April PAD Challenge: Day 10

Shoooooooo, doggies! We’ve made it to double digits! One-third of the way to pay dirt! Thirty-three point three percent! In other words, we’re well on our way to the barren wasteland…

Shoooooooo, doggies! We've made it to double digits! One-third of the way to pay dirt! Thirty-three point three percent!

In other words, we're well on our way to the barren wasteland of the middle of this month and the real (really real even) gut-check time for any PAD challenge challenger. I've been having a lot of fun so far, and I hope you have, too.

Last night, I was up until the witching hour catching up on my laundry at the local laundromat. While folding up my warm T-shirts, I started thinking about the importance of location in our poems. Many people (not just poets) form their identities based off where they are born and raised, or even where their ancestors were born and raised. From favorite sports teams to music tastes, location can often play a major role in who we are.

Today, the poetry prompt is to write a location poem. You can write about a city, a building, a planet, etc. I suppose the poem doesn't necessarily need to be "about" the place, but the location should play an important role in the poem.

Here's my attempt for today from, naturally:

"The Laundromat"

There is, of course, the hum and throb,
the anonymous faces wandering in and out
with arms wide and full of warm clothes.
This is where she called me twice in one day
just because and to say she loved me.

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.