2023 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 18
For the 2023 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. Day 18 is to write a Blank Cycle poem.
OK, I'm going to admit that yesterday's commenting snafu through me off my game a bit, but all's well that ends well. I think everything should be fine moving forward, but it was a good reminder to make copies before posting to the site, for sure.
For today’s prompt, take the phrase "(blank) Cycle," replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: "Production Cycle," "Life Cycle," "Water Cycle," and/or "Riding My Bicycle." Don't be afraid to recycle a former poem today.
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 Blank Cycle Poem:
“Full Cycle”
Each morning, I start with a word
and say, "Let there be light," but
the light doesn't always pop
into existence the same as the sun
or the sounds from outside
filtering through the window,
and I start to wonder if I've lost
my touch at this whole creation
thing until an unexpected word
does come and then another
and another, one after the other,
until I don't know what I'm writing
even as I do, and I think, "This really
isn't so hard after all," and mean it
until the next morning when,
of course, it all starts over again.
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.
