MONDAY PROMPT(s) / April 4

April 4, 2011
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This week’s prompt(s)

We are into April, National Poetry Month, and some of you are madly writing-a-poem-a-day. And some of you are saying, “Um, no.” To keep all our circus-goers happy and well-fed on cotton candy (inspiration) and peanuts (prompts), here is a list of seven prompts:

1. Write about a broken window.
2. Write about something that no longer exists.
3. Write a poem with lungs in it.
4. Write a poem as though you are a fish.
5. Write a letter poem to someone in a war zone or a revolution.
6. Write a poem that starts, “I am sorry about _____.”
7. Write a poem that starts, “Legend says ______.”

If you want to stick to the normal plan, simply pick one prompt and write a poem. If you are doing a poem-a-day, here they are: seven prompts. Either way, come back starting Friday and through the weekend to post your poems! If you’ve written one, as usual, post that one. If you’ve written more than one, give us your favorite!

Special notes for April

Some people will be writing a poem-a-day in April in celebration of National Poetry Month, and some people won’t. Whatever you intend to do, we will be right here on our regular Monday-prompt / Friday-poems schedule. If you want to write a poem-a-day using Big Tent prompts, our weekly prompts from March 28 through April 25 will include seven choices. Write to them, one each day, if you like. But if you prefer to ignore all the poem-a-day madness and just want to keep doing what you’re doing, simply pick one from the list and go with it!

How prompts work under the Big Tent

We post prompts on Mondays, and you have all week to write your poems, based on our fabulous prompt or any other inspiration. Come back on Friday when you will find a “Come One, Come All” post where you can use the comments section to 1) leave a link to your poem or 2) leave the poem in its entirety.

You’ll have all day Friday (and all weekend!) to post your work and read each others’ work. Take your time. Enjoy all the poems that are new to the world.

Some hints

Hint: We’ve set Big Tent Poetry to Central Time.

Hint: An easy way to check on new post comments is with RSS reader, if you use one. Here’s the address: https://bigtentpoetry.org/comments/feed.

Hint: If you are new to our site, your comment(s) will be held for moderation for your first few posts. If you put more than one link in your comment, your comment(s) will be held for moderation. We’re checking the filters often, so don’t despair! That said, if it takes more than a half a day to see it come live on the site, do email us at info (at) bigtentpoetry.org. (But be patient, okay?)

Circus etiquette

We figure you know how to play in the poetry community, but here are the basics:

Be nice. Have fun. Remember we aren’t a critique forum. We want to support each other as we bring more poetry into our lives. Only provide critique if someone specifically asks for it.

Although we love seeing our badge in the sidebar of your blog, we would appreciate it if you would also link back to the site in each of your poem posts. Linking within your post helps people travel back and forth from your site to the Big Tent Poetry site, and it helps perpetuate Big Tent Poetry “findability” in Google searches — and that helps us all.

 

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23 Responses to “ MONDAY PROMPT(s) / April 4 ”

  1. Marianne on April 4, 2011 at 8:09 am

    Ohhhhhhhh … lovely prompts! Thank you!

    • carolee on April 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm

      you’re welcome! i’m so glad you like them!

  2. ODE TO STREET GANGS | The Poet's Quill on April 4, 2011 at 11:17 am

    [...] Big Tent Poetry https://bigtentpoetry.org/2011/04/monday-prompts-april-4/ prompt for day four of NaPoWriMo http://www.napowrimo.net/ is, “Write about a broken [...]

  3. pamela on April 4, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    Nice!

    • carolee on April 5, 2011 at 6:20 pm

      Getting some inspiration, Pamela?

  4. Gerry/Strummed Words on April 4, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    No. 2 – something that no longer exists – My dog Harvee: http://strummedwords.blogspot.com/2011/04/napowrimo-day-4-one-word-poem.html

    • carolee on April 5, 2011 at 6:21 pm

      poor harvee. and poor gerry.

  5. christine on April 5, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    I like the round-up of posts for the week. There’s something for everyone here!

  6. glh on April 5, 2011 at 4:11 pm

    Lovely prompts -thank you. I started with the broken window but got lost in the weather and ended up somewhere else! Am very much enjoying reading such a variety of responses – you are providing a wonderful site for poetry bloggers – thank you again!

    Here is ‘Feeling under the weather’: http://andmilestogobeforeisleep-glh.blogspot.com/2011/04/feeling-under-weather-napowrimo-5.html

    glh

    • carolee on April 5, 2011 at 6:21 pm

      Thrilled that you’re enjoying the prompts!

  7. Jeeves on April 6, 2011 at 1:03 am

    Amazing prompts especially broken windows. Thoughts are set free by the broken windows

    poemsotherwise.blogspot.com/2011/04/windows-speak.html

  8. Ron. on April 6, 2011 at 3:02 am

    Yeah, gotta love the broken windows at Scrambled, Not Fried

  9. Rinkly Rimes on April 6, 2011 at 3:12 am

    http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2011/04/ode-to-flying-fish.html

    Back to blogging after a cruise. So mine had to be a ‘salty’ poem.

  10. Agnija Bharathi on April 6, 2011 at 5:18 am

    Thanks for the prompt.
    My “poem” on the broken window prompt is at http://agnija-b.blogspot.com/2011/04/all-for-want-of-little-afternoon-breeze.html

  11. RJ Clarken on April 6, 2011 at 10:16 am

    Weird Animals

    http://1ightverse.blogspot.com/2011/04/weird-animals.html

  12. Writer's Island on April 6, 2011 at 6:56 pm

    Carolee, Deb, Jill — if you want to let the Big Tenter’s know, if they have the urge to write to each of your seven weekly prompts • AND • want to post a link each day to one during NAPOWRIMO — they are wvery elcome to do so over at Writer’s Island… not at the exclusion of linking here, but in addition to. We are NOT suggesting prompts during this month on the Island, but we are opening a “Free Write” post each day for the purpose of daily linking. If you don’t want to pass this along feel free to delete this from this comment section.

    • Deb on April 6, 2011 at 8:19 pm

      Here you go, poets!

  13. Nellsberry on April 7, 2011 at 3:55 pm

    “Something that no longer exists” – my first place of work (probably a good thing!)
    http://widerworldweb.wordpress.com/2011/04/07/my-first-job/

    Great prompt, thanks! :)

  14. Agnija Bharathi on April 7, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    Here’s my poem for “something that no longer exists” — my creativity!
    http://agnija-b.blogspot.com/2011/04/requiem-to-my-lost-creativity-napowrimo.html

  15. Southwest Arkie on April 8, 2011 at 9:49 am

    “Something that no longer exists”- changed a bit to “someone”
    http://southwestarkie.blogspot.com/2011/04/little-jacob.html

    • Deb on April 8, 2011 at 11:57 am

      Welcome to the tent, SW Arkie.

  16. RJ Clarken on April 8, 2011 at 11:10 am

    Go fish!

    http://1ightverse.blogspot.com/2011/04/go-fish.html

  17. RJ Clarken on April 9, 2011 at 8:40 am

    Legend says…http://1ightverse.blogspot.com/2011/04/stamp-act.html