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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2299350-Promptly-4-5-and-6
Rated: 13+ · Book · Cultural · #2299350

Poems for years 4, 5 and 6 of the Promptly Poetry Challenge.

A year's worth of poems, every week for 52 weeks, spanning 2023 and 2024, plus the years following, from August 2024 to August 2025, 2025 to 2026 (provided I live that long, of course).
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January 2, 2026 at 11:45am
January 2, 2026 at 11:45am
#1104919
Looking Ahead

Heads up
concentrate
vision pinpointed to the distance
one headlight focused
at extreme range
pool of light
in the darkness
on we hurtle.

Shapes flash peripherally
today glimpsed formless
in the night
and in the mirror
yesterday piles its dreams
forsaken.



Line count: 14
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 20
Prompt: Looking Ahead as the title. Write a poem inspired by it. A minimum of 12 lines is required.
December 27, 2025 at 1:58pm
December 27, 2025 at 1:58pm
#1104544
Invitation

Life’s
red carpet
unfolding and unrolling
eternal entrance to the
celebration.



Line count: 5
Form: Cinquain
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 19
Prompt: Write a cinquain - 5-line poem, Line 1: one word, Line 2: two words, Line 3: three words, Line 4: four words, Line 5: one word. The poet chooses the topic.
December 22, 2025 at 11:04am
December 22, 2025 at 11:04am
#1104184
McVitie’s Chocolate Hobnobs

My kingdom,
my kingdom for a cookie,
and thus I assign,
with desperation akin to the third Richard’s,
a last flicker of hope
that a deal might be struck,
a final exit
from a stage grown inhospitable.

And though cookies are poor mounts
for vacating abandoned causes,
there is satisfaction at least
in the rough honesty
of the McVitie’s Hobnob
and its solid assertion of good health,
while the dipping in chocolate
be oxymoron enough - ‘tis worth a last hurrah!



Line count: 16
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 18
Prompt: Write a poem about your favorite cookie. The title of your poem should be the name of the cookie.
December 11, 2025 at 10:39am
December 11, 2025 at 10:39am
#1103448
Ode to Winter

And if cold be not emotion
still it concentrates the mind
more powerful than any potion
of attention-grabbing kind.

When hands are surely frozen
and shivers wrack my frame
be certain I’ll not have chosen
to ponder passion’s fame.

When bound in winter’s spell
with ice inside my veins
you may guarantee full well
my mind is pure chilblains.



Line count: 12
Rhymed abab
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 17
Prompt: Write a poem personifying whichever emotion you’re predominantly feeling right now.
December 9, 2025 at 12:11pm
December 9, 2025 at 12:11pm
#1103294
If I Were a Snowflake
(Eternity in the Round)


Oh, to live forever,
my plastic form enshrined
in global ecstasy,
inspiration I shall find.

You’ll not think me pretty,
no fancy shape for me,
a thousand just the same,
no differences you’ll see.

But melt I will not ever,
my teeming horde aspire,
to ride the storm always,
a silent gleaming choir.

And though my world is tiny,
the snow just my pretence,
I’ll see the end of time itself,
through ages beyond sense.



Line count: 16
Rhymed abcb
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 16
Prompt: Use the following title for this week's poem: "If I Were a Snowflake."
December 8, 2025 at 11:00am
December 8, 2025 at 11:00am
#1103222
Shoreline

Two words
setting the scene,
with each line adding two,
aiming at the total of eight,
before the wave retreats
by two each time
to two.

Two too,
the wave grows
from two to six and eight,
spreading on the sands of meter,
this constant flow and ebb
the breath of seas
in twos.



Line count: 14
Form: Eintou, seven lines with syllables counting 2-4-6-8-6-4-2, repeated to total 32 syllables in all.
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 15
Prompt: Write an eintou.
December 5, 2025 at 1:46pm
December 5, 2025 at 1:46pm
#1103020
Tiny Trio

A tiny sprig of moss
etched against the darkness
and a drop of water at its foot,
bold outlier
of the fetid forest behind,
it leans a bending branch
to peer at its reflection.

That first raindrop after drought,
silent explosion of dust
scattered in the thirsty air
and the damp drawn down
in the heated earth,
a dark patch
on the parched patina of dirt.

The antlion’s conical trap,
innocent in the sand,
with one grain falling,
footing lost at last,
rolls down into the depth
to the miniature jaws awaiting,
drama beneath notice.



Line count: 21
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 14
Prompt: Write a poem about at least three ‘little’ things that make you happy.
November 17, 2025 at 10:30am
November 17, 2025 at 10:30am
#1101794
Old Crow

Old crow survivor
always comes out top,
both passenger and driver
when searching for his crop.

“Carrion’s my bag,” he says
“and that can mean whate’er
I find or steal or possess
it doesn’t really matter.

“What counts is I am fed,
the easier the better,
and so to rest my head
when sun becomes a setter.”

And so with many a caw,
he shouts triumphantly -
“Go feed behind your door,
and I’ll master what I see.”



Line count: 16
Rhymed abab
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 13
Prompt: Write a poem about a bird! Any bird, any color, your choice!
Note: This not all I have to say about crows but it’s all he cares about. Some day I may write more on my perspective.
November 6, 2025 at 7:34am
November 6, 2025 at 7:34am
#1100975
NPO

Nil Per Os or Nil By Mouth,
Strict instruction laid upon the morning,
the salt upon the pain of dread
as the operation plods its time diffusing.

And its not the hunger spikes the moment
nor thirst scraping at the throat,
but habit strides about the room,
demands routine return.

He pokes the mind with insistent finger,
manufactures glance at clock,
“It’s breakfast time and take a sip,”
he points to beaten path.

Determination grits the teeth,
wards off forgetful moment,
“You’ll not catch me in thoughtless move,”
I plot the coming journey.



Line count: 16
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 12
Prompt: Poet's Choice! Write a poem about anything.
October 31, 2025 at 11:43am
October 31, 2025 at 11:43am
#1100531
Fog

Fine for Eliot with his yellow fog,
infused with smoke and spattered with soot,
that falls asleep embracing the house.

Not so easy for me who never knew fog
until, returning to England and snow,
I met the soft grey mantle of atmosphere
gone thick with dew and cold,
as silent as a cat’s paws padding
down the passage in the dark.

Oh I’ve grown to love this swaddling
in a dim world with restricted view
and sounds muffled to extinction.
Never thick enough for me,
avid of privacy as I am and singular,
the fog feels like home, a place
where secrets hide and thoughts run free.

Yes, I’ll take this friend of new acquaintance,
though I never knew it yellow as Eliot’s
in those chimney days before Clean Air
and, if I cannot sing as eloquent as he,
I offer at least this pumpkin of a poem.



Line count: 21
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 11
Prompt: Use these words in your poem - pumpkin, cat, fog.

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Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2299350-Promptly-4-5-and-6