2014 April PAD Challenge: Day 5
I’m glad you’ve made it over today. Over the years, the weekend has been a time when some poets fall behind in keeping the daily poetic pace (though it’s totally…
I'm glad you've made it over today. Over the years, the weekend has been a time when some poets fall behind in keeping the daily poetic pace (though it's totally cool if you're getting caught up on Monday morning). I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but I actually have a little challenge going on related to my debut poetry collection, Solving the World's Problems. The winner of that challenge gets $500. Click here to read the guidelines.
For today's prompt, write a discovery poem. The narrator could discover an object, a person, an animal, a dishonorable deed, or any number of things. Poets can focus on the discovery, examine the aftermath, or even just mention it in passing.
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Compete with other writers in a variety of genres!
Enter the 83rd Writer's Digest Writing Competition for a chance to win a variety of prizes in 10 categories, including rhyming poetry, non-rhyming poetry, magazine feature article, genre short story, mainstream/literary short story, and more.
Grand prize wins $3,000 cash, a paid trip to the Writer's Digest Writing Conference, national exposure, and more. First place winners in each category receive $1,000 cash; second place $500; and so on.
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Here's my attempt at a Discovery Poem:
"diets"
in the beginning i googled diet
& diets populated the results
which was good because i wanted results
one after the other i tried them all
with some success before an epic fail
every scale had a story to tell
so i searched for new types of exercise
to combine with diets and was surprised
that the results were easier to find
when i let my body work with my mind
i'd walk then drink water with lemon twist
'til i told my old self you don't exist
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Today's guest judge is...
Patricia Fargnoli
Patricia Fargnoli, from Walpole NH was the New Hampshire Poet Laureate from 2006-2009. She’s published 4 books (including Winter and Then, Something) and 3 chapbooks of poetry and has won The May Swenson Book Award, the Foreward Silver Book of the Year Award, the NH Literary Award for Poetry and the Sheila Mooton Book Award.
She’s published over 300 poems in literary journals such as Poetry, Ploughshares, Massachusetts Review, Harvard Review et. al.
A Macdowell Fellow and retired social worker she now teaches poetry privately.
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Poem Your Heart Out
Poems, Prompts & Room to Add Your Own for the 2014 April PAD Challenge!
Words Dance Publishing is offering 20% off pre-orders for the Poem Your Heart Out anthology until May 1st! If you’d like to learn a bit more about our vision for the book, when it will be published, among other details.
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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems. He thinks the best poems are self-contained discoveries. Learn more about him here: http://www.robertleebrewer.com/.
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Discover something new at one of the links below:
- Triversen: Poetic Form. 18 lines, 6 stanzas.
- 5 Favorite Poetry Collections: Hannah Stephenson.
- Getting a Poetry Collection Published. My process.

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.