Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 699
Every Wednesday, Robert Lee Brewer shares a prompt and an example poem to get things started for poets. This week, write a discarded poem.
For this week's prompt, write a discarded poem. Let's face it: We can't keep everything! So this poem is about the things (including maybe relationships) that we've discarded over the years. Maybe there are basic things like plastic water bottles, or maybe trophies, books, clothes, and more.
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 Discarded Poem:
“Directory of Lost Poems,” by Robert Lee Brewer
I admit there are times I wish I could
visit myself and request I don't toss
away my words, specifically those
earliest poems. For instance, I would
like to read my first, the one with witches
and ghosts and ghouls, the one I'm sure is not
as spooky or as rhythmic as I thought,
and, of course, I'd put myself in stitches
if I could view that first love poetry.
In fact, I would probably die outright
from embarrassment at my word choices
and awkwardly abstract, if sincere, voice
that sang like Romeo into the night
of a burning love I could never flee.
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.
