Multifandom Poetry Fest 2025

[minutia_r]

A couple of months later than usual, but it's finally here--the ninth annual Multifandom Poetry Fest, a prompt fest for poetry for all fandoms! Have fun, and feel free to promote it on your journal/community/tumblr/discord server/whatever if you want. You can copy the code in this box wherever HTML applies:

<a href="https://minutia-r.dreamwidth.org/77212.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/220a0fefa7cd361f6c42cfbf4dfbc3de/e5430d7faa854488-6c/s1280x1920/f4fb82ce50644660013b181195d74200fe39c80a.jpg" /></a>

Rules

1) Leave a prompt in the form of fandom, characters or relationships, prompt. If you don’t want to specify the fandom or characters, you can say "any." One prompt per comment. Leave as many prompts as you like.

2) Reply to other people’s prompts with poems. The poems can be any length or form, or no form. Quality isn’t important--the point is to have fun, not to produce deathless works of art. (Any deathless works of art produced are just a bonus.)

FAQ

Q: I want to write a sonnet/haiku/villanelle/limerick, but I’m not sure how it goes.

A: A couple of good lists of poetic forms and their structures are here and here.

Q: Can I write fills without leaving any prompts, or leave prompts without writing any fills?

A: Go ahead!

Q: I want to fill a prompt, but someone else has already filled it.

A: That’s okay, prompts can be filled multiple times.

Q: I want to write explicit erotica, or a poem with potentially disturbing themes, or a poem that spoils recent installments of canon (or make a prompt for the same). Is that okay, and what sort of content do I need to warn for?

A: Sure, that's fine. Warnings are considerate and appreciated, but they're also up to the discretion of the individual poster. Consider this a warnings-optional space and read at your own risk accordingly.

Q: Are the fills I write considered to be gifts to the prompter?

A: Only if you and the prompter want them to be! Otherwise feel free to treat the prompt simply as inspiration.

Q: Can I prompt/write original works?

A: Original works are a fandom! If you want, you can specify genre and character types while prompting, like so: original fantasy setting, female elf/female orc, next time I won't miss.

Q: I want to participate, but I don't have a dreamwidth account/I'm shy.

A: That's okay--anonymous posting is on.

Q: How long is the fest going to be running for?

A: Currently, I don't have any plans to close this post to comments--I figure we'll keep going until everyone gets bored and wanders off. I reserve the right to change my mind, though.

Q: Is there a collection on AO3 where I can post my poems?

A: Right here.

Q: I want to participate, but I suck at writing poetry.

A: Aww, you’re probably not as bad as you think. But even if you are, it really doesn’t matter--like I said, the main point is to have fun.

Comments

[minutia_r]

Murderbot Diaries (books or show), Pin-Lee, negotiation

[minutia_r]

Queen's Thief, any, tell me a story

[minutia_r]

Critical Role, any wizard, spellbook

[primeideal]

Stormlight Archive, any, symmetry

[primeideal]

Slay the Spire, the Merchant, advertising jingles

Merchant, A Routine Visit

[genethesupreme]

You look like an enterprising person,
the sort who's dying for a good bargain.
In fact, by the weariness in your expression
and the way you carry your body refusing to give into it,
I can tell you've already died for a deal like this more times than you can count.
Though I tell no future (what future exists in this place
but a present refusing to let go), the cards I hold
can overturn your fate (provided, of course,
you're enough of a sucker to believe fate can be changed.)
Barricades to save for rainy days! Potion brewing on the go!
Energy from nothing! Free godliness! (side effects include...
This waffle tastes like real wheat! The power of X!
What's X? Wouldn't you like to know?
(It, like the function of pieces of stock to help or hinder,
is a mystery inherent to the structure at the foundation of the world)
For now, I'll allow you to select what you want from here,
or, if you so choose, leave with less money and fewer goods than you came with.
Until we meet again, in this life or the next.

[llonkrebboj]

\o/ Yay!!!! Glad we're open for another round :D

Nirvana in Fire, Langya, tell me about something beautiful.

[minutia_r]

\o/

This year's been a bit crazy, but I'm glad I didn't close it out without this fest.






The petitioner requests:

Tell me about something beautiful.

The price demanded:

A pair of shoes, the soles worn down by a thousand thousand steps.

The answer:

A mountaintop piercing the mist, sharp as a wolf's tooth against the sky.

The hush of a scriptorium, the whisper of brushes writing, the smell of sandalwood incense and ground ink.

The early morning's chill.

[toothpastepancake]

The Orville, Any, once upon a time, there was...

[toothpastepancake]

Babylon 5, Morden/Anna, i could never get close enough to you

[minutia_r]

Howl's Moving Castle (book or movie), Calcifer, the heart of a star

[minutia_r]

Fairy tales, any, what will you trade for your heart's desire?

[genethesupreme]

The love of your life
Wealth beyond your wildest dreams, or wealth enough to get by
Freedom from oppression, or freedom from your annoying family
All these things have a price quoted by what lies slightly beyond reality.
In the worn pages of a catalogue labelled "Desires".
But you and I want for much, and desire much.
And, for the sum in that yellowing book,
These same forces will gladly buy these things from you
And isn't that a much better deal?

[minutia_r]

Tolkien, any, across the sea

Tolkien, any, across the sea

[(Anonymous)]

Findekano waits unceasing for the day
His yearning at last will be allayed
And out of the Halls of Mandos to begin anew
Hair to match the blood of his enemies
Victorious, his love will sail across the blue
And even the Valar will bless their peace

[sweettartheart]

The Old Guard, Joe/Nicky, my body is my map

The Old Guard, Nicky/Joe, Italian Sonnet: My body is my map

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

my body is my map. it lives, persisting
despite insult after insult, what remains
are landmarks under shifting sands, these terrains,
these valleys, these highlands, these crags, existing
and still existing, reclaiming, resisting
the blows inflicted by an hourglass which drains
in spite of conquering defeats and lost pains,
while signs and signages decay, insisting

that nothing ever lasts, but I disagree,
and your body is my proof, my testament,
healing as it heals, mapping my every shore
and limit, spirit and flesh, cartography
until I’m brought to my knees by blessing sent,
not the map but the love that draws it once more

[sweettartheart]

Inception, any, puzzles

[(Anonymous)]

A puzzle is a question, which,
while we may never reach an agreement on the final answer,
we agree on the processes of thought we take to reach it.
We agree on the sketches of the plan, the precision instruments
by which we agree to dream the same dreams.
But I cannot help but intuit
That we do not agree on something very basic
That there is a gulf between us on what the question is
That while we are of one mind yours is elsewhere
That you don't truly want the puzzle to be solved

[sweettartheart]

ACD Sherlock Holmes, any, precision

Rachel Howells (The Musgrave Ritual)

[minutia_r]

Precisely ten steps east and four steps south—
Precisely when the sunlight crowns the oak—
The ritual passed down by word of mouth
In faithful service to the crown that broke.

You broke your faith with me. And yet you thought
To treat me as a trifle and a tool.
I'd help you to recover what you sought
And trust you'd split the loot? No. I'm no fool.

Were your own arms too weak to lift alone
The stone that hid the treasure? What a shame.
Weaker still, your promise to atone
And breathe new life to our extinguished flame.

I stood above you. Came to a decision.
Let the stone fall, with purpose and precision.

[primeideal]

Vorkosigan Saga, any, outsider POV

Vorberg's Villanelle

[minutia_r]

Do you know your duty as a Vor?
Or is it just another cushy deal
Like your supposed job as courier?

We live to serve. That's what our lives are for.
Not to exploit, to plunder and to steal—
Do you know your duty as a Vor?

My blood and bones are your plush sinecure.
And I, for one, won't fall for empty spiel,
Or your supposed job as courier.

Illyan needs you, and your father swore
His life between his hands. You'd turn your heel?
Don't you know your duty as a Vor?

But then—you came, when you were once called for.
Medal-bedecked, an Auditor's chain and seal
A far cry from your job as courier.

There aren't many left of us who feel
Our oaths, who care enough to make Vor real.
But you still know your duty as a Vor.
You never were a bloody courier—

Were you?

[toothpastepancake]

Babylon 5, Any/any or any, shatter me

[toothpastepancake]

The Orville, any/any or any, epilogue

[toothpastepancake]

The Orville, Teleya, stigmata

[genethesupreme]

Cyteen, Ari II, dollhouses

[minutia_r]

I	II
sweet, you're	here
proof of what life can be	come
the lichens	the platytheres
fouling our lungs—	wrecking the road again.
they also give us life.	why won't anyone play with me?
ignore the small-minded ones.	what do they know
we can't	and won't
be bound by their rules.	tell me?
write my next chapter.	why am i too much and
i give you the world, and still it's…	not enough?

[minutia_r]

Any D&D canon, any barbarian, rage

[(Anonymous)]

A fire burning within
A focus deep inside
Rage, rage, rage
I feel it harden my skin
As my fury turns the tide

Before my enemy I stand
Tempting them like a bait, a lure
Rage, rage, rage
Sword and shield, extension of hand
Wound, fatal, I endure

I must continue the fight
Else friends be harmed by foe
Rage, rage, rage
My inferno, remain alight,
Let us last 'til the final blow

Yet as battle ends, worry begins
What if all they can see is my
Rage, rage, rage?
All my defences, labelled as sins
Without my rage, who protects an ally?

[minutia_r]

Any superhero canon, any, the power of friendship (and incredible violence)

MCU Bucky & Steve

[(Anonymous)]

At the end
With blood staining my face
I see you, my friend
Beside me, in place
I fought and I killed for this
The end of the line
You fought and you never missed
Found your peace, now it’s time
So hold my hand here
And celebrate, we won
The end of my time is near
But yours is yet to come

[toothpastepancake]

The Sims, any, puppetry

[minutia_r]

Shakespeare, any, mirror image

my father/my mirror, King Lear, Cordelia & Lear

[(Anonymous)]

And did you see me in the rain
My father?
Kneeling before you
You asked who I was
Touch my face
And we howl at the moon
Craters in our chest
When I left, should I have known
What would come to be?
Should I have seen
How they peeled from the glass
Like shadows in the dark
Villains in the heath?
Our warped images
But I was always your equal
Always your prize
A piece of glass
Chipped from your magnificent statue
My father, why did you
Turn your back on your reflection?
Why did you knock my heart
To the floor
When I held it out in open hands?
It was too much like yours
And see our faces in the chains
In the sky
See the blood and rot
Mar your countenance
And so it mars mine
My father, you never looked in mirrors
But you looked at me
You are king
And so I am queen
You are the question
I, ever-loyal answer
And we are almost the same
So crown me with your wreath of thorns

[minutia_r]

Greek mythology, any, the journey and the destination

[llonkrebboj]

Sungrazer

It rose from the darkness.
A sliver of ice yearning for flame, a wanderer tracing the long curve between silence and radiance. The path it carved was a longing that bent its trajectory toward that burning monarch whose gaze dissolves the night.

Closer.
The void grew thin, darkness falling away like a husk.
Light cloaked it in revelation, and its vaporizing body became a song.

It did not fall.
It became light itself, every atom relinquishing its shape to shimmer in the radiant wind. Though nothing of it remained, its brief ascent left its mark in the heavens.

And observing this, we learn the Sun's secret pulse.

[kiraly]

The Queen's Thief, any, you have offended the gods

[minutia_r]

The queen
Gleaming with gold and rubies
Exalted as Hephestia on her mountaintop--
To love her too well offends the gods.

Kingship
Is a divine mystery
For mortal men to bow their heads and not question.
To strike the king offends the gods.

Wisdom
A gift from the gods' own messenger
Who teaches men to curb their natures--
To lose one's temper offends the gods.

Here I sit:
Condemned three times by my own actions.
No hope of mercy.
No regret.