This is your go-to space for all the creative prompts and valuable resources that will help you through Poetry Cove Chapbook Month 2024. We will be sharing daily prompts designed to spark your creativity and challenge you, the poet, to craft your poems with emotion.
Prompts
What to Expect:
Daily Prompts: Every day, we’ll share new prompts to inspire your writing. These will include:
Word Prompts: A single word or phrase to inspire your poem.
Image Prompts: A captivating image to evoke your poetic imagination.
Suggested Forms: A specific poetic form or structure to experiment with.
These prompts are designed to challenge you, the poet, to craft your poems with emotion. Feel free to interpret them in any way that resonates with you. You can use them to start a new poem, expand on an existing idea, or simply to get your creative juices flowing.
Resources
To support you in your poetic journey, we’ve compiled a list of resources that you may find helpful:
Writing Guides:
Workshops and Events:
Workshop Schedule – Join our virtual workshops for tips, techniques, and feedback.
Q&A Sessions – Participate in live Q&A sessions with experienced poets.
Inspiration:
Poetry Reading List – Recommended poetry collections and anthologies.
Online Poetry Communities – Connect with fellow poets and share your work.
Helpful Meetings:
August 31: Welcome to the Challenge: In this session, we will review the intents and resources of the challenge; discuss chapbooks; and answer your questions.
September 30: Celebration and Review: A celebration and review of the month; a how-to on working with Canva to format your chapbook into a printable version; if we have time, we can talk about formatting an e-book for Kindle KDP (for example).
How to Use This Thread
Check Regularly: Visit this thread daily for new prompts.
Share Your Work: Feel free to post your poems inspired by the prompts here or in the feedback corner.
Explore Resources: Use the resources provided to enhance your writing and chapbook creation process.
Engage and Support: Comment on others’ work, offer constructive feedback, and support your fellow poets.
Community Contributions
Here at The Poetry Cove, we are a community. We believe in the power of collaboration and mutual inspiration. We encourage you to add any prompts that you find inspiring or that you think will benefit others. Whether it’s a word, an image, or a form, your contributions are welcome and appreciated.
How to Share Your Prompts:
Post Directly: Share your prompt in this thread with a brief description.
Engage with Others: Feel free to use prompts shared by fellow poets and give feedback on how they inspired you.
We hope these prompts and resources will inspire you and help you achieve your goals for PoCoChapMo ‘24. Let’s get creative and make this a month to remember!
Here are some prompts by @Herb Hagell that you might find helpful and inspiring during the challenge.
Emotions Breakout
Themes:
Values:
Day 30
Context: And now, the month closes, we take our poems separate ways and keep on writing. For it is in our nature to leave our blood on the paper. We thought it appropriate to leave the month behind and pay homage to the amazing poems written during PoCoChapMo.
Prompt: Write an Elegy to the month. Normally, an elegy is a sombre response to a death, written as a quatrain poem with ABAB rhyme and iambic pentameter..
We are sad to see the end of PoCoChapMo '24, but would like to celebrate the many wins during the challenge.
Your final challenge is to start your elegy in the normal mood but twist the end into your celebration and, perhaps, a hint to future successes.
I know Adam posted his prompt for the day. I thought I post my take on the elegy prompt.
Form Prompt: Elegy
Prompt: Write an elegy to mark the end of PoCoChapMo or any other theme that resonates with you. An elegy traditionally reflects on loss or longing, but it can also be a way to commemorate and celebrate. Reflect on the journey of this past month—what have you gained, what challenges did you face, and what do you leave behind? Or, use this form to mourn or honour something meaningful in your life.
Day 29 - Wildcard Weekend
One last wildcard weekend idea in case you want a random little challenge....
I found a list of 11 less common poetry forms... https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/unusual-types-poems
Give one a try?
Before I forget: how to print a booklet from a PDF. Remember to make sure that the total amount of pages is a multiple of 4
https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/print-booklets-acrobat-reader.html
I thought I might post a Day 28 Prompt: Write an ode to something from your past, or any past.
We tend to think of an Ode as a celebration of a successful activity, but could also celebrate the loss of something(imagine shedding an old belief or piece of mental baggage)
Typically, Odes follow strict meter, but feel free.
Greeks wrote Odes to winners of classical games, the Romantic writers used emotions, and you...
you are free to use your imagination. Make it a celebration! This might be a useful discussion... https://www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-an-ode-poem-learn-about-the-3-different-types-of-ode-poems-with-examples
What do you do when you wake at three in the morning with a silvery moon hanging in the sky? You go out and take some photos. I shot a little video as a train passes the crossing.
I got to thinking about the power of the locomotives and this came to mind Move forward boldly and the power of mighty forces moves with you.
I don't know who that. I wrote this iteration, but then... who knows themselves.
Prompt: Write a blank verse poem about how to use such a power to effect a transformation. This could be any transformation... in yourself, nature, society, mankind.
A blank verse poem generally follows a metered rhythm, but does not need to be rhymed. Shakespeare owned this form..
To be, or not to be,
that is the question:
Whether it is nobler
in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows
of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms
against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them.
To die—to sleep,
No more;
and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache
and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
To die, to sleep;
Be creative!
I recently made a video on Ghazals, and so I’m confused whether or not we have used this as a prompt, or I am just thinking of my short. If anybody is aware of this having already been used slap some sense into me and let me know, and I’ll think of a different one.
Form Prompt: Ghazal
Prompt: Write a ghazal, a form of poetry consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same metre. Traditionally, ghazals explore themes of love, loss, and longing. Use this form to express a personal desire or yearning. What is something or someone you long for, and how does that longing shape your experience or perspective?
Day 25
Prompt: Write around the theme of home. This could take the path of arriving home after a physical trip or arriving at a place in your mind that feels 'right' - you are where you belong. Your poem could also explore homelessness, or the loneliness of being at home yet disconnected from friends and family.
Context: I'm back home from the break!. Actually, it was really poor WIFI signal. I felt separated from the PoCoChapMo community and some anxiety that I was losing momentum. I may have written a few poems, but the must wasn't with me.
Is there a prompt for today?
During a walk yesterday, between rain showers, clouds and fog shrouded the top of the hill I wondered what could be going on in that fog. Consider themes of life change or mystery. This might be the beginning of a ride with the dark forces of the Fog.
Image Prompt:
Prompt: Let this image of a winding path through an autumn forest inspire your poem. Consider themes of change, transition, or journey. Where does the path lead, and what does it symbolise for you? How do the falling leaves and shifting colours reflect your own personal journey?
Wildcard Weekend Suggestion
Write about a moment/memory that makes you happy. It can be a big "happiest day of your life" type thing, or a day you felt particularly free, or a quiet laying your head on your partners chest type or watching the wind blow in the trees type thing. It could be from childhood, or from this morning - the magnitude and distance of the memory aren't important. If nothing comes to mind and/or you aren't in that headspace right now... then don't stress about it. Or if happy isn't the word for you, a moment you felt some peace or a moment of catharsis.
.... note: I am probably riding high on a bit of nostalgia at the moment and hopefully won't be the first person to bail on my own prompt suggestion haha. time will tell.
Wildcard Weekend A villanelle about the topic of wandering, we have reflected so much about transitions, and liminal spaces this inspired me to think about wandering--Stravaig in Scottish. A villanelle: Rhyme scheme The rhyme scheme is ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA.
Repetition The first and third lines of the first tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the following stanzas. The refrain is used as the final two lines of the poem.
Sunsets have inspired poets for... well, ever. Let's explore the concept of a sunset as the end of one phase and the beginning of another. How does a sunset over water differ than a sunset over land?
Are they the same, except for our perceptions?
What surprises can you find in sunset?
Word Prompt: "Threshold"
Prompt: Write a poem exploring the concept of a threshold. This could be a physical threshold, such as a doorway or boundary, or a metaphorical one, like a significant life change or decision. What does it feel like to be on the verge of something new? How do you navigate the space between where you are and where you want to be?
Day 18
Prompt: Write a Double Etheree: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 syllables; or the reverse.
Context: It's a simple form but challenging, especially if we add assonance and/or consonance to the poem. Assonance in the repetition of vowel sounds. Here's a famous example by Shakespeare (who else, eh)
in Sonnet 1
“His tender heir might bear his memory.”
“Heir” and “bear” rhyme by themselves, but the repetition of the “eh” sound in “tender” and “memory,” strengthen the assonance.
Consonance is the repetition of a consonant sound, often in the middle or end of a word. Here's an example from “The Tyger” (1794): William Blake’s 1794 poem “The Tyger” repeats the consonant “r,” creating a rhythmic quality to the poem. “Tyger Tyger, burning bright,/ In the forests of the night;/ What immortal hand or eye,/ Could frame thy fearful symmetry?”
Emily Dickenson used consonance for creating slant rhymes such as in “Poem 315” repeating “l” sounds at the end of the words to form slant rhymes. The poem reads, “Your breath has time to straighten/ Your brain to bubble cool/ Deals one imperial thunderbolt/ That scalps your naked soul.”
Day 17
Prompt: Write a limerick or a series of limericks that make you smile.
Context: After the intensity of Day 16's sestina challenge, perhaps something lighter is in order. A limerick is a type of humorous, often nonsensical poem that follows a specific structure and rhyme scheme. It consists of five lines with a distinct rhythm pattern, typically using anapestic meter (two short syllables followed by a long syllable). The rhyme scheme is AABBA, where the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme with each other, and the third and fourth lines form a separate rhyming pair. Consider lines of 8,8,6,6,8 syllables. For an extra challenge, work a refrain line into the limerick, or use a refrain between Limericks, in a series.
Example of a Limerick:
There once was a man from Peru,
Who dreamt he was eating his shoe.
He awoke with a fright,
In the middle of the night,
To find that his dream had come true!
Limericks are known for their playful and witty nature, often featuring clever wordplay or a funny twist in the final line.
I found this video that helped me understand a Sestina a bit better. :) https://youtu.be/h1nIg_ZbDTY?si=LfgkLBptp4Tg64Ty
Form Prompt: Sestina
Prompt: Write a sestina, a 39-line poem consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, followed by a three-line envoi. The same six words are repeated at the end of each line in a rotating pattern. Use this complex form to explore a theme of cycles—whether it’s the cycles of nature, emotions, or experiences in life. Let the repetition of words mirror the repetitive patterns we see in our world.
If I may, in honor of the wildcard weekends a prompt suggestion for
Day 15
Prompt: Rewrite an old poem, or reinterpret an old piece of art you’ve created. If you don’t have something - find a story/poem and create your own poetic retelling.