Greetings, poem-producers! De Jackson (aka WhimsyGizmo) here. It’s Quadrille Monday again (my favorite!)…when we pen poems of exactly 44 words (not counting the title), including one specific word provided.
My girlie had a big volleyball tournament this weekend, so I’ve got a bit of this on the brain:
In the game of volleyball, a spike is simply a precise, hard, one-handed hit directly over the net. Today, I want us to employ that word – and perhaps that thought – to our poems.
You can spike your drink. You can spike a fever. There are railroad spikes, and spiky hair. And then, there’s this guy:
Maybe you remember this Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Or maybe you’re more a fan of Spike Lee, or Spike Jonze? Is your blood pressure spiking yet?
Whether you use it as a noun, verb, adjective or adverb (she said, spikily), just be sure your poem of 44 words includes some form of the word spike.
If you like, spike us more than one tale in poetic prose. Remember, hyphen fun is welcome, as are coined words and phrases of your own making. Hope this spikes some creativity in your soul, as you get to it!
New to the Q? Here’s what to do:
Just pen a poem of precisely 44 words, including some form of the word spike. Link it up by clicking Mr. Linky. Then make your way around to the other posts, to find some of the most talented poets around. The prompt is open for the whole week, so remember to come back and read (and write!) some more!
Hey, Spike, what do you like?
– Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
There were two men down
and the score tied
in the bottom of the eight
when the pitcher died.
And they laid his spikes
on the pitcher’s mound…
– Paul Simon
Okay, that’s just adorable.
dVerse 
Greetings, my amazing poetical peeps! Hope this has spiked your inspiration meter today. I’m pouring fabulous cocktails and mocktails, spiked with cherries. And if you need a little extra poetic nudge, google the poems of Spike Milligan. 🙂
Can’t wait to read your offerings! Have fun with it!
Well I am spiked with excitement with this prompt. Looking forward to the poetic offerings spiked with cherries.
Thanks De for hosting our Quadrille.
My pleasure, Grace! The imagery in your piece is gonna stick with me awhile. Just so wonderful.
Thanks for fixing Mr. Linky, Ms. Gracey! 😉
She’s da best. 🙂
Fun prompt, De! Thank you for hosting. My younger daughter in particular loved Spike on Buffy. 🙂 I’m going to ponder a bit.
Fun, Merril! Glad somebody recognized him. Bjorn posted a pic when I offered up the Quardille word, and I must confess, I had no idea who he was. Now that Angel guy, on the other hand…him I know. But I called him Seeley Booth, on Bones. 😉
Our daughters loved Buffy and Angel. “Angel” or Booth was also known around here as the son of a well-known local weather forecaster, Dave Roberts. I think I read he was in the Bones season finale.
How fun is that? I loved the show Bones. I may have to check out Buffy and Angel, after all this nostalgia and prompting. 😉
🙂
Hello De, thanks for hosting. I, too, love the quadrilles. I’ve always been impressed by how Toni can come up with, a classic tight haibun for this prompt. So I aspired to do the same with mine today. My only gripe is the brevity. Once my Muse gets me cranked up, it’s hard to shut it down. A full page poem blossomed, and I just picked the fruit of it.
Oh, I love that, Glenn. A poem, pruned. 🙂
Please feel free to share another, as the muse blooms!
LOL Glenn, that is the beauty of Japanese poetic forms – the brevity, the paring down the words to get to the essence of it without all the lahdeedah and blahblahblah of wordiness. Glad you pared down your poem to 44 words. Hey! you can always print it out in its entirety for Open Link night!
Happy Monday Everyone!
Mmmm! Spike, interesting choice. Can go so many ways with this. Hope to come up with something soon
Thanks for hosting De.
Pat
So happy to see you here, Pat! Happy poeming!
Thank you De for hosting today! I am back from having the flu – even after having had my annual flu shot. Fever finally broke, and only one day of Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) pills left to take – so today I re-enter society. I am going to do so by puttin’ a spike in that damned flu, and participating in today’s Quadrille. Great word De!
So sorry to hear you’ve been sick, Rob. Glad you’re feeling a bit back among the living. Can’t wait to see where the word takes you.
The instant I read your word, a memory of my father, myself, and my son flashed into my mind. My father had mangaed my hardball team when I was a teenager. Years later I was asked to manage my 16-year-old son’s hardball team. I vividly remember the moment I crossed the sidewalk, which ran along the backstop, stepped on to the freshly chalked field, to hit infield practice before the first game of the season. That is what I wrote about.
The chalk, the smell of grass. All of it. Memories!
Link to some Spike Milligan fun:
https://www.poemhunter.com/spike-milligan/
Wonderful!
Can you spike my drink with moonshine tonight, De?
It was a word I had some problems with first, but then once I used it as a verb it worked.
Moonshine it is, Sir. 🙂
Thank you for the prompt De. I love the wee hedgehog! Adorable! I think the thing most people don’t get about Japanese poetry is the brevity of it! I love Japanese poetry forms as you know well. I will be glad when it gets to be past freezing at night so I can set out my mater planters.
Hi, Toni. I LOVE brevity in poetry, formless or formed. Your Haibun are simply beautiful.
You do so well with brevity! You can say so much in so few words.
Thank you, Toni. 🙂
I have to say, I’m an Angel girl, not a Spike girl, but I’m willing to give this prompt a go.
And the hedgehog is cuter than both of them…
Right? I cannot agree more. Animals for the win. 🙂
Good evening all and thanks for hosting, De! I arrived at the usual UK time of 20.00 and it looks like the prompt popped up at 19.00. I didn’t forget the Northern American time change but I thought it would stay the same here. I did the same thing last year! When our clocks change, it’ll go back to 20.00 again.Or did everyone just link up early? hat chilly wind on the platform yesterday definitely affected me.
Hi, Kim. We had daylight savings “Spring Forward” over the weekend, so here it is the same “time” as usual for linkups, but must have made a difference in your world.
Hi De and All. Sorry I’m late to the party. Just reading through the comments and can’t wait to read the offerings. Moonshine sounds perfect, do you have any of that apple pie moonshine (“Justified” oblique reference)? Am about to write about a spike that flipped.
I don’t know this reference, but it sounds delicious. Might require a little research, but I shall get us some. 🙂
Hello De and fellow Poets- great prompt, but I confess, I couldn’t go anywhere but dark. So, this will be a departure from my poems of late (I’ve got spring fever!!)
Dark is good. Heading over now.
I just had to write a second before bedtime…
Yay! (And also: Showoff. I am still trying to tune up my first one.)
I’m given up on the linky. It won’t post my link correctly and I’m just buggering up the list. I’ll add the link here. Sorry about that, I don’t know what’s wrong with it.
Jane, there is something glitchy happening on our end. I will link you up as soon as we get it figured out. Sorry for the delay.
I assumed it was me 🙂
Nope. Just checked, and nobody can link up right now. I’ve reached out to Bjorn and Grace for help. Thanks for calling it to my attention.
It is fine now and I have fixed Jane’s poem.
Thank you so much, Grace. 🙂
It’s weird. It’s got itself locked into a 404 error somehow.
Sorry for the current Mr. Linky glitch, gang. I have reached out to our powers that be to see if they can fix it for me. Please feel free to post your link in the comments, and I will link you up later when it’s figured out.
I have to step away from the bar for an hour or so, but I leave you with lots of yummy spiked drinks. Keep poeming on.
I am checking on it. If people can leave their links, I will update the Mr. Linky.
Thanks Grace. I’ve just seen that you sorted it 🙂
who spiked Mr Linky?
as this was quite a thorny one, I went along with that – thanks De
nope no link box for me so here’s mine
The Mr. Linky is already fixed. I added yours.
Thank you Grace
Thanks again, Grace.
Hello, I wasn’t able to add the link. Here it is:
Thank you
Yours is already added to Mr. Linky.
Hey all. I may have botched my link. It should be https://erbiage.wordpress.com/2019/03/11/big-top/
It is already added to Mr. Linky. Thanks for joining in.
No Mr Linky for me. So here’s my entry. A little somber, I’m afraid, but that is what ‘spike’ conjured for me:
Hello VJ! The Mr. Linky is already fixed.
It wasn’t working when I tried – will try again, thanks Grace.
Now I’m in twice, lol. A fine mess Ollie.
I’ve deleted the second entry, VJ. That I DO know how to do. 😉
Thank you!
Thanks again to Grace for fixing Mr. Linky. Did all the same things I always do when creating the post, and somethin’ still went wrong. Sorry for the trouble, y’all.
That animal is just too cute!
Right? I LOVE him. Leetle hedgehog.
I wrote a pair of quadrilles. One was serious to the point it included references to Greek mythology and the other one was about a Pokémon on my phone. I guess you could say I spanned the gambit. Cheers!
A well-rounded poet, indeed, Robert. Love it! 🙂 Glad you’re here.
In for a penny, in for a pound as the Brits would say … great prompt, my first effort at this one! As soon as I read Spike I thought of one man alone
Love it, kate! Welcome!
For some reason I cannot comment on your site. Here is what I typed (multiple times). 😉
“Such a master of wordplay, indeed! Love this!”
I’m always late to the party! 🙂 We saw August Wilson’s “Gem of the Ocean” over the weekend, and there’s a climatic scene about the Middle Passage–probably why I had to write this poem. I’ll try for one a bit more cheerful, if I have a chance.
On my way over now, Merril. Sorry for the late visit.
Thanks, De. I’m late on reading, writing. . . 🙂