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 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.

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 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.

Poetry Prompts Day 12-Tortured

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word “tortured” in connection with love? At first, we might be inclined to think of those intense feelings we associate with loving someone so much it hurts. Young love is fraught with the feeling but as we age and mature does it grow in a different way? And if so, how?

Torture is defined as “the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain. “ But how often are we the ones inflicting pain upon ourselves in the course of growing or maintaining our relationships? Have you ever deliberately hurt someone you love and thereby tortured them, whether through passive aggression or a more vocal/physical action? Have you ever reacted in anger without thought how it would hurt someone else, especially yourself? And did you apologize or make amends?

Prompt:

Love doesn’t always go well. There are bumps and holes and even chasms we have to figure out how to get across or around lest we fall, or else stay where we are. The hard and painful parts of love are necessary for the relationship to grow. Explore the feeling of being “tortured” and how it is a necessary part of love.

Word Prompts:

Afflict

Excruciating

Torment

Agonizing

Distress

Alternately

Appease

Aid

Comfort

Heal

Soothe

Relieve

Suggested Form:

A Senryu is basically a haiku but it deals with human nature and emotions rather than only the natural world. For those of you wanting more of a challenge try the Terza Rima.

Song Prompt:

Merril Bainbridge-State of Mind

Make sure to leave a link to your poem in the comments here so we can all visit and leave constructive/positive comments. Try to visit and comment on at least three different participants if you can. Thank you.

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. 

Day 4: _____________ and other strange animals

Just type "strange animals" into Google Images. Go on, I dare you.

The above image is just one of the "what the hecky decky is that?!" moments you will have while scrolling through the results (possibly more expletive-ridden, as in my case).

You may, however, be less inspired by things you might find on a trip to a very unusual zoo. Perhaps the first thing that this prompt called to mind for you was even Gerald Durrell's (rightly) famous (and hilarious) "My Family and Other Animals" (if you haven't read it and/or seen the TV series, you're in for a treat!). (We all love our families really, but let's face it - they're not always the easiest to look after!)

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Durrell deploys personification and anthropomorphism heavily in his depiction of his family as being as animalistic as the curiosities that he finds while on their travels. You may want to try similar techniques in your poem today.

You may also want to compare other things to animals - people often talk of depression as a "black dog", for example.

Suggested forms

If writing about entertaining zoo creatures or pets, then you may wish to keep your choice of form just as light-hearted - so a limerick, riddle or acrostic could work well here. Kennings - which rely on compound adjectives - are also fun.

If you want to write more seriously, reflectively, or in a detailed manner about a creature or feeling, as DH Lawrence does in his wonderful poem 'Snake', then free verse may be for you.

Word prompts

polychromatic
fright
striped
armoured
disturbed

And to finish, a quotation that might inspire you, from the actress and dancer Yvonne Craig:

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 2: Poems and notes to you

What jumps out at different people from this prompt may vary, but two things strike me as especially interesting:

- the plural (poems and notes, not just poem or note)
- you (who is 'you' in this situation - and what might this tell us about the speaker?)

What you produce today may therefore suggest multiple poems and/or notes to a single 'you' - which could be a parent, child, lover, friend, admired celebrity, someone who is now deceased...
Think, too, about why multiple poems and notes might be important to your poem's concept.
Plus, what form(s) might these poems and notes take? And why is the speaker of your poem writing them?

'You' could also be multiple people - so perhaps consider addressing a group if you are struggling to think of a single person to be the subject of your poem.

As the image prompt above also shows, 'notes' might also suggest musical notes as much as Post-It notes!

Suggested forms

To me, 'notes' implies something slight and fleeting, so in terms of suggested form, I'd like to propose a poetic structure that reflects this - maybe a tanka or cinquain.

Everyone knows about haikus, but a tanka is another five-line form of Japanese poetry. As you can see from www.familyfriendpoems.com, it starts off like a haiku (thanks to the 5-7-5 syllable format), before ending with two lines of 7 syllables each. Great to ease you into this month of poetry!

Cinquains are equally brief, with their five lines consisting of 1 word, then 2, then 3, then 4, before ending with a 1-word line.

Word prompts

sing
redrafts
practice
scribbles
loving

And to finish, a quotation that might inspire you, from the great Robert Frost:

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.