2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 30

We made it! Today is the final day of the month and the writing part of this challenge, but it's not the end of the challenge, because there's an extra step, which I'll discuss in more details tomorrow in a "Next Steps" post. So stay tuned! (Also, be sure to join us on Wednesdays for Wednesday Poetry Prompts in December and beyond!)

For today’s prompt, write a next poem. I mean, whatever poem you write next will be your next poem, but it could also be about your next favorite movie or song. Or your next door neighbor. Or your next obsession. Or next worry. Or next whatever.

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.

Click to continue.

(Note: This is completely separate of the November PAD Chapbook Challenge.)

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“Next to You”

I have little to say,
because I'd rather not
break whatever spell may
or may not have been cast
whenever we spoke last
and you liked me a lot.
For better or for worse,
I don't think I can talk--
broken by this love curse--
and I may barely walk,
because when next to you
as my brain tries to think
I find all I can do
is bleed out all my ink.