2020 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 2
For the 2020 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, poets are tasked with writing a poem a day in the month of November before assembling a chapbook manuscript in the month of December. Today’s prompt is to write an unexpected poem.
For today’s prompt, write an unexpected poem. That is, write a poem about something or someone completely unexpected. It could be about a new friend, new television series, or a funny joke with an unexpected punchline. Or perhaps a nice, unexpected moment during a drive or walk in the woods. I feel like 2020 especially has provided plenty of these moments for many people, though they've been happening since the beginning of time.
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
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Poem your days away with Robert Lee Brewer's Smash Poetry Journal. This fun poetic guide is loaded with 125 poetry prompts, space to place your poems, and plenty of fun poetic asides.
(Writer's Digest uses affiliate links)
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Here’s my attempt at an Unexpected Poem:
“set up”
& i wake up on the floor to find
my grandmother talking about old
kentucky moonshiners & womanizers
asking me if any purdy little gurls have been
chasing me around as if life is one big
game of tag you're it & her voice
is so soothing like the distant
sound of a waterfall in the forest
along a dirt path covered in crunchy leaves
& birds twittering in the trees
before i realize i can't even see
in this darkness & a howl echoes across
my beating heart as a wild animal runs out
of the shadows with its teeth fully bared
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.
