“October Ends” with just one post—Prompts Inspired by Mary Ruefle

It is Halloween, the last day of October, and this will be the only post of the month. I love Halloween, horror stories and superstitions, and usually this is the month I enjoy posting the most. The new (-ish) position, along with the current horrors, swallowed any creativity I felt. But tomorrow starts a new month, so let’s begin again.

“October Ends” is a beautiful poem by Mary Ruefle, someone I deeply admire. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Btw, Phillip Crymble shares wonderful poetry, including his own, on Bluesky if you are on that platform.

For the first prompt, start with images of night and follow with an event.

The second prompt is a Mad Libs writing exercise: replace all the nouns with your own. After you’ve finished, choose any line except the first and make that the first line of a new poem.

The third prompt is to use the line “All the birds nailed into one coffin” as a ghostline, remembering to erase the line after you’ve drafted a poem or story and to credit the poet for the inspiration.

For the last prompt, write a poem or story using the following word list: “egg,” “silence,” “jumped,” “moonlight,” “broken,” “whirling,” “nailed,” “agitation,“ “compass” and “bonework.”

Bonus prompt: write about vines, dependency, the contrasting hardy green with the blue berries and short-lived reds and rusts or whatever this photo inspires.

Btw, I just learned that the literary journal Rabid Oak discontinued publishing, although the website remains. It was one of the first places to publish me, and I had enjoyed reading its issues until I got busy and fell out of the habit of checking the site. If you appreciate a journal, particularly one with a small staff of volunteers, let the editors know.

Good luck writing. I hope your Halloween was spooky fun and full of treats.

Sealey Challenge is almost finished, and I won’t pretend I came close to finishing it or even reading more poetry than I usually do. Some weeks (months) are like that. I hope you were able to make more time to enjoy poetry; if not, there is always tomorrow to pick up a great collection or follow some poets online and read theirs and those they share.

I did finish a small chapbook Laughing in the Face of Death by Californian poet Kevin Ridgeway, who has always been fun to see in person and to talk with.

For the first prompt, write about the difficulty of comforting someone through a loss. This can be in an essay, poem or story, whatever medium (or hybrid) works best.

For the second, begin a story or as poem with someone thanking you (or the narrator)

The third prompt is to write a poem or story that switches from one emotion to a contrasting one. Experiment with the amount of space you allow for the transition.

For the last prompt, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “failure,” “lost,” “tied,” “rawness,” “tissue,” “chased,” “underneath,” “ground,” “shook” and “needed” but excluding the words “tears,” “die,” “died,” “dead” or “death.”

Bonus prompt: This photo doesn’t do the sky justice, not with how lightning flashed in the rosy clouds while the dark ribbons hung next to the moon, but write whatever it inspires.

Good luck writing! I hope this month has led to discovering new poets to enjoy!