Poetry Prompt Day 31 - Endless

You have made it to the last day of OctPoWriMo. Some of you have written a poem every single day during this personal challenge. Even if you didn't write every single day, I'm glad you stuck with us to the very end. I hope you dove into your words, played with them, and brought them to life. I hope your words took you to unexpected places and revealed things to you that you didn't realize before.

May your words, your poetry, never end.

Photo courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net
by Linnaea Mallette

Poetry Prompts:

Write until your heart is content about what endless means to you in love and/or in life. 

Suggested poetry form: Create a form of your own and share it with us.

Word Prompts:

Endless

Infinity

Eternal

Sharing

Love

I want to thank all of the volunteers that shared their hearts in the prompts, comments, and poetry; there wouldn't be an OctPoWriMo without you! 

And to all of the poets who wrote their hearts onto the page, we are so glad you journeyed with us and I hope you come back again next year!

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you. 

Hop on over to Poets on the Page during the rest of the year for inspiration to stir your words.

 

Willow a.k.a. MDragonwillow, author of Wild Woman Waking & Dancing within Shadow, is a Bodywork transformer, dancing poet, motivator of words, magical instigator and creatrix of #OctPoWriMo & #PoetsonthePage. 

Yes, she is on Google+ too!

Day 30 - Dancing On The Moon

This is it everyone, one day left. One more day of poetry and prompts and hopefully, it's been enlightening for you! Challenges have been met and you are all awesome!

So today, you should be dancing on the moon yourselves! In fact, that's what we all should be doing, so let's dance, shall we?

Writing Prompt:

It's time to celebrate a job well done, a love won, the turning of the sun. Write about that exuberant feeling you get whenever you are happy, that feeling that makes you feel like dancing whether it's on the earth or the moon!

Word Prompts:

ecstatic

exuberance

joyful

celebrate

on cloud nine

Suggested Form:

Let's make this fun. Free verse for those who need to dance outside the lines, and for more of a challenge (and because we're also dealing with the night sky) how about a constellation form called the Pleiades? Very structured, as are some dances.

Song Prompt:

Don't forget these are only suggestions. You can do whatever you feel like doing. Just remember to visit three other participants and read and leave positive commentary! Thanks!

Day 29 - By The Numbers

image created by Amy McGrath on WordArt.com

As a self-proclaimed number nerd, I couldn't wait to share this prompt with you! Birthdays, anniversaries, identification numbers (driver’s license, social security, etc.), speedometers (and speed limit signs!). Numbers are everywhere and we use them for many things. Love them or hate them, there is no denying the need for numbers in our world. Whether you’re a mathematician or a numerophobe, today’s prompt is all about the numbers.

Perhaps in your culture, a number holds a particular meaning for you. Britannica has some information about number meanings across different cultures. Some of them are:

1 - unity
2 - duality
3 - spiritual/mystical
4 - universal
5 - human life
6 - perfection
7 - lucky
8 - auspicious
9 - pain/sadness
0 - nothingness

You could choose to write about your life path number.

Below is a list of numbers that I know have specific connotations. Maybe one of them will lead you to today’s poem!

11:11
404
13
Pi
e
phi
Planck’s constant
Avagadro’s constant
Speed of Light
Gravitational constant
Boltzmann’s constant
Absolute Zero
Tau (6.28 = 2pi)
Euler’s Identity
i

WORD PROMPTS:

numbers
numerology
mathematics
calculation
counting

Remember that our prompts are only suggestions - go wherever the muse takes you.
In the meantime, read other participants' poems, share the #OctPoWriMo hashtag on social media, and add a link to your own poem in the comments below.

Amy McGrath is a poet, fiction/non-fiction writer, and visual artist. She is a volunteer at The Muse Writer’s Center in Norfolk, VA and a co-facilitator of the Poets on the Page blog and Facebook group. When she’s not writing or painting, she has been known to appear in local community theater musicals and occasionally shows up for karaoke nights. She is currently painting a series of portraits of her ancestors, both biological and adopted, and she is working on her outline for this year’s NaNoWriMo project. She is the mother of two teenage boys and lives with her husband in Virginia Beach.

Day 28: Split in two

The first idea that came into my mind upon seeing this prompt was exactly exemplified by the above image: a dilemma. A split path. A difficult choice. Maybe even a chasm or schism.

These are all rather metaphorical interpretations. As is my next thought - the notion of 'splitting hairs'.

This led me to perhaps more literal - but no less evocative - possible developments of this prompt. What if you dropped something precious on the floor and it broke into two pieces? What would that look like? How would you feel? Could you repair it? Would you want to? Would it still be the same object if you did?

And now I'm getting philosophical again. Sorry about that.

Suggested forms

I'm going to suggest something rather obscure - the Anglo-Saxon riddle - purely for its highly visual split down the middle.

As in:

or this:

Don't worry - nobody expects you to write in Anglo-Saxon!

The most famous Anglo-Saxon riddles are located in the Exeter Book. Unsurprisingly located in Exeter, UK, specifically in Exeter Cathedral. And who spent three years studying ENGLISH LITERATURE, OF ALL THINGS, in Exeter and never ONCE went to see it? *points at self* (...yep. Kick me now.)

I've been informed by someone with a master's in literature from Cambridge, and former education professor, that the gaps in the riddles occur at each line's halfway point - and each half-line is alliterative. So the split is not just visual - which for our purposes is very convenient.

But I understand if you don't feel up to writing a riddle. After all, the ones in the Exeter Book are so complex that many scholars have spent years unravelling them. If nothing else, Megan Cavell's British Library article on the subject makes an entertaining read that it would be a shame for you to miss out on.

Word prompts

broken
dilemma
choice
chasm
schism

With most of my ideas and images above seeming to necessitate action or resolution, I leave you with Abraham Lincoln:

Happy writing!

-- Bianca

Remember that our prompts are only suggestions - go wherever the muse takes you.
In the meantime, read other participants' poems, share the #octpowrimo hashtag on social media, and add your link to your own poem in the comments below.

Day 27 - What Color Is It?

As a visual artist, my color wheel is one of my most used tools. As a writer, the way I use color, the way I describe it, has the ability to set the mood and to allow the reader to visualize what I am describing. 

What color is a frog?

According to Kermit, it’s not easy being green, having to spend each day the color of leaves. 

I considered writing this prompt about the viral internet argument about the dress. You know the one I’m talking about, right? Maybe there’s a poem to be written about it. 

THE PROMPT:

Select a random noun. When you see an image of this person/place/thing, what color is it? Brainstorm the different ways the color can be described. Write a poem to help us see something in color through your eyes. Use an appropriately sourced and credited image of your chosen noun to illustrate your poem. 

WORD PROMPTS:

color
shade
tone
color theory
design

Remember that our prompts are only suggestions - go wherever the muse takes you.
In the meantime, read other participants' poems, share the #OctPoWriMo hashtag on social media, and add a link to your own poem in the comments below.

Amy McGrath is a poet, fiction/non-fiction writer, and visual artist. She is a volunteer at The Muse Writer’s Center in Norfolk, VA and a co-facilitator of the Poets on the Page blog and Facebook group. When she’s not writing or painting, she has been known to appear in local community theater musicals and occasionally shows up for karaoke nights. She is currently painting a series of portraits of her ancestors, both biological and adopted, and she is working on her outline for this year’s NaNoWriMo project. She is the mother of two teenage boys and lives with her husband in Virginia Beach.

Day 26: Inside out

Predictably, when I put this one to the wisdom of the internet, the first and most prominent result was this:

...from a certain popular Disney/Pixar movie.

Which of course you can write about if you would like to.

Funnily enough, though, I didn't have an instinctive response to this prompt. Nothing that immediately came to mind. So I had to think. And here is my question to help you:

What is inside you (thoughts, feelings etc) that should be out to the world, but aren't? Do you have anything inside you that is out, but that you didn't want to be? Or maybe you are relieved that these 'inside' feelings are finally 'out'?

Suggested forms

A sonnet comes to mind, thanks to the volta (or 'turn') at line 8, which marks the turning point between one set of ideas and another.

Word prompts
open
secret
introspective
reveal
discover

For an alternative take on 'inside out', here's Groucho Marx:

Happy writing!

-- Bianca

Remember that our prompts are only suggestions - go wherever the muse takes you.
In the meantime, read other participants' poems, share the #octpowrimo hashtag on social media, and add your link to your own poem in the comments below.

Poetry Prompts Day 25 - The Door Goes Both Ways

I am not sure what my thoughts were when I created this prompt. Maybe it is about giving and receiving, or don't wait for the other person if you want or need something. Or maybe it is all about love, and how rare it can be that if and when it shows up in your life, to take a chance, go for it, don't hold back. You never know what good may come of it.

Photo courtesy of PublicDomainPictures.net
By Linnaea Mallette

Poetry Prompts:

Write for five to ten minutes pondering, "The door goes both ways" and then choose what rings out and play with the below form. Or surprise us with something different.

Word Prompts:

Both ways

open

in and out

chances

giving

receiving

Suggest form: I do so love to count syllables, let's try a Triquain.

It's been a long, tiring month and we are in our last week; in our final stretch. Are your words dancing?


Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you. 

 

Willow a.k.a. MDragonwillow, author of Wild Woman Waking & Dancing within Shadow, is a Bodywork transformer, dancing poet, motivator of words, magical instigator and creatrix of #OctPoWriMo & #PoetsonthePage. 

Yes, she is on Google+ too!

Day 24: opening

Have to admit that when I saw this prompt, the above image was not at all the first thing I thought of.

But this of course is the beauty of OctPoWriMo, and poetry in general: the ability for inspiration to take any form, and to take us anywhere. Presumably, too, we're all here thanks to being open to this new experience.

So accordingly, I'm leaving this one wide open - no suggested form(s) today!

Word prompts (in the spirit of keeping this open, I've taken a noun, verb, adjective, adverb and wildcard from https://wordassociations.net !)

outside
unlocked
fling
freely
gape

Today's last word goes to Oprah:

Happy writing!

-- Bianca

Remember that our prompts are only suggestions - go wherever the muse takes you.
In the meantime, read other participants' poems, share the #octpowrimo hashtag on social media, and add your link to your own poem in the comments below.

Day 23: See Me

Day 23 already! Today’s prompt is See Me. I love the simplicity and strength of this statement. What is it that you wish others knew about you? What would you want those in your closest relationships to acknowledge? What is your truth?

Photo: Pixabay

Suggested Poetry Form: Haibun

Word Prompts:     beneath

            uncover

            clear

            unspoken

             truth

Remember our prompts are just suggestions. Follow your muse.

Please read the poetry of other OctPoWriMo participants and leave comments.

Day 22 - Betrayed

Being betrayed can be one of the worst feelings in the world. Knowing someone you love has wronged you and broken your trust is something that is hard to get over. Even worse is deliberately betraying someone you love and care about, whether that person is a friend, a family member, or a lover.

One unfortunate effect of betrayal is the feeling of guilt that accompanies it. If we are the ones who have been deceived we look for reasons why and eventually we might blame ourselves and carry the guilt with us. We tell ourselves it must have been our own fault, something we did wrong. And, if we are the ones being unfaithful, the guilt can eat at us and cause us to become angry and defensive. Guilt is the chain we shackle ourselves with.

Forgiveness is the only way we can ever remove those chains and free ourselves, even if the person we are giving freedom to is ourselves. 

Poetry prompt:

At some point we have all experienced betrayal. Write about the experience, whether you were the one betrayed or the betrayer. How did it make you feel, and how did you move past it? Or did you? Alternately you may like to write about showing yourself or someone else mercy in the face of betrayal.

Word prompt:

betrayal

deception

dishonesty

duplicity

lying

Alternate word prompts:

forgiveness

mercy

grace

loyalty

honesty

Suggested Form:

For today, try a Palindrome, a type of mirrored poetry. For an extra challenge, work it so that the poem reads as betrayal one way and forgiveness once it is mirrored.

These are only suggestions and you may write in whatever form or subject you wish. And please visit three other participant sites and leave comments on their poems!

Song prompt:

Poetry Prompts Day 21 - How Will I Know

Is this love? Or is it lust... Questions rattle around in my brain searching for answers. Hormones are flying at the beginning of a relationship and I asked those questions quite a few times and I often asked myself, "How will I know?"

Photo by MDragonwillow

Poetry Prompt:

Write for five to ten minutes asking the question, "How will I know?" It can be about anything that you are trying to figure out for yourself. 

Suggested Form: If you have poetry magnets it's time to get them out and play with them. Randomly select words that grab your attention and create a poem from them. If you don't have magnets, you can do black out poetry by taking anything with words on it, find words that resonate with you and black out the rest. Or you could choose your favorite form from the last 20 days and create a poem in that form.

Word Prompts:

Questioning

Deciding

Choices

Love or Lust

Feeling

Please explore poetry without rules, but don't try to fix anyone. Some of us love to explore the darker side and we just want to be heard. If the words you read touch you in some way, share what you love about the poem, what speaks to you, what makes you feel deep in your bones, but no giving advice or words of wisdom. That isn't what this is about.

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions, you can find your inspiration wherever your muse leads you. Please visit the other participants, share the hashtag, #OctPoWriMo on social media, and share your link in the comments below. Let us know how this journey into poetry is going for you. 

 

Willow a.k.a. MDragonwillow, author of Wild Woman Waking & Dancing within Shadow, is a Bodywork transformer, dancing poet, motivator of words, magical instigator and creatrix of #OctPoWriMo & #PoetsonthePage. 

Yes, she is on Google+ too!

Day 20 - Time Stands Still

"Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived." ~Captain Picard, Star Trek: Generations

One of my favorite movies is an older fantasy movie called Krull. In it there is a scene where an old man goes to see the widow in the web and she breaks her hourglass and gives the sand to the old man so that he can make it out of her web alive. But he only has until the sands run out to live. The sands also control this HUGE spider that comes after the man but stops whenever he lets the sands run between his fingers a little. That's just one of the things I thought of when I saw the title for today's prompt. It gave me lots of inspiration.

Have you ever had a moment in time that you wished you could stop and live in? Have you ever wished you could control time even if for just a little while? What would you do? What moment would you make last longer? Write about time and what you would do if you were in control of it. Today you get to be a Time Lord!

Word Prompts:

moment

hours

minutes

clock

hourglass

future

past

present

chronology

Suggested Form:

In keeping with the time theme and for those who really want a challenge, try a Minute poem. For less of a challenge try Loop poetry. Get it? ;-)

Remember these are just suggestions. Feel free to write in whatever form you wish and whatever you are inspired to write about. And don't forget to visit at least three other participant sites and leave some positive comments.

Day 19: What do you want

"What do you want?"
"It's not that simple!"
"What do you want?"
"...I have to go..."

This scene, from the 2004 film The Notebook (based on Nicholas Sparks' novel of the same name), is apparently a seminal cultural moment - something I didn't know before Google Images kindly informed me of the fact. I'm guessing this is because it taps into one of those fundamental human questions - if my twenties are anything to go by, you spend an awful lot of your youth asking yourself that very same question.

So your poem might address someone else - anyone, really, from your three-year-old who just wants a cookie, to your partner (do you both want the same out of this relationship?) or best friend. Or it could address yourself, as you try and work out what would actually make you happy in life (maybe the three-year-old has it right: as the Cookie Monster will tell you quite readily, cookies are usually the answer). This could be a thing, person, place, or something else entirely.

With a question being inherent in today's prompt, you might want to employ a dialogic format in your poem today. Your questions (and maybe answers, if you consider it pertinent to include them) might be argumentative and stichomythic, or more meandering and contemplative.

Suggested forms

Asking questions repeatedly - whether of yourself or someone else - seems to demand a similarly echoing form. For this reason, you might like to try a palindrome poem, a contrapuntal poem, or a chant poem (all ably explained in these links by Writer's Digest's Robert Lee Brewer).

Word prompts

desire
questioning
search
doubt
fulfil

And to finish, a quotation that might inspire you, today from Charlie Chaplin:

Happy writing!

-- Bianca

Remember that our prompts are only suggestions - go wherever the muse takes you.
In the meantime, read other participants' poems, share the #octpowrimo hashtag on social media, and add your link to your own poem in the comments below.

Day 18-Once Upon A Time

Castles, fairy godmothers, glass slippers, and enchanted roses. When you hear the words "once upon a time" these items might be what it brings to mind. Say those four words aloud and it might make you anticipate something magical, something ethereal, something beyond the ordinary. When was the last time you experienced a once upon a time moment?

Today's prompt sends us into the land of enchantment. Explore fairy tales and magic, Prince Charmings and fairy princesses. Write your own fairy tale and have some fun!

Word Prompts:

magic

enchantment

spell

fascination

prestidigitation

hocus pocus

conjure

Suggested Form:

In poetry a fable is a poetic story composed in verse or prose with a moral summed up at the end. Usually using animals as characters to teach a valuable lesson. Try writing your fairy tale as a fable and for an extra challenge begin it with Once Upon a Time.

Remember this is only a suggestion and you are free to write in whatever way is comfortable to you. Also make sure to visit at least three other participant sites and leave some positive comments. 

Day 17 - Madness Reigns

English is a funny language. When we were first considering prompts for this month’s challenge, a typo in the original list led me to question the intent of this one. That small slip of the fingers on the keyboard was enough to spark an idea. Is it “Madness Reigns”? Or should it be “Madness Rains”? Or even “Madness Reins”? The homophones (words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings) offer us a unique opportunity for poetry.

Does madness rule over me/you/us/them?

Does madness fall from the sky in misty dampness, occasional showers, and torrential flooding downpours?

Do I/you/we/they hold the reins, controlling the madness?

Explore which spelling resonates with your view of madness in a 10 minute free write. Use your brainstorming to create a poem that expresses your thoughts/feelings around “madness”.

BONUS: For an extra challenge, use all 3 variants in a single poem.

WORD PROMPTS:

madness
craziness
insanity
reigns
rains
reins


Remember that our prompts are only suggestions - go wherever the muse takes you.
In the meantime, read other participants' poems, share the #OctPoWriMo hashtag on social media, and add a link to your own poem in the comments below.

Amy McGrath is a poet, fiction/non-fiction writer, and visual artist. She is a volunteer at The Muse Writer’s Center in Norfolk, VA and a co-facilitator of the Poets on the Page blog and Facebook group. When she’s not writing or painting, she has been known to appear in local community theater musicals and occasionally shows up for karaoke nights. She is currently painting a series of portraits of her ancestors, both biological and adopted, and she is working on her outline for this year’s NaNoWriMo project. She is the mother of two teenage boys and lives with her husband in Virginia Beach.

Day 16: Catch Me When I Fall

Welcome to Day 16! Today’s prompt is Catch Me When I Fall. Finding that person who will support you at every turn is such an important part of any relationship. Also significant is what happens after the fall. How would you describe the balance between giving support and receiving it?

photo: Pexels

Suggested Poetry Form: Terzanelle

Word Prompts:     strength

            vulnerable

            insight

            bonds

            obstacles

Remember, our prompts are only suggestions. Where you find inspiration for your poetry is up to you.

Remember to visit two or more OctPoWriMo participants and leave encouraging and supportive words along the way.

Day 15 - If __________ Were An Umbrella

Image by George Hodan
on Public Domain Pictures

As I pondered this prompt, I wondered about the usefulness of umbrellas. I rarely use them as I seem to get more wet from trying to close them when I get in the car than I would have if I had just walked in the rain. So what good are umbrellas?

Umbrellas offer shelter from the elements, both sun and rain. However, they become bent and distorted in the wind. They are, at least to some degree, an imperfect protector. The original version of this prompt was "If Love Were an Umbrella", but given my less than perfect experiences with both love and umbrellas, I wanted to leave it a bit more open.

What protects you like an umbrella? What shields you? What covers you?

Explore these questions in a 10 minute free write and find what emerges for you. 

WORD PROMPTS:

umbrella

shield

shelter

cover

protection

Remember that our prompts are only suggestions - go wherever the muse takes you.

In the meantime, read other participants' poems, share the #OctPoWriMo hashtag on social media, and add a link to your own poem in the comments below.

Amy McGrath is a poet, fiction/non-fiction writer, and visual artist. She is a volunteer at The Muse Writer’s Center in Norfolk, VA and a co-facilitator of the Poets on the Page blog and Facebook group. When she’s not writing or painting, she has been known to appear in local community theater musicals and occasionally shows up for karaoke nights. She is currently painting a series of portraits of her ancestors, both biological and adopted, and she is working on her outline for this year’s NaNoWriMo project. She is the mother of two teenage boys and lives with her husband in Virginia Beach.