So I went to a Second Life poetry work shop and I had 15 minutes to write and this is what I have. I need to rework it but I wanted y'alls opinion:

Men define and control
They are gatekeepers always on guard protecting
Masculinity

The Old Guard
The New Guard

Men cling to the good old days
To confining roles
Restricted freedoms

Puritans restricted, restricted , more rules more laws
Believing an individual's sin brought down the wrath of God
A fire burns your neighbor's house
The price of a stranger's sin

Men restrict, police, more rules more laws
Believing the individual expression will bring down the
Carefully built walls of domination and conformity

If one man wears pink or dresses or bows in his hair
What does it mean for men collectively?
It brings them down
And down
And down
To femininity

Womanness
Otherness
Weakness

When a man or group of men commits an act of aggression on
A non conforming non dominant weaker group
Men collectively cry out out "not all men"

But when pointed out that
Not all men

Want their rigid rules, restrictions
The fanatic patrolling and gatekeeping

That some men want dresses
And pink
With beards and boots

The collective The Gatekeepers The Old Guard The New Guard
Recoil and turn and hurl towards those to tear them down
These not men

Because those who do not comply are not men.

Then being a man stops being SOMETHING
THE THING

A chink in the armor is weakness to all
Some men, not all men, some men
Are terrified of what will happen
When the armour falls

What they will see inside themselves
Find repressed and hidden
What the "others" will do when the power falls to them

Some men, not all men, many men
Are brave until they face
The idea
Of being the other, the different
They rail against the loss of power
They fear the other, the different, the women, the gays, the ones they have oppressed
Will take their cudgels and strike them down

Man's Fear:
"You reap what you sow"

Love it, askye. Well put, something that would work really well at a poetry slam.

Thanks!

II'm trying to use SL as tool to stretch myself creatively and participate in an environment where I can be around people but be comfortable. The place I did this has a the poetry prompt every day at the same time so I may try to go several times a week.

Maybe at some point I'l be comfortable enough to do it in real life in front of physical people.

That sounds like a great way to ease into it. I do better with prompts, too.

That's amazingly powerful, askye. One tiny thing--hurl means to throw some*thing*, hurtle means to fling oneself. I think you need hurtle there, but I'm not sure.

Thanks Bev this is still the first ish draft. I did fix one line that was missing words. That kind of feedback is why u posted it. And I was really happy I could write something. I may work with it when I'm at the beach or let it wait until I get back to a comouter. I want to mess around with the format some.

askye, that's lovely. I like the way you're working through short lines and long, big concepts and small armor-chinks.

Thank you Sox that means a lot to hear.

So I've done a few more poetry prompt things in Second Life. Not all of them are worth sharing.

but "meat safe" is the prompt today and this is what I came up with. Too many ideas were going on so I kind of tightened it up

Hannibal
Gore porn

It's on tv freely

The censors so afraid of nudity
But they let the bodies have more blood

Censors love it

More than

Kisses
Caresses
Barenakedness

Because nudity is shame and sex is shame but

Violence is what we

Live for
Die for
Watch for

The new sport

Watching hannibal
The cannibal

Saw comes on at 2 pm on Saturday
Blurred only some, the worst bits but not all the blood

Approved blood must be
violently sourced

Drained from veins
Exploding from brains

Censors balk and blanche at
Blood on Kotex
Playtex or tampex

We can't hurt delicate sensibilities

So it's
Blue water
On white cotton

Because it's
(hushed whispers now)
Shameful
It's
(stage voice now)
vulgar

But Hannibal can have more blood and gore
Saw can be on 2 pm on Saturday

They crave and crave and crave Blood as it sprays
Arterial
As it drips
And drops
From slow tortuous cuts

Censors agree
That's okay

They squirm and turn away from
Blood not violently torn from
A female

Damn, askye. That cuts like a knife. (Sorry, but your imagery has gotten under my skin.)