Poetry is a weird thing. Nobody who writes it seems to be able to define what is and what isn’t a poem, but ask the average person and they tend to say “Something thay rhymes” or “Something about love and flowers” (both real responses, yes, I do ask strangers to define poetry).
With that in mind, I want to help you break convention.
Here are six ideas for poems. If you like, try to write a poem in the comments of this post based on these prompts. It would be nice to see what everyone is capable of here!
FEEDBACK
If you type ‘feedback?’ at the end of your poem comment, I will offer free feedback on your poem.
Q: “Why are you offering free feedback?”
A: I miss teaching. I’ve been out of the coaching thing for a while now. I will be getting back to it soon, and I want to warm up! It’s also nice to give something back to my subscribers.
PROMPTS
Write a poem about:
The mystery of a thunderstorm
A fear of the unknown
A longing for home
Standing up for what is right
The confusion of a shattered mind
The beauty of a blooming flower
FUTURE STUFF
I’ve always wanted to use Halfplanet as a platform to help writers out. My favourite things to publish are comedy, sci-fi, and poetry. With that in mind, an award for these things may be headed your way soon.
It will be free. Any paid subscriptions to my personal Substack or Halfplanet will not confer an advantage to entrants. None of my awards will be pay-to-win.
There is also a writing workshop over on my writer discord. The first workshop, MILD, is open. It’s called MILD because it’s for mild feedback, perfect for people wanting a laid back workshop.
It runs from my own personal writing discord, so if you want some spoilers into my next few book covers, those are there too.
And finally, I have now opened up a new Halfplanet Press bookstore. It’s going to be like the Etsy store (which sells vintage books, toys, some writing services, and Lego instructions) but different. The Payhip store will include brand new eBooks, my writing coaching/ghostwriting services, and discounted signed books.
This doesn’t mean the Etsy is obsolete. It’s experiencing a resurgence in popularity recently. All this means is I now have a better place to directly sell eBooks (that means I get to be a bit cheaper than all the big retailers too).
See you on the next one, please do write a poem.
-Phillip