2011 April PAD Challenge: Day 6

Today, I’m traveling to Austin, Texas. I’m going to be a featured poet at the Austin International Poetry Festival. Also, I just released my first ever chapbook. Click here to…

Today, I'm traveling to Austin, Texas. I'm going to be a featured poet at the Austin International Poetry Festival. Also, I just released my first ever chapbook. Click here to learn more about that.

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For today's prompt, take the phrase "Don't (blank), (blank)," replace each of the blanks with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Some possible titles might be: "Don't walk, run," "Don't delay, act now," "Don't look, it's right behind you," or whatever other creative interpretation you can whip up.

Here's my attempt:

"Don't write, poem"

Take the most familiar moment--
perhaps a holding (or folding) of hands--
and bend the light around to reveal
something that was always there
yet had somehow gone unnoticed.
Maybe one hand is slightly larger
than the other or the other hand has
a conspicuous tan line on the ring finger
or this entire time she's been talking
he just now realizes there's another
person hiding inside her who's ready
to jump out and say something like,
"Surprise!"

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Follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer

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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.