Duke Gyrth Oldcastle Poetry Smackdown

The Smackdown serves as an opportunity for poets of all experience levels to come and display their wordsmithing prowess in front of others in the spirit of good fun.  This is not a competition, though entrants may keep any bragging rights or excellent puns found during the Smackdown. 

• (REQUIRED)  ENTRY POEM — The fell grip of winter has been especially cruel upon our lands of late, and so we invite works that tell of winter’s chill (or perhaps ways in which it can be warded off). Speak of the foul north winds that creep in through every crack and crevice, of the glistening field of new fallen snow, sparkling in the morning sun, or of the roaring fire around which we gather to dispel the frigid night’s embrace.
• (OPTIONAL) THE SMACKDOWN – His Grace, Duke Gyrth was fond of many forms of verse, but of the sonnet in particular. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 is well known for starting out to be a series of unflattering statements about his lady, but at the end, is turned into a profession of his love.
  For the smackdown, you should turn this around, and compose a sonnet which starts out with words of seeming praise, but ends up as a put-down of the person to whom (or of whom) you are speaking.
  Entrants will be paired off to deliver these work to/at each other, and so the more such poems you come prepared with, the longer the smackdown can go on!
• (OPTIONAL) ON-SITE — The topic of the on-site competition will be made available in the morning of the event.