-
The term "dark night (of the soul)" is used in Christianity for a spiritual crisis in a journey towards union with God, like that described by Saint John of the Cross.
- Wikipaedia
i decided the term "Dark n
-
Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content;
The quiet mind is richer than a crown;
Sweet are the nights in careless slumber spent;
The poor estate scorns fortune's angry frown:
Such sweet content, such mind
-
Write something that will delight me and, if you want to be emotional (not emo), you go right ahead. Write in the manner of the old poets, if you wish (i'm thinking of that Robert Browing poem that starts "Oh, to be in Engla
-
This is a contest for those who know me and those who don't. i recently found out that one of the newspapers in this city is running a short story contest. Entries are due soon, February 28th. i was once printed as a runne
-
When icicles hang by the wall,
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
And Tom bears logs into the hall,
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the sta
-
Please send me your best gold trophy prewrite for last year. i am only awarding one price, gold; please consider carefully before you enter.
-
It's been a strange year for me, full of difficulties at times. But lately, i got some good news that gave me hope.
How about you? Write me something about the highlights and discouragements of 2009 and your hopes
-
Foods you never eat except at this time of year. You can write about mincemeat tarts or stuffing (dressing?), if you prefer.
You've probably figured out that i am looking for a humourous piece. 100 lines or less.
-
Tell me about your Christmas journey, good or not so good, past or present. Here is a t.s. Eliot poem to inspire you. 100 lines or less, any form.
'a cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year <
-
-
long walks on the beach? i'm afraid this contest concerns long walks in the street, cold and grimy, by those who walk in wet and dirty socks and have no place of their own to lay their heards or their feet.
Here's w
-
Here's a piece of Old Poetry for Hallowe'en. i am hoping it will inspire you to write something ghostly. It's a fairly simple form so you might consider using it as a model but subsituting someone you know personally for n
-
Bells on her fingers and rings on her toes,
she shall have music where ever she goes.
These two lines from an old nursery rhyme drifted into my head this morning as i practiced for my next dancing lesson, coins j
-
"Michaelmas Daisies", my dad would call them.
In North America, they are known as asters,
round and purple,
fringed around their yellow centres
growing and fading in the autumn.
-
Write about degrees of conflict. Conflict is important but when do you decided to fight for something and when do you turn the other cheek?
Write about a fight or about walking about from a fight, and about the deg
-
"The trouble with a kitten is that when it grows up, it's always a cat." - Ogden Nash
Write whatever you like about cats though i'd prefer something funny. i'm a catlover but cat hating poems can be fun too. Those
-
i have decided to hold a contest on the subject of people on the margins of society.
The first example is the lady in Frances Cornford's poem, a lady seen from the train:
o why do yo
-
This is an old English saying. You don't hear it much these days but i hope it will spur you on to write something about May-December relationships. i would love to read some romantic love stories about older men/younger wo
-
In the country of the blind, the one-eyed woman is queen.
Or one-eyed person or one-eyed man, as you wish.
Write a poem about blindness or about some other physical disability.
Write something about
-
-
Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
- Franklin d. Roosevelt
So what do you think of this? Let's put it up for discussion in
-
Just a little contest about time travel slash reincarnation. Have you considered being reborn as one of the following:
Emily Dickinson
Oscar Wilde
Allen Ginsberg
Ernest Hemingway
-
Just clearing out the prompts i've been storing on my page. Pick one of those listed below. Less than 100 lines, any form you like.
Modified scripture: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they say"
a
-
Something came up today that has induced me to come out of contest holding retirement after only a few days. The prompt is from the Old Poets but don't let that scare you away. i think you will find it interesting and to re
-
The French are said to be experts on love. i don't know if that's true. i did have a French Canadian boyfriend once, for a short time....but that's another poem. i was thinking today about a French proverb:
In lo
-
Please write me some inspirational writes, using one of the following prompts. i could use some inspiration and i'm sure some of you can too.
Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overc
-
Splendour in the Grass
What though the radiance
which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass,
of glory in the flow
-
i am thinking a lot about shoes lately and preparing to go shopping sometime soon for a pair of good quality, reliable shoes. Hopefully, they will be dressy enough to wear to a wedding in August. i am noticing peoples' shoe
-
If you have not read any poems by Lord Byron before, you have a treat in store. He was a poetic celebrity in the early 19th century and with good reason in my opinon.
So read the poems and use either or both as a pr
-
Well, i finally got around to using the Anne Sexton poem that has been sitting on my page for weeks. Some of you will know that Sexton was hospitalized for mental illness but you don't have to have had that kind of hospital
-
This is my 100th contest on this fine site and, in order to observe it, i am looking for 100 wellworded pieces, each of exactly 100 words. With that number of words, you may not want to try for a rhyming piece, but, if you w
-
There is a legend in my family that we have some gypsy blood. i find this romantic but others might not want to acknowledge this part of our background. In England, gypsies had a rep for horsestealing and were not considere
-
Prose or poetry.
i have been reading a diary kept on ap and realized how interesting they can be, even if they are just about everyday events. So, what i want you to do is keep a diary for a week. Just do it in a n
-
"o look, look in the mirror?
o look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.
"o stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crook
-
a straightforward word bank contest. As usual, i am flexible as to form and rhyme.
Please use at least five words from this bank of spring flowers.
daffodils
tulips
lily of the valley
lilac
-
May Day is coming up in a couple of weeks so i came up with a number of prompts.
May the 1st makes me think of
1. the may queen presiding as her attendants dance around the maypole, a spring festival.
-
Here's a contest about the tasty hot cross bun with some information below to give you sustenance and inspiration.
Any form, any length less than 100 lines.
Happy Easter. Since i thought of this contest as
-
If you are anything like me, you have lots of memories of church, whether you have stuck with it or not. i am not religious now, but i feel a lot of nostaligia for the hymns and for Sunday school every week.
i'd lik
-
i've decided to run a contest on Poetry Month, April 2 - May 3. Here's some information from Wikipaedia.
National Poetry Month
National Poetry Month is a celebration of poetry first introduced in 1996 by th
-
The form below is something I came up with in the last few days. I'm not sure it is completely new but I've never seen it before.
Here it is. I will elaborate on rhyme schemes, etc. later.
DREAMING
-
braces and the dreaded root canal. I've decided to run a contest on dental matters. You can approach your write in a serious way or do something comic or scary. There must be lots of accumulated experience out there. 20 -
-
He did so much to help kids have fun in their reading and it would have been his birthday today.
Just a quick concert. Write something in the style of Green Eggs and Ham. Here is part of it below.
GREEN EG
|