So how has your 30/30 challenge gone? Last year I wrote at thirty poem drafts; this April, I wrote one poem. Last year I posted thirty prompts for the challenge, and, well, you know how few I’ve posted in comparison. I have gotten to hear amazing poets discuss their work and their processes and leave conferences inspired, only to sink back down in the anxiety and grief. I have found it difficult to know how to respond, how to resist, how to help.
We are all navigating dark times in the dark, so let’s reach out to another and work to build communities to protect and support everyone, especially those targeted. We can join existing organizations who are already doing great work and build local mutual aid groups of our neighbors. We also need to keep writing and communicating the truth and our values, and there again are groups of writers leading the way. Certainly, this poem by Cameron Awkward-Rich calls powerfully to our shared humanity, our shared vulnerability, our shared need for one another in a world that separates us in a myriad of ways.
For the first prompt, use antistrophe (words or phrases repeated at the end of lines) like the poem’s “it breaks my heart” in a list poem. Like “Meditations in an Emergency,” you can drop the phrase from the lines and use it to end the poem. The last repeated line with its one additional word makes me gasp.
For the second, use the line “There are no borders, only wind” as a ghostline, remembering to start the poem or story from it but erasing the line afterward and crediting the poet for your inspiration.
The third prompt is to write a poem or story from the following list of words: “wake,” “blinds,” “train,” “doves,” “tents,” “hawking,” “dream,” “borders,” “wind” and “institution.” Try to switch the verbs to nouns and vise versa if possible.
The last is to write a poem or story as you move from one part of a city or town to another, tying the people and sights you (or the narrator) see together into a unified world. Repetition is a useful tool for both unification and emphasis. You may find this article’s description of different methods of repetition helpful: https://writers.com/repetition-definition.
Bonus prompt: write a poem or story about either of these murals.
Good luck writing! Have fun!