2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 22
For the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge, poets write a poem a day in the month of November. Day 22 is to write a memory poem.
For today’s prompt, write a memory poem. It could be a good memory...or a bad memory. A strong memory...or a fuzzy memory. Maybe a weird memory. One that is seemingly small, but that you find yourself turning over and over from time to time as if it might've been a bigger moment...if only. Just remember to poem, and you should be OK.
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them. If you have a wild idea, follow it.
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Writer's Digest is celebrating our 20th Annual Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards with new categories and prizes. We’re looking for your best poems of 32 lines or fewer or un-published chapbooks 25 pages or fewer. Any form of poetry is eligible including epic, free verse, odes, pantoums, sonnets, villanelles, and even haiku. This is the only Writer’s Digest competition exclusively for poets. Win cash and an article about you in the July/August issue of Writer’s Digest.
(Note: This is completely separate of the November PAD Chapbook Challenge.)
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Here’s my attempt at a Memory Poem:
“I Remembered to Forget”
I remembered to forget
after I forgot not to
remember in December
a soft word and moment in
the snow like whispers building
up to a scream or a kiss;
then, I find I can't resist
remembering what I meant
to forget, and I linger
over that moment, that small
snapshot of a boy in love
spiraling into something
precious, folded up, and tucked
away (like a newspaper
clipping or small lock of hair)
for me to always forget.
