2020 April PAD Challenge Countdown: T-minus 4
Poem along with the first ever April PAD Challenge Countdown, in which Robert Lee Brewer shares a prompt and a poem (to get things started) in the 10 days leading up to the 2020 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write an elegy.
Poem along with the first ever April PAD Challenge Countdown, in which Robert Lee Brewer shares a prompt and a poem (to get things started) in the 10 days leading up to the 2020 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today's prompt, write an elegy.
For today’s prompt, write an elegy. An elegy is a poem written for someone who has died. For instance, Walt Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!," is an example of an elegy for Abraham Lincoln. Mary Jo Bang wrote "You Were You Are Elegy" for her son.
Remember: These prompts are just springboards; you have the freedom to jump in any direction you want.
Re-create Your Poetry!
Revision doesn’t have to be a chore–something that should be done after the excitement of composing the first draft. Rather, it’s an extension of the creation process!
In the 48-minute tutorial video Re-creating Poetry: How to Revise Poems, poets will be inspired with several ways to re-create their poems with the help of seven revision filters that they can turn to again and again.
Here’s my attempt at an Elegy:
"Virgil"
Before he jumped a northbound train,
he had to tell his ma goodbye
in cold Kentucky's bluegrass rain.
And as he rode that northbound train,
he left behind his mining pain
hoping to find a better life.
But when he jumped that northbound train
he told his ma their last goodbye.
He found a job in Ohio
with a wife and child on the way.
He'd hear that working whistle blow
on the car line in Ohio
working hard wherever he'd go,
though he had little he would say
working his job in Ohio
when he said "ma" and passed away.
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.
