Just click the link to view the complete post, prompt, example poem, comments, etc.

• Day 1: First Two-for-Tuesday prompt.
• Day 2: Write a “from where you’re sitting” poem.
• Day 3: Write a short poem.
• Day 4: Write an unexpected mess poem.
• Day 5: Write an “After (blank)” poem.
• Day 6: Write a reaction poem.
• Day 7: Write a tense poem.
• Day 8: Second Two-for-Tuesday prompt.
• Day 9: Write an ekphrastic poem.
• Day 10: Write a number poem.
• Day 11: Write a nature poem.
• Day 12: Write a risky poem.
• Day 13: Write a “Full (blank)” poem.
• Day 14: Write a losing poem.
• Day 15: Third Two-for-Tuesday prompt.
• Day 16: Write a “something fantastic” poem.
• Day 17: Write a city poem.
• Day 18: Write a response poem.
• Day 19: Write a persona poem.
• Day 20: Write a rest poem.
• Day 21: Write a “(blank) Day” poem.
• Day 22: Fourth Two-for-Tuesday prompt.
• Day 23: Write a book poem.
• Day 24: Write a “time of day” poem.
• Day 25: Write a memory poem.
• Day 26: Write a hermit crab poem.
• Day 27: Write a “New (blank)” poem.
• Day 28: Write a color poem.
• Day 29: Fifth Two-for-Tuesday prompt.
• Day 30: Write a remix poem.

Have fun poeming!

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Also, click here to check out more than 150 poetic forms (or as I like to call them “poetic games”).

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Prompts appeared first on Writer's Digest.

(And for those wondering, yes, I announced the 2024 November PAD Chapbook Challenge Results here yesterday.)

Thank you so much for traveling this poetic road with me this month. It’s been a lot of fun, and I hope you’ll continue to visit here on Wednesdays for our Wednesday Poetry Prompts starting back up on May 7.

For today’s prompt, write a remix poem. That is, take one of your poems (or several of your poems) from earlier this month and remix it. You could make a free verse poem read like a triolet or haiku. Or you could pick six words from a poem and make them the end words in a sestina. Heck, take an image from one of your poems, make it the title of your new poem, and then, write your poem. There are any number of ways to remix a poem.

Just have fun with it!

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

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Here’s my attempt at a Remix Poem:

“Appropriately Speaking,” by Robert Lee Brewer

Breathe me back to life
word by lovely word
through poetic strife
feeling quite absurd,

because I can say
everything you heard
each and every day
feeling quite absurd;

talking semantics
like a lingual nerd
full of wordy tricks
feeling quite absurd

with a simple drink
shaken but not stirred
I can barely think
feeling quite absurd,

and I fall apart
as the truth is slurred
breaking every heart
feeling quite absurd;

the truth is I know
I only demurred,
because I don’t know–
feeling quite absurd.

(Note on today’s poem: It is a remix of my love poem from Day 8 of the challenge.)

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 30 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

It’s time for the fifth (and final) Two-for-Tuesday prompt:

• Write a “near the end” poem and/or…
• Write a “near the beginning” poem.

Are we near the end of writing poems or near the beginning of revising them? I don’t know.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Near the End and/or Near the Beginning Poem:

“The Start of the End,” by Robert Lee Brewer

The end is never as close as it feels
when we begin to prepare ourselves
for what we know must happen next;
we feel ourselves beginning to grieve
before the night covers us in a fog
of nostalgia and neglect for ourselves
twisting in the echo chamber of
impending despair; we’re never there
fully, because the end stretches out
beyond what seems reasonable,
but it’s just enough to prepare us,
in our broken ways, to start again.

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 29 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

For today’s prompt, write a color poem. The poem could be about a color, mention a color, or be somewhat “colorful.” Of course, the title of the poem could be a color (or include a color) and then not mention colors in the poem at all. So there’s a lot of wiggle room with this prompt.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Color Poem:

“olo,” by Robert Lee Brewer

they say it’s impossible
to see this color
without some assistance
but then it’s possible
to see any color
without some assistance
because the mind sees
what it wants to see
when it wants to see
and refuses to see
what it doesn’t want
so maybe it’s blue
or green or teal or
some other color
found on the spectrum
or maybe it’s just
whatever a person
could ever imagine

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 28 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

And yes, it is totally fine to replace the word “new” with the word “knew” if that helps you get your poem out today!

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a New (blank) Poem:

“New Enough,” by Robert Lee Brewer

I suppose I’m new enough
to not understand, but
I still knew enough
to quietly demand what
I thought should be mine
& that was enough
I thought to break this line
& that was enough
but also not that new,
but also not what I knew.

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 27 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

For today’s prompt, write a hermit crab poem. A hermit crab poem is like a hermit crab essay, which is an essay that takes on the form of another type of literature. So a hermit crab poem might be a poem that looks like a to-do list, footnotes, obituary, spam messages, or a message on a postcard.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Hermit Crab Poem:

“messages on the dry erase board,” by Robert Lee Brewer

drive boys to school in morning
doctor appointment @ noon
softball practice @ 6pm
write a poem before bed

“Blessed are the peacemakers…”

salami
string cheese
pickles
tomato soup
saltines

call the orthodontist
mow the lawn

In a world full of cats
be a dog. In a land of birds
be a worm. Catch the birds
raining like dogs and cats.
Raining like worlds.

pay credit card bill
cancel subscription

Laugh more
than you cry.

compile a random list
of quotes

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 26 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Memory Poem:

“upon waking from a nap,” by Robert Lee Brewer

sometimes
i admit
it takes a moment
to remember
exactly where i’m at
& what i was planning
to do

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 25 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Time of Day Poem:

“Before the early bird,” by Robert Lee Brewer

Before the early bird
or the high school bus
or the garbage truck
a silence falls over the world
that my words try to wake up.

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 24 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

For today’s prompt, write a book poem. Today is World Book Day, which may be one of my favorite holidays moving forward, because I love books. Your poem could be inspired by a book, an author, a character, a scene, and/or however you’d like to come at this one. Heck, write about a bookstore, library, card catalogue, or any other bookish thing you can imagine.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Book Poem:

“Ode to Bookmarks,” by Robert Lee Brewer

Whether you were made for the job
or a mere stand-in (a receipt,
Post-It, or dollar bill), you throb
with the import of your conceit–
for you not only keep those who
read from living out their worst fear
of losing their last spot, but you
also protect books from dog-ears;
so hand me a scrap of paper
or some abandoned business card,
though the ends may fray and taper,
you’ll find it bookmarks just as hard
silently keeping every page;
o bookmark, you are all the rage!

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 23 appeared first on Writer's Digest.

• Write a tell me poem and/or…
• Write a don’t tell me poem.

You get to decide what that means; you might even tell me in your poem.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

Note on commenting: If you wish to comment on the site, go to Disqus to create a free new account, verify your account on this site below (one-time thing), and then comment away. It’s free, easy, and the comments (for the most part) don’t require manual approval (though I check from time to time for those that do).

*****

Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

Click to continue.

*****

Here’s my attempt at a Tell Me and/or Don’t Tell Me Poem:

“Tell the Tale,” by Robert Lee Brewer

Tell me something I haven’t heard before–
true or false, as long as it won’t bore me
into a slumber on a summer day
when a subtle breeze might blow me away
to Savannah, Charleston, or New Orleans,
wherever ghost stories find they’re adored.

The post 2025 April PAD Challenge: Day 22 appeared first on Writer's Digest.