2015 April PAD Challenge: Day 6
Our first Monday of the challenge, and we’re not going to let it defeat us, right? Right? C’mon now, let’s get this week started off poetic! For today’s prompt, write…
Our first Monday of the challenge, and we're not going to let it defeat us, right? Right? C'mon now, let's get this week started off poetic!
For today's prompt, write a things-not-as-they-appear poem. Poetry is filled with metaphors, similes, symbols, and layered meanings, so this should be a softball prompt. If you're struggling, look at your current surroundings, pick an object, and turn it into a metaphor for something. Or think of somebody in the real world (mail person, gas station attendant, etc.) and make up a secret double life for them. C'mon, you can do this.
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Learn to Be French--in a Poetic Sense.
In the 48-minute tutorial, French Poetic Forms: Refrains, Rhymes, and Refrains, Robert Lee Brewer covers more than 10 poetic forms, including the rules for writing them, strategies for handling, and much more.
Whether you want to explore sestinas or villanelles, this is the tutorial for you.
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Here's my attempt at a Things-Not-As-They-Appear Poem:
"paradisaeidae"
the car was a playground swing
& kissing was a thing we thought about
long before we opened our mouths
we emerged like teenagers after dark
& wandered without purpose in the park
or maybe that's how we wanted to seem
we had no plans but we had a drive
& we had swings & metal slides
to help us get somewhere those nights
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Today's guest judge is...
Molly Peacock
Widely anthologized, Molly Peacock is included in The Oxford Book of American Poetry, as well as leading literary journals, such as Poetry (USA), Malahat Review (Canada), and The Times Literary Supplement (UK). She is the author of six volumes of poetry, including The Second Blush and Cornucopia: New & Selected Poems, both published by W.W. Norton and Company (USA and UK) / McClelland and Stewart (Canada).
Her latest book of nonfiction is The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life's Work at 72 (McClelland & Stewart Canada and Bloomsbury USA & UK). She serves as Series Editor of The Best Canadian Poetry in English.
Learn more at MollyPeacock.org.
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Poem Your Heart Out again!
The prompts from last year’s challenge along with the winning poem from each day ended up in an inspired little anthology titled Poem Your Heart Out. It was part prompt book, part poetry anthology, and part workbook, because each day includes a few pages for you to make your own contributions.
Anyway, the anthology worked out so well that we’re doing it again this year, and you can take advantage of a 20% discount from Words Dance by pre-ordering before May 1, 2015.
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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.
Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
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More poetic posts 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.
