2014 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 17

For today’s prompt, write an afflicted poem. Someone or something that is afflicted is someone or something that is in a troubled, injured, or humbled state. Or distressed to the…

For today's prompt, write an afflicted poem. Someone or something that is afflicted is someone or something that is in a troubled, injured, or humbled state. Or distressed to the point of constant suffering and anguish. In other words, the perfect poem for a Monday, right?

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Running out of Time for a Chance at $1,000!

Writer’s Digest has extended the deadline to their Writer’s Digest Poetry Awards competition to November 21. As you may have guessed from the bold statement above, the winner will receive $1,000 cash!

The winning poem will also be published in a future issue of Writer’s Digest magazine. And the winning poet will receive a copy of the 2015 Poet’s Market.

Even poets who don’t win can win, because there are prizes for 2nd through 25th place as well.

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Here's my attempt at an Afflicted poem:

"Ultra-Ham"

I have a bad habit of singing random songs
and making up new lyrics--partly because

it's fun to do and partly because I have a bad
memory--like the Ultraman theme song might

turn into the Ultraham theme song and "Singing
in the Rain" might turn into "Singing in the Pain,"

and it's really cool at times, but not so cool at others,
especially when I'm trying to focus or be serious

or care about the feelings of others, but then,
I'm afflicted by the smooth voice of Barry White

singing "I Can't Get Enough of Your Blood, Baby,"
because he's a vampire, right? And well, it's sort

of a pain to have to explain the joke when it's not
even the day for the explanatory poem prompt.

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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of the poetry collection, Solving the World’s Problems (Press 53). He edits Poet’s Market, Writer’s Market, and Guide to Self-Publishing, in addition to writing a free weekly WritersMarket.com newsletter and poetry column for Writer’s Digest magazine.

He doesn't always know what to put in this paragraph, but he still likes trying to change it up from post to post, because, well, why not? He has a sense of humor that only some get, and he's fine with that.

Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.

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Find more poetic goodies here:

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.