The origins of Charlapalooza and what it means to me

Charlapalooza is a blog game that sprouted on my old Myspace blog back in 2006. I was writing a semi-successful blog about life, the universe and everything and wanted to be more interactive with my audience. Back on the Space, people would actually comment on blogs but I wanted more. I figured that I enjoy challenging myself and, since I am NOT a poet – or don’t think of myself as one – but love words, I decided this would be a good way to do it. So, I got my friend Medussa on board and we called for topics from my many blog subscribers. Lots of people showed up!

Suggestions ranged from the serious to the silly and Medussa and I furiously wracked our brains and wrote our hearts out. People voted on their favorite poems and we all had fun. It was a success!

So much so, that I decided to do it again! And again. My plan was to do one each month. It was a good plan at the time. What I couldn’t predict was the insane turnout of people. They fell from the woodwork to suggest topics for my challengers/friends and me.

I held a total of 6 Paloozas over ten months and my challenger and I wrote upwards of 25-40 poems each time. I didn’t even usually win, when the votes were tallied! The folks I wrote with were talented and more creative than I was. Being a very linear, logical thinker kind of hurts when you’re trying to be all outside the box. It helped me stretch my mind, however, and that’s all that mattered.

I’m trying to make my current blog (Charla’s NeverendingJourney) more interactive by bringing the Palooza back. So here goes! Click here if you’d like to participate in Charlapalooza 2.0!!!

Here are a few of my favorite poems from the Paloozas:

Suggestion – A metaphor about the moon

The moon is the crystal ball I consult