Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 711
For this week’s prompt, write a labor poem. Of course, this prompt is inspired by the annual Labor Day we just celebrated in the US, but there are a variety of ways to interpret labor, whether we’re talking work or childbirth. People may have to labor through a long speech, whether speaking or listening, but they also may find that some tasks are a labor of love. So I hope everyone is able to labor their way to a poem this week.
(Of course, with today’s prompt number, I’ll be disappointed if nobody attempts to write a convenience store/gas station labor poem.)
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
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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.
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Here’s my attempt at a Labor Poem:
“Goodland, Indiana,” by Robert Lee Brewer
Every Labor Day weekend,
we’d descend on Foster Park
for family and chicken
at our Godby reunion.
Us kids would kill time knocking
seeds from the buckeye tree and
pumping water from the well
while the grownups shared stories.
Then, we’d all play physical
games before gathering near
the bell to take one picture
to hold us over a year.
Some were from down the street, but
others came from out of state,
and we would travel home as
the sun set us all to sleep.