Bring me your strangest word, your fiercest theme—
I’ll wrestle syllables until they sing.
No subject is too narrow for a dream.
Name rusted gears or courtly pomp supreme,
A paperclip, a plague, a broken wing—
Bring me your strangest word, your fiercest theme.
Command a sonnet forged of engine steam,
Or odes to onions crowned as if a king;
No subject is too narrow for a dream.
Give me the language of a half-heard scream,
Statistics bent like light in early spring—
Bring me your strangest word, your fiercest theme.
Bid rhyme embrace the arcane and obscene,
Make meter march where misfit meanings cling;
No subject is too narrow for a dream.
So test the reach of ink and its extreme—
Set flint to page and see what sparks I bring.
Bring me your strangest word, your fiercest theme—
No subject is too narrow for a dream.
-
Author:
Matthew R. Callies (
Offline) - Published: March 4th, 2026 08:33
- Comment from author about the poem: I'm asking for people to give me a poem challenge. Give me any tone, any mood, any topic, any choice of words, any poetic form and I will write a poem. You can give me just a single line or a title. You can simply ask for a poem about toads. You can give me a random list of words. It can be literally anything and can be as vague or as specific as you want. I have very few triggers, so even dark and controversial poetry isn't out of the question. So leave your challenge in the comments or DM me. I will give a shout-out to the challenger in each poem I post.
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 12
- Users favorite of this poem: sorenbarrett, Tristan Robert Lange
- In collections: Poetic Challenges.
Offline)
Comments4
I agree Matthew any object or word can be made a poem. Let's start big instead of small "The meaning of life"
You got it!!!
Rich language, strong clever.
You have a challenge in mind?
Not sure what you're referring to
The poem is asking readers to give me a poetic challenge. It's explained in the poem's description, but anything you want me to write about, I'll write it.
Matthew, I really like the line about statistics bent like light… that image caught me immediately. The poem feels playful but also serious about the craft. Since you invited challenges, try this: a sonnet about a broken vending machine that becomes a shrine for small forgotten wishes. I’d love to see what you do with that. 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
You got it. I have one challenge before yours, so hopefully I'll have it posted in 2 days or so.
Awesome! Looking forward. Sorry for my delayed response.
Just posted the poem this morning
Yesss! Cannot wait! Thanks for informing!
Category 'didactic': "Good Prose First, Then Poetry"
Damn you. 😂 This one will be difficult. lol.
You don't have to do it, but for me many 'poets' here resort to poetry because they are unable to express their disordered thoughts rationally in prose....so rather than attempt that and become (hopefully) more rational.....
....and I'm not suggesting they should all contribute prose pieces here either....
'Tell you what - abandon the above suggestion: go for 'Continuous quality improvement' It has ten syllables, though whether it qualifies as an iambic pentameter is open for debate....🙃
I've already started on your first challenge and since I didn't limit the number of challenges one could issue, I accept both. It'll take a couple of days to post them as I have other challenges as well.
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