CaPoWriMo 4.30

Write a prayer poem – it should be in rhyme, which means, it should sound like a song. But you can choose your own rhyme scheme. If you are an atheist, you can write a poem about atheism.

CaPoWriMo 4.29

Write a poem in the form of a letter.

CaPoWriMo 4.28

Write a poem where you either seek forgiveness (for something you have done) or forgive some wrong or hurt.

CaPoWriMo 4.27

Write a poem about a festival you have enjoyed celebrating.

CaPoWriMo 4.26

Write a poem about a historical event. (It could be a war, a major election, a social movement, an uprising, a coronation, an epidemic... you get the general idea.)

CaPoWriMo 4.25

Write a poem about masks.

CaPoWriMo 4.24

Write a poem about a flower (except roses).

CaPoWriMo 4.23

Write a love poem in the style of Pablo Neruda.

CaPoWriMo 4.22

Write a poem inspired by a character in a film or a TV show.

CaPoWriMo 4.21

Write a Shakespearean sonnet.

CaPoWriMo 4.20

Write a dream poem – something you have dreamt and remembered and what it could possibly mean.

CaPoWriMo 4.19

Write a poem about a camera or a photograph.

CaPoWriMo 4.18

Write an andhadi.

CaPoWriMo 4.17

Write a twitter poem (140 characters, including spaces).

CaPoWriMo 4.16

Write a 'found' poem, taken from the day's newspaper. This means that every phrase and word in the poem must be from something printed in the paper.

CaPoWriMo 4.15

Write a marsiya.

CaPoWriMo 4.14

Write a ghazal.

CaPoWriMo 4.13

Write a villanelle.

CaPoWriMo 4.12

Write a poem set in an alternate world/universe.

Grandma how do you pray? Mayda del Valle

CaPoWriMo 4.11

Write a poem about some act of physical labour (farming, sweeping, loading etc).

Rives: A story of mixed emoticons

CaPoWriMo 4.10

Write a poem about an animal or insect (pick just one species).

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, sung by David Gilmour

CaPoWriMo 4.09

Write a poem about insomnia.

So you're a poet?

CaPoWriMo 4.08

Write a 'taboo' poem: write about rain without using the words 'wet', 'water', 'cloud' 'drops', and of course, without 'rain'.

so you want to be a writer - charles bukowski

so you want to be a writer
charles bukowski

if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.

if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.

don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

CaPoWriMo 4.07

Write a poem about watching someone (not an object) die.

(Belatedly) A Playlist For World Poetry Day

Playlist created by Nilanjana Roy

CaPoWriMo 4.06

Write an acrostic.

CaPoWriMo 4.05

Write a poem using five or seven full sentences. Each line should qualify as a grammatical sentence. No enjambments.

CaPoWriMo 4.04

Write a limerick.

CaPoWriMo 4.03

Write a poem about your body. This could be a your relationship to it, body image, or about a certain body part.

CaPoWriMo 4.02

Write a haiku.

CapoWriMo 4.01

Write a sestina. Here’s how to make it interesting. One of the six key words (last word in a line in every stanza) should be 'water'.

CaPoWriMo 4

So, intrepid poets, CaPoWriMo* starts. Are you ready for edition 4?

 Annie's posting a challenge / trigger / cue a day on our Twitter feed, @caferati. That's 30 mini-exercises for you.

We'll be posting them here, one each day. They're scheduled to auto-post at midnight, one a day, so keep coming back here for the newest prompt. (Look for the #CaPoWriMo tag.)

You can come back, read the prompt for the day, then go away and write a poem or three. (And if you like, come post a link (or the whole poem if you choose) in the comments of the post that prompted it.

*For those who came in late, see last year's post.