Author Archives: grahamswords1962

The test for today is to write a poem the focusses on and repeats the name of a colour. I chose my colour for the uplift it offers each Spring and opted to use shades rather than duplicate the one noun. …. Outside the greenhouse, the glum grey, cold light of a November afternoon dimsContinue reading “Jaune Billet Doux”

Our optional prompt for the day challenges us to write a poem that recounts a historical event. For some time, I’ve been fascinated by this photo. The raw emotions on display from the characters involved made me look into it and learn more. In 1967 Kathrine Switzer became the first registered woman to run theContinue reading “Run”

Today’s prompt puzzled me somewhat at first. We are asked to consider what we are haunted by, or what haunts us? We then had to write a poem responding to this question. Then change the word haunt to hunt. My mind initially sprang to the darker side, that of sad emotions and events and challengesContinue reading “Tally Ho!”

Today’s quest – to write a poem in which the speaker expresses the desire to be someone or something else and explains why. Two possible models for are: Natasha Rao’s “In my next life let me be a tomato,” and Randall Jarrell’s “The Woman at the Washington Zoo.” I really liked the latter one, youContinue reading “Dear Lord”

Today, we we’re challenged to write a poem that is inspired by a piece of music, and that shares its title with that piece of music. For examples, we were offered A. Van Jordan’s “Que Sera Sera” and Adrian Matejka’s “Soave Sia Il Vento.” In recognition of the football team I used to follow achievingContinue reading “Yellows”

Today, we are asked to write a poem in which we closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does. The “surprise” ending to this James Wright poem is a good illustration ofContinue reading “Soup student”

Today we are given stamps as food for thought. I could have waxed lyrical about my days in The Stamp King shop, sharing beetroot sarnies with Derek while rummaging through boxes of stamps looking for flowering birds of paradise, but I have a full day ahead and little time to ponder, so I selected aContinue reading “Stamp of affection”

Today’s prompt asks us to write a poem of at least ten lines in which each line begins with the same word. This technique is called anaphora, and has long been used to give poems a driving rhythm and/or a sense of puzzlebox mystery. You might say I slept with this one. ……. Cheese isContinue reading “From Fromage with love”

The left hand column are words I chose that have come into mind on my first day away in North Wales, the right hand column are the randomly selected rhyming words for them as directed by today’s prompt. Bitter – tittergroan – thronesheen – streamache – placatesmoke – invokeJackdaw – corridorlichen – smittenstrait – gateSwimmingContinue reading “Yr Wyddfa”

I was not inspired by today’s prompt, I think our world is too full of tall tales being told by inauthentic so called leaders without me adding to them. I took a reflective moment instead. The tick, tick, tick of the clock, Hops, Around the breathless spaces of space Between Venus and Mars, And allContinue reading “Tick Tick”