Sheila McMullin: A Poetic Feminist MoonSpit Blog
MoonSpit Poetry of Insights, Resources, Activism, and Art
A Poem A Day Challenge
For the entire month of November I self-imposed a poem-a-day challenge and used Facebook to share prompts and encourage others to join in with me (this was before I remembered November is also Nanowrimo –National Novel Writing Month—but I promise you I felt wonderfully malevolent in double dog daring anyone to tackle both). So here’s the list of the prompts I posted and other’s shared, along with a few links.
- 3 Elements calling for poems with the words Cower, Hammock, and Helix.
- Freezeray Poetry wants poems from a place where poetry and pop culture collide. (They use Tracy K Smith’s David Bowie references in Life on Mars as an example.) Lyrics, comics, tv, memes, and movies are just a few jumping off points. Write a pop culture poem! The theme for their issue is ‘Secrets.’ Write a poem revealing a secret.
- Here’s a prompt inspired by novels: Write a poem that integrates dialogue between characters.
- Write an ode to the bartender in the Dodgers jersey
- A giant list of prompts and writing exercises on Poets & Writers‘s website to use for A-Poem-A-Day-November!
- They say it’s important to reward yourself after keeping consistent at a long-term project. I know all of you are doing GREAT with your Poem-A-Day-November, but remember to celebrate the work you’ve been doing! So after you’ve written your poem for today, google kittens or something. Today, I’m going to try to write a mystery poem. Don’t know what it will look like, haven’t read much mystery poems either, so if you know of any please share! (A friend shared Kevin Young’s poetry noir book Black Maria and then I remembered Sarah Vap’s End of the Sentimental Journey.)
- Prompt & Circumstance Facebook Page: “Each month, we provide new writing prompts in four different categories. We then publish the best works in our quarterly literary journal, Promptly.”
- Prompt: Snakeskin magazine has a call for Poetry and Comics. What does a poetry comic even look like? I dunno! Let’s find out by making one! Here are Bianca Stone’s poetry comics.
- I like A-Poem-A-Day-November because now when I think back on this month, I won’t be like…oh my gosh, where did the month go? I’ll be like… wow, I made every day special by writing a poem! Prompt: write a poem that can fit into a 140 character tweet. then tweet it! Look up “Good Men Project 100 Characters on Love” or scroll back just a week or so on my page. This idea is awesome and way under used.
- Based off of Nazim Hikmet’s “Things I Didn’t Know I Loved” write a poem which thinks about all the things you love, yet haven’t acknowledged for A-Poem-A-Day-November.
- A-Poem-A-Day-November prompt: Write a poem that doesn’t use the words “and” “the” “I”
- Write a piece that begins and ends with the same line.
- Write about a memory, or set of memories, good or bad. NEW THOUGHT: wouldn’t it be cooler/weird if you wrote about a memory based off of one your old facebook photos? Maybe one that someone else posted of you?
- A-Poem-A-Day-November Prompt: Browse through Smithsonian Magazine’s past photo contests images. Write a poem in response to, inspired from the photo. Then dedicate the poem to the photographing artist!
- Write a poem of gratitude.
- Happy last day of A-Poem-A-Day-November! How did you do? Final prompt: collect all the poems you’ve written this month, Wordle it or word cloud it, and whichever words you use the most avoid in your new poem OR use only those words in you new poem!
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