The Terrible Poetry Contest

Posted on by Colleen M. Chesebro

Have you ever heard of the TERRIBLE Poetry Contest? Chel Owens hosts this challenge. This kind of poetry is so fun to write… why do we have to be serious all the time? For this challenge, Chel wants you to write a terrible tanka! You’ve got this!

Welcome to the biweekly Terrible Poetry Contest! This contest came about because of too many poets writing far, far too many qualifiers (I mean; really?), emoting in the sloppiest ways, counting syl…

Source: The Terrible Poetry Contest

Here is my entry:

Chel Owens’ Terrible Poetry Contest was just the perfect bit of fun I needed to get my creative juices flowing! Chel says you can learn how to write terrible poetry HERE.

The form is a tanka which is usually written in the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable count. Tanka shouldn’t rhyme, and we should write them from the perspective of the poet. Now that I know how to write them correctly… how do I make a terrible tanka? I’ll show you below:

Twisted tanka

shopping lists and lint
my mittens turned inside out
pocket poetry
quiet your skeptical mind
get your winter coat dry cleaned

The theme is “what one might find in one’s pocket.” This poem meets the syllable count 5-7-5-7-7. This poem literally means nothing. LOL! 😀

And guess who won?

READ all about it HERE!

Check out what form I suggested for Chel’s contest this week:

https://chelowens.com/2022/03/22/the-terrible-poetry-contest-3-18-22/

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