2024 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 30

For the 2024 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 30 is to write a rest poem.

We've made it! Almost.

For today’s prompt, write a rest poem. Maybe you're looking forward to taking a rest; maybe you're the type who never rests; maybe it's time to give it a rest. But don't rest on your laurels until after you've written today's poem. (And I'll share the next steps for this challenge tomorrow morning.)

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 hundreds of 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 Rest Poem:

“Let It Rest,” by Robert Lee Brewer

It's not good for me to care,
to get enraged and feel despair;
so, perhaps, I'll take a break
from all worries the world makes,
and instead, I'll read a book
or find a fish that I can hook--
for anything that I dare
as long as I don't have to care.

(Note: Thank you for doing this challenge with me! This month was especially challenging for me, but this daily challenge has been a bright spot. I'm looking forward to reading everyone's chapbooks.)

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.