Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 16:45:35 +0000
From: mouse <mouseatwork@FRPG.COM>
Subject: Re: Ratling Poetry
>> I think a combination Ratling/Mujina Poetry hour would be excellent >> fun.
> Mouse-sama, what are the characteristics of the Nezumi style of poetry? > If we are going to do poetry readings I’ll have to start composing now, as > it takes me *forever* to write poetry.Oooh, that is a very good question! I’m not sure that I’m actually qualified to give you the definitive answer though. Human poetry varies so greatly, and stays so little to any one standard, that it is very hard to pick just one “style” and say “this is Ratling”.
I would not expect that very many Ratlings write epic poetry though, or that if they do, that any of us could get through an entire epic in the appropriate voice...
Anyone out there that writes have any good guidelines or style suggestions?
It would be fun to have some “rules” to adhere to...\
Mindy Sherwood-Lewis
“The difference between the right word and nearly the right word is
the difference between lightning and a lightning bug” Mark Twain
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 21:46:01 -0700
From: Jeanne Kalvar <Jadehunter@EMAIL.MSN.COM>
Subject: Ratling Poetry
A challenge! Excellent.
My suggestion.
Ratlings spent many hundreds of years observing the humans and their ways, from a distance. One tribe, living on the borders of the dark lands near the sea, learned something of this special sort of short poem that humans favored called the Haiku. Mainly, they learned of haiku because samurai staggering through the Shadowlands with gaping belly wounds would pass them these poems with some sort of muttered plea shortly before keeling over.
It was all very depressing.
However, from the brave and noble samurai, they learned what a poem should be...a couple of line verse spoken or written on paper. Three or four lines was good.
It was poetry.
In another part of the dark lands, near the mountains, there lived another great tribe of Ratlings, very wise and clever. Back in those days, they avoided the creatures of the Shadowlands, but ever were they vigilant and wary about their presence. One day, there was a great disturbance near the borders of their land. Their bravest scouts crept forward to discover what it was. There, in a dark and tainted place, they saw a human, a maho-tsukai, cackling and laughing. Around him, hundreds of zombies were raising from the ground in shambling piles. And they spoke. “Brains!” “Brains!” some said. Some said, “Kill! Kill!” Over and over again.
It was all very boring, yet interesting.
Then the maho-tsukai cackled madly, crying out, “Their voices! They are poetry! Beautiful to my ears!” And they he staggered off, leading his army of dead people away. The ratling scouts wrinkled their furry noses and went home. This poetry was very strange. Just sounds repeated over and over again.
Boring, perhaps. But it was poetry.
However, all is not always peaceful among the ratlings, and the day came, as it was bound to, when these two great tribes would meet. Their youths ran back and forward along the border between them, and bit and snapped at each other. There would be a battle soon....all they needed was a spark.
One day the son of the chief of the tribe near the mountains was flaring his wiskers at the son of the chief of the tribe near the sea. “Ratlings from the sea are stupid!” he cried out, waving his spear.
“Are not!” cried the ratling from the sea.
“Are too!” cried the ratling from the mountains.
“Are not!” cried the ratling from the sea.
“Are too, are too, are too!” cried the ratling from the mountains.
“Are not, are not, are not!” cried the ratling from the sea.
This went on for several days, until finally the ratling from the sea got tired, and wanted a drink. So he said, “Fine, then! Prove it!”
“I know what poetry is, and you don’t,” the ratling from the mountains said.
“I know what poetry is. It’s five lines of words.” The ratling from the sea couldn’t count very well, I’m afraid.
“No it’s not! It’s words that sound the same, repeated over and over.” The ratling from the mountains couldn’t speak Rokugani very well, I’m afraid.
Of course, this naturally lead to a huge battle, which became a huge war, and soon both tribes fought viciously. Finally, after both of the sons of the chieftans had been killed in the great fight that happened, their fathers, in grief, agreed to end the fighting and resolve their differences before both of their tribes were killed.
They met in a nice, cozy hole, with the wisest of the Ratling shamans on hand to negotiate. They determined where their lands should be, and how they were to interact, and resolved many differences. But one issue remained. What, in fact, was poetry.
The oldest of the shaman then stepped forward.
“This is poetry,” he said. “Poetry is five lines of words, as the Ratlings by the sea say. But Poetry is also filled with words that sound the same, as the Ratlings by the mountains say. But we are ratlings. We do not need to have depressing poetry. We can have cheerful poetry, about cheerful things. And we are ratlings. We are not boring. Not all of our words need to sound the same, just the last words of each line. Since there are two tribes, there can be two different sounds for the endings of the lines, each with two lines. The first two are for the ratlings by the sea. The secound two are for the ratlings by the mountains, and the last one is mine. Since I come from the sea, I will let mine sound like the first.”
He thought for a moment, and added, “And, since we are proud to be ratlings, I say all ratling poetry shall have our battlecry in it.”
And so there was peace amount the ratlings, and much happiness and cheese abounding for many years to come.
There once was a ratling named R’deekKakita Kaori
Who once caught a crane by the bee-eek
The bird flew around,
And dropped him on the ground
Where he landed with nary a squee-eek.
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 00:30:56 EST
From: Gary Kirby <Kirbdog53@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Ratling Poetry
There once were some Ratlings three,as told to Moto Gahrie
Who lived in a hut by the sea,
While two were fishing, a squeak-
Our boat has sprung a leak!
And now there is only Ratling me.
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 00:40:26 EST
From: Gary Kirby <Kirbdog53@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Ratling Poetry
Brave T'cric'huk around a corner did peek,Sadly, also as told to Moto Gahrie
but he died with a terrible squeak,
seems an ogre was around the bend,
his hunger he was trying to mend,
and he bit off T'cric'huk's head like a geek.
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 01:44:57 EST
From: Gary Kirby <Kirbdog53@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: Ratling Poetry
There once was a lass named Mindy,Moto Gahrie
Fair Goddess of all she could see,
'Round her L5R players were meek,
'gainst her none dared raised a squeak,
'Cause her whipping boy we didn't want to be.
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 05:47:13 -0000
From: Nancy Sauer <nancysauer@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Ratling Poetry
From: Bob Yager <bobyager@EASTPLAINS.NET>
> There it is, the Challenge. Each list resident that has played
a Ratling
> deck should make the effort to give us a Ratling poem.
Daidoji I am, but still Crane--I cannot let such a challenge pass by!
For my Crab/Ratling deck:
There once was a brave ratling named RikFor my Warrens deck:
A fight with an Oni he'd pick.
He gave his war shriek--
A most bloodcurdling SQUEEK!
Now he's Hiruma Rik'tik'atick.
There once was a ratling Tsh'sheekDaidoji Gisei
Who complained he was always the sneak.
"It's important, no doubts,
to have excellent scouts,
but I never get to yell 'Squeek!'
Nancy Sauer
"Hats divide generally into three classes:
offensive hats, defensive hats, and shrapnel."
Katherine Whitehorn
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 10:19:00 -0700
From: Jeanne Kalvar <Jadehunter@EMAIL.MSN.COM>
Subject: Re: Ratling Poetry
Moto Gahrie, Shosuro Phil, Scott Hebert, Hida Yagimaki, Kakita Kentei, Daidoji Gisei, Kitsune Adachi, and of course Mouse....
I'm very glad you liked my story, and thank you for your contributions to it. I am very much flattered to be immortalized so! You all write much better Ratling poems than me!
The Crane will be sponsoring Ratling poetry readings in the courtyard of the Kakita Academy this evening....well, not the front courtyard, the back courtyard, behind the baths...all are welcome to come. <grin>
Kakita Kaori
Littlest Kenshinzen