2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 23
For Day 23 of the 2025 April Poem-A-Day Challenge, poets (and other bookish types) are tasked with writing a book poem.
I can't believe how fast we're breezing through this month. One week of poeming after today!
For today's prompt, write a book poem. Today is World Book Day, which may be one of my favorite holidays moving forward, because I love books. Your poem could be inspired by a book, an author, a character, a scene, and/or however you'd like to come at this one. Heck, write about a bookstore, library, card catalogue, or any other bookish thing you can imagine.
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
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Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.
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Here’s my attempt at a Book Poem:
“Ode to Bookmarks,” by Robert Lee Brewer
Whether you were made for the job
or a mere stand-in (a receipt,
Post-It, or dollar bill), you throb
with the import of your conceit--
for you not only keep those who
read from living out their worst fear
of losing their last spot, but you
also protect books from dog-ears;
so hand me a scrap of paper
or some abandoned business card,
though the ends may fray and taper,
you'll find it bookmarks just as hard
silently keeping every page;
o bookmark, you are all the rage!
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
