2020 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 6
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 in medias res poem.
For today’s prompt, write an in medias res poem. In medias res means in the middle of the narrative. Or think of it as starting in the middle of the story instead of at the very beginning or very end. Like at lunch time or half way through eating your soup.
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.
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Here’s my attempt at an In Medias Res Poem:
“& then”
& then a tapping at the door
like Poe, perhaps, heard taps before
distracted me by candle light
in this powerless pounding night
of wretched fears I've faced before
but never with a tapping door
that taps so terrifyingly slight
filling me with the slightest fright
as if behind that tapping door
were some lost monster faced before
but as I opened to the sight
I found all there was was the night
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.
