Topic 19: Plato wrote in Phaedo that Socrates whiled away his jail time turning some of Aesop's fables "which he knew" into verses. Most poets through the ages have tried their hands at a fable or 2 and who are we - better than most poets? - better than Socrates?? Write a poem/fable, a poem inspired by a fable or a versification of a fable. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Get involved for free at www.pigpenpoetry.com Lore Gather round children, I'll tell you

Topic 18: A time -honored tradition amongst poets is the response poem wherein a poet responds to a favourite poem or one that inspires her. Write response poem to a poem that you like or one that inspires you. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Get involved for free at www.pigpenpoetry.com The Last Time They pulled the ivy from the walls, my love, and yesterday dropped from the cracks, unboarding the windows, forming the key again in my hand. Your eyes,

Topic 17: Write a poem inspired by rubber, rubbers, or things that bounce. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Get involved for free at www.pigpenpoetry.com Copy When I was eighteen I was claimed by latex attached to grunt and sweat, and not much else. It wasn't hard to peel me away from I taught you your ABCs, I know what you'll never be. Each day, a centimetre more would pour over my skin. The layers grew thicker, less sensitive, comfortingly conf

Topic 16: Write a palinode retracting a view you wrote about earlier this month. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Luck The name seemed so exciting: Come By Chance a promise of adventure and romance come west and watch the million stars that dance: it's heaven. We sold our city house. Here land is cheap; we thought we'd plant a garden, run some sheep and take it easy, maybe even sleep til seven. The day we signed the contract, there was rain, the cree

Topic 15: Today is poet's choice day!! Write a poem inspired by whatever inspires you. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Get involved for free at www.pigpenpoetry.com Song Somewhere between the notes that tremble in the throat of some cosmic guitar, in a far, fireborn galaxy with only one simple sun, a lifegiving aureole, where the whole of existence resonates with unified melody and the free stars blink to the backbeat of the most divine drum, I will hum my li

Topic 14: With April the 14th here it is sure to be the anniversary of some battle, war, conflict, etc. Write a poem inspired by a battle, war, conflict, etc. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more War Games We are the genetic dispossessed, born not of man and woman, but of graft and gutter; we are blown upon your draft and rooted in the mud. We manifest in khaki dreams of dark, forbidden breast and echo on your screens. You used to craft a turban from a towel –

Topic 13: Ahhh . . . lucky #13. Write a poem inspired by luck (good or bad) fortune or fatalism. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Come by Chance By horse and happenstance I came to Come By Chance and stayed It was empty at first glance -- all around, the green expanse conveyed the direst circumstance, where the world of high finance and trade were unlikely to advance, but the land was rich and grants were paid City folk, you look askance but I'

Topic 12: "Shall I compare you to a summer's day?" Shakespeare asks? Write a poem inspired by comparing something to something completely different. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Get involved for free at www.pigpenpoetry.com Burns Supper The pudding is a battle cry, a trump to fortify and fit the men to fight and women too -- a lass is not a lump of useless skin and weeping. Though she's slight, she'll wield her weapon well; the Sassenach will co

Topic 10: Write a "negative" poem or a poem that defines something or someone or yourself by what it or he or you are not (I am no friend of cats . . .) Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Mythos I am no kind of saviour I have shorn my own Samson lock and served it up, silver-plattered, to a Bathsheban stand-in starlet waiting in wings of rotten traitor-bearing planks until, pirate-fashion, the hook spikes through necks bared to unremembered never, nev

Topic 08: Write a poem inspired by a place you have lived or inspired by a place you have wanted to live. Form : any Line requirements: 8 lines or more Get involved for free at www.pigpenpoetry.com The Gold Coast Salted sands of shining hue, warm beneath the bronzing glow, all tranquil is the shushing blue, where dreams are born and left to grow – among the gleaming ebb and flow of smiles and splendid stories told by those whose job it is to know: the glitter city spreads i