Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 303
Believe it or not, this is the final Wednesday Poetry Prompt until May. We'll still have prompts on Wednesday, but beginning on April 1, we'll be poeming every single day of the month with the 2015 April PAD Challenge.
For today's prompt, write a preparation poem. Of course, I've been thinking about getting prepared for this year's challenge, but there are any number of ways to be prepared. From Boy Scouts to Doomsday Preppers, preparation is key in many phases of life. Maybe do a little preparation for your poem, but don't do too much, because we've got a daily poeming challenge just around the corner.
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Learn how to self-prompt your poetry!
Avoid running into writer’s block by figuring out how to continually self-prompt poems on your own. Whether it’s digging into personal memories or playing with poetic forms, there are so many ways poets can continually prompt themselves to write even when it seems there’s nothing new to write.
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Here's my attempt at a Preparation Poem:
"cedarville"
i hate to break it to you, but flexibility
is totally overrated. i mean, when i
went to university to run cross country
the doctor at my physical said, you've gotta
be the least flexible person i've ever run
across. and it was true, i'm sure, because people
have always told me that stretching really well is
how you excel at all sports. so before my first
indoor track meet one season, i did my warm up
like usual, but i stretched extra good. when i
started my race, everything seemed fine. in fact, i
was winning by a good margin, which i had half-
expected anyway. but then, my leg tightened
a bit and kept tightening until i had to
cut into the infield of the track and collapse
while clutching at my leg and grimacing in pain.
it took me weeks to get running again and months
to trust my body, and that is why i don't stretch.
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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor for the Writer's Digest Writing Community, which is an official way of saying that he gets paid to help writers achieve their goals, whether that means writing better, getting published, or reaching a wider audience with their writing. He's a writer himself and authored the poetry collection Solving the World's Problems (Press 53).
He used to be a track star in high school but has passed the torch to his children.
Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
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