2020 April PAD Challenge Countdown: T-minus 9
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 escape poem.
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 escape poem.
Okay, I hope everyone had a chance to get their poem on yesterday. And if you're just getting started today, no worries; there's plenty of time to catch up!
For today’s prompt, write an escape poem. There are physical escapes from places like prison, work, and school. But people can also find mental and emotional escapes in music, exercise, and books. In fact, writing has often been an escape for me even as I face harsh realities. Let's escape together today!
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 Escape Poem:
"Radio"
My favorite gift as a child was a Smurfs radio.
I would hole up in my bedroom and listen to it
during the day and fall asleep listening at night.
Often times, I would dream the dreams of escape—
running over rooftops and swimming across seas,
hiding from hands that always wanted more of me,
the monster's tongue that was always kissing me,
always asking what I was thinking of, always
wanting to know if I loved it, and then, what to do.
The music always gave me an alternate reality—
a place to hopefully find someday when I would
escape the bars of my dark-hearted dreamscape.
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.
