Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 761

For this week's prompt, write a posthumous poem. This could be an elegy for someone who has already passed (real or fictional). Or—and I know this sounds morbid, though it doesn't have to be—maybe write a poem thinking about the world after you've moved on. Facing mortality—our own and/or that of others—doesn't sound like a fun time for many, but there's no reason we can't poem through it together.

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

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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.

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“In Memoriam,” by Robert Lee Brewer

Because Emily couldn't stop for Death,
she poemed for me, and Edgar left
lines by the door—crying, "Nevermore"—
as Whitman yawped like a dinosaur,
waiting for everyone he didn't know,
like Frost stopping by woods in the snow
or Dunbar wearing the mask that fools
as Brooks shoveled out a fifth of cool;
together, they bring a world to me
with Eliot, Hughes, and Bukowski—
some writing in free verse, others rhyme,
and all worth reading line after line—
may they rest as they fill us with verse
that may be blessing or may be curse.