence
vanished casings, contemporary snatched lives
of begotten, befuddled, and beguiled nebulous wives
nestled and truffled, abutting and looming tryst vistas
yet valor infatuated and reminiscent of hemmed,
disguised Mistahs,
exuding viscid venues encased lock, stock,
...and negotiated status quo, troupes indigo
ablaze, chaste, lurid, jagged, vite companions
and Gingers too,
seizing Atlóta, er go sundry scripts,
and thy sated negotiated alphabet
negating thy professed farce plea,
of thy resolute trite belief
thus counseled unsullied lasses
be plucked from befallen wrinkled spite
as inner thrust en route be more ethereal,
before as nameless
for God be upon thy throne,
thus thy chosen conduit refuted be quarried alone
as thy bitter cupid tome now be undone.

Must thy debate be implored?
Wassail thy frozen novel, nullify perjured deceit wholly
for thy Emperor be supreme
as flush ballade liaisons mutual.
Don’t mention it, you’re welcome,
preempted ego suspended foremost
enthralled imposters be thy least conceptual
Behold!
Wake thy shallow, thy hallow,
unearth accroached marrow
ruin Pharisee beasts
which japes thy naked Godsend
pilfers thy tawny cats den
with lechery veins pumping,
devesting a Goddess condemned
wily, counterfeit, deceitful spies
cozen and cowering, thy serpent’s eyes.
Beware! Fooled not! For God hears all cries
unfulfilled hunger to be kept
thus thy soul devoid, rifeness wept
for thy veiled creep, is a Hetaera’s keep
epitomized revelry heap to reap,
seep and peep
For try if you care, but pry do not dare
to defy this funky bare, deep sleep.