2026 April PAD Challenge: Day 1

Welcome to the 19th annual April Poem-A-Day Challenge! With everything going on in the world over which I have no control, I can't wait to get started on something that I can (sort of) control (or at least that's what I tell myself). But before we jump into today's prompt, I do want to let anyone who's wondering about the 2025 November PAD Chapbook Challenge know that I'm still in the process of judging that and will share the results this month. Soooo...

(List of 100+ Poetic Forms for Poets.)

For today's prompt, write a seed poem. So many plants start from a tiny seed and (hopefully) grow into something much more substantial, but there are also other ways to come at this prompt. Some people are considered good seeds...or bad seeds. Some run-down, disreputable places are labeled seedy. Many competitive tournaments are seeded. So take a moment to consider seeds and then write your poem.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

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Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

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Here’s my attempt at a Seed Poem:

“Cycles,” by Robert Lee Brewer

As I watch a storm fire up on the horizon
from the safety of my front porch with bees humming
and birds nervously twittering (the rain still
a ways off) aware but still flying to and fro,
I consider the soft miracle of every tree
filled with so many seeds that will never take root
and this planet just the right distance from the sun
while rotating, tilting, and orbiting at just
the right speeds to produce a living creature,
an oriole, bumble bee, loblolly pine, and me.

2026 April PAD Challenge

Robert Lee BrewerAuthor

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of Solving the World's Problems, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.