2014 April PAD Challenge: Day 22
A few people have sent me e-mail messages asking if I’m going to favor this type of poem or that type of poem; if I’m looking for this kind of…
A few people have sent me e-mail messages asking if I'm going to favor this type of poem or that type of poem; if I'm looking for this kind of poet or that type of poet; and so on (since I'm the person making the finalist lists to send to the guest judges). So here's what I'm looking for: poems that make me care.
Funny poems, sad poems, angry poems, rambling poems, concise poems (ahem, haiku), traditional form poems, free verse, prose poems, rhyme poems, non-rhyme poems, poems that make perfect sense, poems that leave me scratching my head; or in other words, I have broad range of interests, and I'll know it when I see it; or in even other words, don't worry about me or the guest judges--just write what you care about writing, and the rest will take care of itself.
Today is a Tuesday, and you know what that means: Two for Tuesday Prompts! Write one, write the other, and/or write both!
- Write an optimistic poem. The glass is half full.
- Write a pessimistic poem. The glass is half empty.
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Get feedback on your poetry!
If you want some professional feedback on your poeming efforts, the Writer’s Digest Advanced Poetry Writing course is a great place to start.
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Here's my attempt at an Optimistic and/or Pessimistic Poem:
"today is not the end of it"
we're from the same blood
we're hooks holding up hooks
we're lost items being found
before getting lost again
we're trees bent by the wind
we're animals searching shadows
we've got the scent in our
nostrils tails in the air
we're running off the path
we're not looking back
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Today's guest judge is...
Lawrence Schimel
Lawrence writes in both English and Spanish and has published over 100 books in many different genres, including the poetry collection Desayuno en la Cama (Egales) and the chapbooks Fairy Tales for Writers (A Midsummer Night’s Press) and Deleted Names (A Midsummer Night’s Press).
He has published poems in a broad range of periodicals, including The Saturday Evening Post, Physics Today, The Christian Science Monitor, and Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and his poems have been widely anthologized in The Random House Treasury of Light Verse, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman: The Book of Dreams, The Incredible Sestina Anthology, Chicken Soup for the Horse-Lover’s Soul 2, Obsessions: Sestinas in the 21st Century, etc.
Lawrence lives in Madrid, Spain where he works as a Spanish->English translator.
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Poem Your Heart Out
Poems, Prompts & Room to Add Your Own for the 2014 April PAD Challenge!
Words Dance Publishing is offering 20% off pre-orders for the Poem Your Heart Out anthology until May 1st! If you’d like to learn a bit more about our vision for the book, when it will be published, among other details.
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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems. The collection has a recurring theme of pushing the re-set button and getting back to basics. Learn more about Robert here: http://www.robertleebrewer.com/.
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These poetic posts are half there but also half not (or something):
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.
