979. Magic Potion

Another poem from this years March Madness @ thinkkidthink.com. 

This time the assigned world was 'quintessential':

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Magic Potion (or Why I Got An ‘F’ in Math)
By Vikram Madan

“First, take one twitch of witches’ itch, and swirl in swish of pirate’s blade
Then add a dab of dragon scab, and spice with hints of tint of jade
Whip up the scowl of two foul owls, and pep with pinch of poet’s woe
Mix in the roar of ogre’s snore, and boil this all with stub of toe!”

“And when you’re done”, the Gypsy hummed, “you will have made a potent brew -
A quintessential tonic that will fix whatever’s vexing you!”
No time to think! I cooked this drink! And poured it on my test today!
Well, did my test turn out the best?!? No … it grew legs and ran away … 

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980. Train Wreck

Here is a recent 'concrete poem' I did for the March Poetry Madness at the ThinkKidThink.com site. The poem was specifically written to accommodate the assigned word for the tournament 'concurrent'.

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Train Wreck
by Vikram Madan

My poem wasn't very tight – a word slipped out and fell
It landed on the line below and ruptured that as well
What opus could withstand the weight of words with such impact?
My rhymes were shaky from the start, but now my structure cracked!
The meter flailed, the rhythm quailed, the syllables played dead
Concurrent with this brouhaha, the verses cursed and fled
More lines caved in…! More words fell through…! The end is nigh, I guess 
I hope you’ll still make some sense of this train wreck of a mess.

My poem wasn't very tight – a word slipped out and fell
It landed on the line below and ruptured that as well
What opus could withstand the weight of words with such impact?
My rhymes were shaky from the start, but now my structure cracked!
The meter flailed, the rhythm quailed, the syllables played dead
Concurrent with this brouhaha, the verses cursed and fled
More lines caved in…! More words fell through…! The end is nigh, I guess
I hope you’ll still make some sense of this train wreck of a mess.

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A "concrete poem" is one where the physical structure of the written words give shape to the poem, an idea I took quite literally. However fixing word formats on web pages is very tricky - can you spot the simple trick I used to make sure the words show up in all the right places?