Weekly Writing Challenge #61

Challenges are fun. This type of challenge is one of my favorites. Give me a word list and I’ll make you a poem. So here are the five words I have to use: broke, bridge, judge, story, lake.

A haiku using 17 syllables in either sentence or three line format.

Judged by a lake of
Bridged stories, heroes gain truth,
broke foes gain but naught.

Broke of common truth,
Before the judge, man swims 'neath
lakes of false stories.

Sometimes changing the form of a word gives it more power. 

Judged, the lake bridged by
Lies, these storied villains broke
Are redeemed by truth.

Then of course shapes can influence the words used:

           broken lake that carries the
       the                              judged
Bridge                                       past their stories.

Sometimes free verse works best for me:

I was the daughter of a coffee pot
and a lake of tears.
Judged by no one but myself,
I swam an ocean of grounds,
Lay upon black beaches of grounds,
Bridged the distance between a story
Explaining my tardiness,
Or a trip to visit my secret garden of regrets,
I would chose instead a broken biscuit
With a dab of butter and jam.

Or you can assign me a form that is required in its fierceness.
A Cinquain which requires a five-lined poem using first 2, the 4, then 6, then 8, then 2 syllable format:

Broken?
Our Justice gone?
Finding the judge asleep,
Under a lake of lies, bridged by
Stories.

Or perhaps you prefer a Nonet?

At the top, a lake of storied
lies told to a judge with eyes
Closed and clouded. How to find
A bridge to open heart
And mind. Broke the soul
That pushes lies,
Hidden by
A poet's
Eyes.

Well, maybe not that one as much. But with a different structure.

At the top,
A lake of storied lies
Told to a judge with tired eyes.
How to find a bridge between
What is said and what they mean?
Broke the soul that pushes
Past the line that
Formed of truth
At last.

Anyway, those were five words rolling around a challenge...