About the Challenge

"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity" ~ William Wordsworth

A Poem A Day Challenge is a week-long (5 days) challenge that runs every third week of the month.

Participants receive writing prompts, daily, for which they write and submit a poem by 10 pm on the same day.

The best THREE (3) poems are selected and published the next morning.

TO PARTICIPATE: enter your email address here http://eepurl.com/eQCM6 and you will receive a daily prompt.

RULES OF THE CHALLENGE:

  • you have to sign up to receive the writing prompts
  • you have to write a new poem for the writing prompt and submitting by 10pm on the same day
  • you may not submit a poem you have already written before.

CHALLENGE PRIZE: From August we are offering a prize for the best overall poem. More info on the prize and how this is decided will follow.

QUARTERLY PRINT EDITION: Poems selected for the publication will be compiled for a quarterly print edition of A Poem A Day challenge. More info on this will follow.

submit here or here make sure to include the words:  APOEMADAY at the top of your submission


April: Freedom Week

When Common asks Assata Shakur 'what is freedom?' at the end of his tribute song, Song of Assata. Assata responds, "You're asking me about freedom? i know a whole lot more about what freedom isn't... coz i've never been free." She goes on to imagine what freedom could be.

It's Freedom Week in South Africa, that historical first vote for the oppressed Afrikan masses of South Africa happened eighteen years ago on 27 April. Now let's writer great poems, interrogate, question, image, dream about freedom.

peace

zamantungwa
editor, publisher

A Poem A Day Challenge, Every 3rd Week of the month

Poems

I am my own by Louis-francois Smit

Posted by Poetry Potion on Friday, June 22, 2012 In : June 2012 

So many years
That has passed
But look
I am still my own

So many sacrifices 
So many deaths
So many lost dreams
Just to see my independence 

I will always remember
I will always show pride
I will always be thankful
To the brave ones that fought

I will always be thankful
Because of you brave ones
I have my own name
And my own borders

© Louis-francois Smit


Day 4 | Years after independence 
Continue reading...
 

Slaves of the world by Louis-francois Smit

Posted by Poetry Potion on Friday, June 22, 2012 In : June 2012 

Slavery has not been abolished 
Slavery is not gone
Slavery is not dead
Slavery has changed
Our masters don't have to feed us
Our masters don't have to provide shelter for us
With this new slavery
We feed ourselves
We provide our own shelter
Are we truly free?
Or do our masters shove that word down our throats everyday
Until we believe it?
How can we not be slaves?
If we have to work ourselves to death
Just to cover
The cost of living

© Louis-francois Smit


Day 3 | Free at last
Continue reading...
 

June | Days 3 & 4 writing prompts

Posted by Poetry Potion on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 In : June 2012 


Day 3 Writing Prompt


"Free at Last"


(Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is a holiday in the United States honoring African American heritage by commemorating the announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. State of Texas in 1865 - )


Day 4 Writing Prompt


"Years After Independence"


(Madaraka Day, 1 June, commemorates the day that Kenya attained internal self-rule in 1963, preceding full independence from the United Kingdom on 12 December 1963. - http://www...


Continue reading...
 

I have life by Morula Wa Kutukgolo

Posted by Poetry Potion on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 In : June 2012 

Now that I have the giver of life

I can trully say I am alive.

Now that I have the giver of love

I can trully say I am loved.

Now that I have the giver of peace

I can trully say I am peaceful.

Now that I have the one called wonderful

I can trully say I am wonderful.

Now that I have the one called comforter

I can trully say I am comforted.

Now that I have Jesus

I can trully say I have life,


Continue reading...
 

Heartbeat by Saurell Boyers

Posted by Poetry Potion on Wednesday, June 20, 2012 In : June 2012 
She said to me
I cannot teach you to be free
But this is freedom to me
Feel your heartbeat
A rhythm all its own

Setting a tone
The desire to be free
Is like that heartbeat
In every soul and mind
Some follow their heart
Others are left behind
Yet freedom has a price
Etched in courage, sweat,blood 
To deliver responsibility
So tell me
Do you want to be free?


© Saurell Boyers

short bio: A writer on a path of discovery

Continue reading...
 
 

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