I hope you are all reading tons of poetry collections. Alas, I am just not able to concentrate on anything while I am recovering, so I am posting about a poem and a book I read previously (but of course still love so much so that I wrote one of the blurbs). I find the opening image and the mirroring of positions and repetition/replacement of the sun with the speaker and the intended audience powerful and intriguing.

For the first prompt, center a poem or story around an adage or aphorism as the poet did here with the metaphor of the sun. Here is a good starting list of aphorisms: https://www.yourdictionary.com/articles/examples-aphorisms. If you want a little more direction, write about the aphorism, “Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom” with imagery of the moon.

The second prompt is to write a four-stanza poem addressed to another person with the first stanza (quatrain or any other) opening with an image that joins the speaker and intended listener, the second developing that image or natural phenomena, the third connecting the image to an emotional or philosophical truth and the fourth reconnecting the image and emotion to the relationship between speaker and the “you” of the poem.

For the third prompt, write a list poem beginning with the line “This isn’t a love poem” as the title or first line (remembering to credit the poet regardless) for what this poem is not.

For the fourth, write a poem or story using the following word list: “sky,” “open,” “letting,” “settle,” “sun,” “still,” “closer,” “perspective,” “trouble” and “turn.”

If you would like to read more, here is the publisher’s link: http://www.arroyosecopress.org/books.html#thumb.

Bonus prompt, write a poem or story about using the following photo for inspiration.

Good luck with the Sealey Challenge. Have fun reading and writing this month!!!