We wanted to share an awesome opportunity with all of our poets to try something new!

Yes…new. 

Don’t be frightened.

New is good.

And in this case, the “new” comes from one of our editors, and it’s far from new to her. Hastywords has become the Queen of poetic duets.

What’s a poetic duet?

According to Hasty:

Two people create one poem.  There are no real rules except it is a collaborative process.  Typically, one person starts and another continues and so on until both parties feel it is complete.  Neither person knows the tone, the pace, nor the story until it is done.  It is really quite beautiful.

So if you’d like to take advantage of an opportunity to write with one of our editors, pop on over to Hasty’s poetic duet’s page and check it out. Drop her a line. Create something amazing!

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Here’s the first poetic duet Hastywords and I ever wrote together (as featured in Perjury):

Symphony

by: Hastywords and Laura A. Lord

I fear the things I cannot hear
As if they are waiting to pounce
These… things just crouching
Somewhere out there, lingering
Invisible graves being marked
Lucidity being disguised; masquerading

I see them standing there in shadow
The light carves lines of lyrics
Through the air, hanging like
Some heavy, wet wool blanket
I suck in a deep breath
And choke on the emptiness

Ready to perform their cacophony
The vile creatures begin to seethe
They can see me but they are hidden
Behind the veil of humanity, starving
Until their masterpiece starts to play
Orchestrating sadness inside of me

I’ve been feeding them with my soul
My mourning spread out
Like a welcome feast
The music swells as they find their seats
I’m serving myself up
On a silver platter

A bow draws strings across my neck
A broken sacrifice, a bleeding wonder

Betrayal breaks out its scaffolding
As it practices its opening notes
A master at creating disharmony
He begins this ceremonial feast
By rearranging the poetic beats
My heart creates as it palpitates

Rewriting a symphony of blues
Into a classical medieval chant

I’m laid here open wide
Like a gift, presented in shining wrapping
And Dismay has constructed
A dance floor in the empty
Cavity of my psyche
He’s twirling Distress to the

Chaos beat of the thump, thump, thump
The mumble of malfunction

The sweet, sweet chorus of dissonance
Rising into raging melodies
As the emptiness inside me grows
And I beg for the mercy
They are salivating heartily for

And I cry the rancid tears
Their tortured souls are thirsty for