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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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September 23, 2025 at 3:38pm
September 23, 2025 at 3:38pm
#1097940
Perchance

Possibilities positively proliferate
past previous positions
pertinent perhaps to pontificate
for previously potent physicians.

All actions activate attention
alerting assumptions to arise
and asking about ascension
as aces act as allies.

So sound the sentry’s siren
sonorous and sure the sound
serious and certain in Sidon
sixteen solutions to surround.



Line count: 12
Rhymed abab
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 6
Prompt: Write a poem about possibilities.
September 22, 2025 at 10:28am
September 22, 2025 at 10:28am
#1097853
The Dream Attainable

The dream attainable
is like tomorrow
we can reach for it
hands eager to receive
forever betrayed
as our touch transforms
the day into the present
tomorrow become today.

And so the dream
on realisation
always evaporates
into reality
now grasped and owned
and from the shadows
comes the call alluring
of another dream.



Line count: 16
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 5
Prompt: Write a poem about something that will always be out of reach.
September 19, 2025 at 11:16am
September 19, 2025 at 11:16am
#1097671
Reflection

And I should speak of age as it once was
a thing to be grasped and honored
wise in the ways of the world and heaven
free forever of the enthusiasm of youth
with its wild roller coaster of passion
and with a story to tell at last.

It’s not as if anyone told me.

How did I miss the betrayal of the body
this slow disintegration to pain and frailty?
Too eager was I to reach for the prize
of settled convictions and blessed insight
unaware of the failing motivation
in a being too tired, too weak, too sick
to claim the dream of ambitious morning
with twilight dimming the sight.

It’s not as if anyone told me.

Nor is it worth complaining on arrival
I have worked too hard for this
and a lifetime has its laurels though unexpected
for nothing is wasted and the light
still welcome though it shine upon elsewhere
and a better home to come.

It’s not as if anyone told me.



Line count: 23
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 4
Prompt: The Bop form. The first six-line stanza introduces the problem, the second eight-line stanza expands upon it, and the final six-line stanza explains the solution or failed attempts. There is a repeated refrain line after each stanza.
September 18, 2025 at 11:59am
September 18, 2025 at 11:59am
#1097608
Twenty-five

Was I ever twenty-five?
That youthful age when the world was young
with such passions and dreams
and life seemed endless and exciting
certainty being my constant companion
and answers to all the world’s problems
in my pocket while eternity
whispered in my ear
and I only ever wanted more
unconscious of the passing years
but satisfied with nothing.

Three times that age and more
I have what I hungered for
and wonder where the taste
of those vibrant years has gone
too short to savour, lost in the wind
and all I have is memory
and thoughts turning elsewhere.



Line count: 18
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 3
Prompt: In celebration of WdC's 25th Anniversary, write a poem involving the number 25 or a birthday/anniversary celebration.
September 17, 2025 at 10:59am
September 17, 2025 at 10:59am
#1097539
Dawn

Daybreak is a quieter thing than evening
when gathering night is spilt upon the ragged skies
and chattering rooks go jostling to their trees
while homeward plods the ploughman and his horse.

There’s drama in that last kiss of sun to earth
and nightly prowlers slipping from the shadows.

Not so the silent coming of the dawn
with hint of colour in the looming heavens.

It’s hush that greets the growing light
and subtle changes in the tones of dark;
in deepest sleep the dayshift still abed
clings yet to dreams of the risen day.

The day may tear itself away with painted passion
but the morn does gentle announce return.



Line count: 14
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 2
Prompt: Use these words on your poem: Kiss, daybreak, tear (or tears).
August 20, 2025 at 12:41pm
August 20, 2025 at 12:41pm
#1095637
This is the first of the poems for the sixth year of Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, 2025/2026.

I Remember

Most people do, I know,
and sometimes I am carried away,
like a dandelion seed wafted on the wind,
just another old fool lost
in memories of elsewhere.

I guess we all have our elsewheres,
where childhood friends run strong and free
in a land so bright and clear,
forever young.

Change does not sully that perfect place
nor faces tire and grow old;
they stay unbent and unafraid,
ever green and innocent,
undefiled by the tumbling years.

And I’m no different,
age conforming me in draining strength,
life closing down as a faded store,
shuttered and locked in urban decay,
turned inward with no future.

I am but an archive
of a life not special
but savoured as the light wanes,
so I turn to elsewhere
while dreaming of home.



Line count: 24
Free verse
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 1
Prompt: Title your poem: “I Remember” and then write a poem about a memory, real or imagined.
August 4, 2025 at 10:48am
August 4, 2025 at 10:48am
#1094674
This is the last of the poems for the fifth year of Promptly Poetry Challenge 5, 2024/2025.

The Place in Between

The wood between the worlds,
where silence reigns becalmed in shade
while dreams are like the ferns unfurled
and stillness cloaks pools in every glade.

Just one thing moves in all that hush,
a guinea pig with ribbon tied a yellow ring,
thus memory returns with childhood rush,
magician’s test to this place brings.

Each somnolent pool beneath the trees
is gateway to a different place,
to terrible Charn of mortal disease,
or new world waking in light and grace.

The wood between the worlds,
a magical land accessible only through
a book, its secret is curled
in Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew.



Line count: 16
Rhymed abab
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 52
Prompt: Use
The Place in Between as your title.
July 31, 2025 at 10:18am
July 31, 2025 at 10:18am
#1094437
Tortilla!

A wonderful thing the tortilla,
no matter what the filler -
tacos, burritos, quesadillas,
others if you are bolder,
all depends on how you fold her.



Line count: 5
Rhymed aaabb, 25 words
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 51
Prompt: Write a poem that is no more than 25 words long.
July 27, 2025 at 3:34pm
July 27, 2025 at 3:34pm
#1094213
Mystery Novelist

A locked door
that was free before,
a hidden key
lost in eternity.

A secret kept
from all who slept,
a veiled answer
and necromancer.

A map in code
shows the fabled road,
and thus the way
the mystery pays.



Line count: 12
Rhymed aabb
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 50
Prompt: A locked door.
July 20, 2025 at 4:57pm
July 20, 2025 at 4:57pm
#1093779
Okay, I’ll Choose One

Opera I do not love,
opera I learned to hate;
it seemed to me a trifle rough
and on my nerves did grate.

By chance I came upon,
in YouTube session former,
a song of songs, a wondrous song -
I discovered Nessun Dorma.

It’s opera I hear you say
and I would not deny,
but beauty lives in several ways
and this song touches sky.



Line count: 12
Rhymed abab
For Promptly Poetry Challenge, Week 49
Prompt: Write about a song you love.

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