The Inaugural ABC Tales Superpoem
Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Thu, 16 Apr 2026
After the wonderful success of Penny4athought's excellent initiative, I'm very pleased to announce our brand new writing challenge, The Inaugural ABCTales Superpoem, which is Turlough's brilliant idea. Here's what he says:
I’m sure that everyone would agree with me if I were to say that ABCTales is a hotbed of talented writers, all working individually to turn out wonderful poetry and prose.
Also, the recently completed Penny’s Pass The Story challenge has been a great success as it’s shown how we can work together to write an entertaining story. I’m now wondering how good a poem we could write collectively.
So I’m suggesting that we each try writing a few lines of poetry, up to a maximum of seventeen words, and we put them all together in order of submission to create the first ever ABCTales Superpoem. Much of my inspiration came from Luigi’s comment that Penny’s challenge reminded him of the Consequences parlour game.
Here are the nuts and bolts of my plan.
a) The theme of the poem is ‘Memory’ which entrants can interpret in any way
they choose.
b) Anybody and everybody on the site is welcome to enter.
c) Entries are limited to one per member.
d) The number of words in any entry is limited to seventeen.
e) Members should send their entries via email to insertponceyfrenchnamehere.
Her email address is claudine@abctales.com
f) It is very important that entrants include their ABCTales username in their
email.
g) The entries will be forwarded to me and I will add them in order of receipt to
the Superpoem.
h) The cutoff point for submitting entries will be at British midnight on Sunday 3
May 2026.
i) The completed poem will be posted on ABCTales on Tuesday 5 May
2026. Entrants’ names will be listed unless they ask to remain anonymous.
j) For every entry received I will contribute one British pound to the ABC coffers.
However, as we currently have 20,098 members and I’m only a poor
pensioner, I’d like to limit my contribution to a maximum of forty pounds.
I think this is easy to enter and the end result will reflect the skills of a broad range of
ABC members, so I’m hoping we have a good turnout.
Thank you and good luck!
Turlough
- insertponceyfrenchnamehere's blog
- Log in to post comments
- 968 reads
Comments
Good idea !
Well done Turlough ! I'll have a go and make a small donation as an entry fee.
Free Entry
Dear Kat and everybody else.
Anybody can make a donation if they wish but the plan is that it's ME who makes a donation of £1 for every entry that is submitted, up to a maximum of £40.
Although I'm sure that every penny handed over to ABC Tales is always accepted with gratitude and glee, there is no obligation to pay an entry fee for the Superpoem challenge.
All that's required is a few lines of your poetry, up to a maximum of seventeen words. Then you can sit back and relax until it all comes together and the ABCTales Superpoem is born.
Good luck!
Turlough
Sorry Turlough I didn't mean
Sorry Turlough I didn't mean to give anyone the wrong impression. I would just like to, entirely voluntarily, add a little extra.
Gloskat, that's very kind of
Gloskat, that's very kind of you - looking forward to my sneak peeks before I forward the entries to Turlough!
Kind
Ah Kat, what a kind lady you are.
Turlough
Relatively speaking
Not as kind as you ! I'm sure that 40 pounds would buy a house in Malki Chiflik, or even pay Ludo's vet's bills for a whole year
The ABC Tales Supercat Challenge
Ludo needs to win the lottery or cash in his premium bonds or something to finance his medical treatment that's spiralling out of control. He hasn't been outside for over a month but he's still managed to sustain an injury in the last twenty-four hours. There's no blood or seepage this time but he winces when we touch him, as if he's got bruised ribs. He's probably fallen off something whilst fighting with one of our other cats.
Even if nobody enters this challenge thing I'm going to donate Ludo to ABC Tales. Experience tells me that there is no greater challenge than being his owner.
Turlough
grand idea.
grand idea.