Dare Me the Difficult Thing

Matthew R. Callies

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 (Online Online)
  • 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: 4
  • Users favorite of this poem: sorenbarrett
  • In collections: Poetic Challenges.
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Comments +

Comments1

  • sorenbarrett

    I agree Matthew any object or word can be made a poem. Let's start big instead of small "The meaning of life"



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