Poetry Slam: A One-shot

No

No no no no no

Poetry?

Like, the thing eggheads do when they zone out?

No no no no no

No

Rhyming

Can’t do it

Would rather be free

Like a bird

Instead of a library

Trapped in here

With you

TWILIGHT

STOP

PLEASE

CANNOT

WILL NOT

Learning poetry is like all these words

Flying around inside

While I’m not flying around

Outside

A whaterick?

This is a limerick

I’m staring at a brick

I really wish I

Could just go out and fly

This poetry is making me sick

Oh, now I have to say it?

As in out loud?

Right now?

Here?

If you’re that silent because it was terrible and you don’t know where to begin, I guess I’ll be leaving now

NO

I’m not

Going to stay

YES

I’m the

Element of Loyalty

BUT

That doesn’t

Mean that I

HAVE

To do

Things I don’t

WANT

To do

BECAUSE

You are

My friend

Don’t give me that face

And just because Applejack’s The Element of Honesty doesn’t mean

You are allowed to lie to my face

The whateverick was terrible, and you know it

Hey, put me down!

Just let me fly away!

You know, when you said “poetry slam”

I thought we’d spend our afternoon lobbing Shel Silversteed books at each other

What? More writing?

A what?

The pegasus flies

Loving the open-aired skies

It’s not a surprise

No

I’m not going to stand here and humiliate myself by reading this out loud.

You can’t make me

*sigh*

There, I said it

Can I go now?

I promised to come over and “hang out”

If this is your idea of “hanging out”

…

We can do something fun now?

YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS

I promise I’ll be back in 15 minutes

Don’t look at me like that

…

That’s not fair

You can’t use your unicorn magic

Just

To get me

Back inside

A break? Fifteen minutes is a break?

Don’t say that word “Free”

Because the second bit “Verse”

It’s an oxymoron

You can’t promise that it’s going to be fun

Poetry’s the worst thing under the sun

A cou-what?

No

I don’t believe you

You’re wrong

The definition’s wrong

I

Rainbow Dash

Am in no way

Talented

At

Poetry

Twilight, it was a sentence that just happened to rhyme.

Not poetry.

Oh, now you have to read some?

Out loud?

Those short ones were nice

The kind of poems you could read on the fly

PUT ME DOWN

As much as I’d love to, I don’t think I’ll be leaving.

You wouldn’t let me.

So don’t start freaking out every time I mention flight.

NOW THAT’S JUST CRUEL

Are we done?

MORE?

I can’t stand this.

Can I go now?

If I let you read one more, can I leave?

Promise?

Pinkie Promise?

Fine.

Good night Twi’

…

Hey Twilight, wake up

I’m still not into poetry

But I had a question

About the one

With the wheelbarrow

GO AWAY SPIKE

sorry

What was my question?

Well

Why is this

“red wheelbarrow”

So important?

It’s not even doing its job

It just sits there

Like you

sorry

And what was with that poem anyway?

It didn’t rhyme

It just was

Not all poems rhyme?

Don’t use the words “free” and “verse” in the same sentence

We’ve been over this already

That explanation’s stupid

No rules?

Then how do you get only good poems

In books?

You mean

That people

Try really hard

To write good poems?

Hmph

That’s a stupid comparison

I had to work really really hard to win those competitions

And you had to work really really hard to ace those tests

All they had to do was put words to a page

NO

I already tried yesterday, remember?

I’m not going to stoop to their level and write this “free verse” that you keep talking about

Fine

But you had better do something really good for me in return

There once

Was

A

Pegasus

Who hated

Poetry

But

Wrote it anyway

See?

That took less than ten seconds

I could be clearing skies

But instead I’m in here

See you later, Twilight

…

Hey Twilight, I was thinking

Did that wheelbarrow poem have a sequel?

Like all those Daring Do stories

The ones where her wings are broken and she’s hanging onto a cliff for dear life

You know those?

It doesn’t?

How about a prequel?

Like “Daring Do is hanging on to a cliff, here’s how she got into this mess”

Those are my favorite because the action starts right away

No?

Then why is the wheelbarrow important?

Nice try, Twilight

But you can’t make me write it

It’s the author’s work

I can’t just add on to it willy nilly

It’d be like somepony else writing Daring Do books

It wouldn’t be the same

Anyway, thanks for answering my question

I’ll be seeing you later

…

HOW DID YOU GET UP HERE?

Oh right, magic.

You wanted to stop by for a visit?

That’s sweet, but I’m pretty busy

Tank’s sick

No no, nothing to be concerned about

Fluttershy’s been helping me

Thanks for checking in though

I appreciate it

Maybe you could come back later?

Back already?

Look, you’re a great friend and all, but don’t you think that there’s something you need to be doing?

Are you sure?

Of course you saw Fluttershy at the market just recently

Where else would she buy medicinal supplies?

I will have you know that carrots are very medicinal

Fine

You can come in

I’m apologize for lying to you

What are all these papers?

Just some stuff I’m jotting down for a personal project

Definitely nothing about a red wheelbarrow

Or rainwater

FINE

I liked the poem

BUT

I don’t like what Bill Coltos did to me

Can I call him Bill?

He painted a picture in my mind

I’ve been trying to get rid of it for a while

Stupid wheelbarrow

Stupid rain

That’s how you tell good poetry from bad?

Words that make pictures?

Isn’t a picture worth a thousand words?

Because this wheelbarrow is only fifteen

Why are you still reading that stuff I wrote?

Wait, you think they’re pretty good?

How?

What does “brevity” mean?

So, you’re saying that because my “poetry”

My “free verse”

Is short

It allows more to the imagination?

So, like what William Coltos did to me?

Wow

Wait, you’re trying to compile some poems for a book?

And you want this one to be one of them?

Fine, but don’t put my name on it.

I have an image to keep.

***

The Red Wheelbarrow

By: William Carlos Williams

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

***

The Red Wheelbarrow (response)

By: Anonymous

the red wheel

barrow

without it where

would

the snow white

chickens

hide from the

rain?