Ack! I forgot NPM!

That's National Poetry Month. I meant to post a poem every day, and I forgot already, although it could perhaps be argued that Candace Parker is poetry in motion...

So, I'll do two today. The first was written by Ed Gaillard, in answer to a challenge that went like this:

I'm Captain Haiku!
I don tights and fight evil!
Criminals, beware!

My greatest foe, with
Her repetitious fustian:
The Arch-villanelle!

(100 quatloos to whoever writes a fight scene between Captain Haiku and the Arch-villanelle. I'm not up to it tonight.)

Fortunately, Ed was:

We meet again, Haiku, o best of foes!
Now I shall have revenge on you at last!
This time I'll beat you with my rhyming blows.

No, Arch-villanelle!
I'll defeat you, as I have
many times before!

My pounding meter shakes you to your toes;
bow down before the strength of iambs massed!
We meet again, Haiku, o best of foes!

I can take my time,
sneak up on you as slowly
as snails climb mountains.

Take that, Haiku! Damn all your Fuji snows!
The time for such imagery is long past -
this time I'll beat you with my rhyming blows.

My syllables rain
down upon your head, just as
cherry blossoms fall!

I love seeing the way metaphor flows,
blood of our battle gouting thick and fast.
We meet again, Haiku, o best of foes!

Rainbow after storm:
the colors of our struggle,
like oil on a pond.

Oho! the pace of your invention slows!
Soon you'll fall back on frogs, you're so harrassed.
This time I'll beat you with my rhyming blows.

I can outlast you,
escaping your intentions
the way the frog jumps.

Now we'll see what the final stanza shows.
Have you escaped again, although outclassed?
We'll meet again, Haiku, o best of foes!
next time I'll beat you with my rhyming blows.

Ha! I'll always win —
when your stanzas run out, there's
always more haiku!