2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 13

I’m not sure what time it is in your neck of the woods, but here in Duluth, Georgia, it is a little past 1 a.m. on Saturday morning (November 13)….

I'm not sure what time it is in your neck of the woods, but here in Duluth, Georgia, it is a little past 1 a.m. on Saturday morning (November 13). For some reason, I'm still awake, so I figure I'll shake things up a little and post for the folks on the other side of the Atlantic and all those poets working 3rd shift or still up partying on a Friday night in the Americas.

For today's prompt, make the title of your poem a question; then, the poem should go about trying to answer the question. You can be direct in your answer or a little vague. Possible titles might be: "Why is the sky blue?", "Where are my car keys?", or "How am I supposed to go about writing a poem that answers a question that also happens to be the title of the poem anyway?" I mean, any question will do to get you started, then the fun part is poeming an answer.

Here is my attempt:

"Why am I still awake?"

Is it my clod hopping neighbors upstairs
who seem to stomp louder after the sun
goes down? Or could it be the food I ate
causing my indigestion? Would my work
keep me from sleep? Or is it most likely
the words beating and burning inside me
until I have no choice but to write them?

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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

(If you'd like to Tweet your November challenge progress on Twitter, use the #novpad hashtag.)

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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 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, 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.