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

Showing category "June 2012" (Show all posts)

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 ...
 

Life not lived by Louis-francois Smit

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

Life is nothing
If there are no risks
Life is worthless
If fear guides your heart

Life is meaningless
If there is no love
Life is shallow
If you doubt in your heart

Take the risk
Send fear to hell
Love everyone and thing
Never doubt your heart

Because 
How can you be alive?
If, 
You don’t truly live.


© Louis-francois Smit



short bio: My soul is free when I'm writing. I'm not saying that I'm good at it. But I really do enjoy the feeling of placing my thoughts on paper. I am at my most honest when I'm writing...

Continue reading ...
 

June | Day 2 Writing Prompt

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

"What is life if I don't live"


(in Eritrea, June 20 has been set and declared national holiday - Martyr Day - for one and the sole purpose of respecting and paying tribute to all those who paid the ultimate price, life, in the great 30-year war. more here - http://www.eritreadaily.net/News0307/article0607191.htm)


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silence the monuments by Be NYamezele

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

we'd scream and rebel as blood flooded our minds 
and young girls would hide in shame as reality seethed from their cores.
bitumen memorised grief 
and the buildings that protrude these city streets recorded 
every secret desecrated through shameful whispers.

when I was young
prayers were all we were taught to unclench our fists for. 
"lord forgive us for the sins of our emasculated fathers".
we regretted the residue of innocence 
and now mirrors call us hypocrits for we've Become the Beasts that rage...

Continue reading ...
 

Fortress by Saurell Boyers

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

As I child I would not sleep
Till I was able to complete
The painstaking nightly task
Building a fortress around my bed
Teddy bears and dolls stand guard
Against monsters and trolls

Now I'm grown but cannot let go
Of this propensity for building walls
Secure , invisible , impenetrable
Around my heart and soul
To protect from the all too real pain
Of heartbreaks and disappointment

At times I long to let down the barricade
But fear and past experiences prevail
So I patch my fortress walls to safely hide 
Yet ...

Continue reading ...
 

Child grown up by Louis-francois Smit

Posted by Poetry Potion on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, In : June 2012 
 
When I was small
I forced myself to grow up
To be able
To survive the grown ups

A child’s dreams and visions
Perspectives and views
All thrown away
Because grown ups like things their own way

Children know so little
That’s why they love so easy
Grown ups know too much
That’s why they’re scared to love

I am now a grown up 
But how I long
And crave
To be a child, once more

© Louis-francois Smit

short bio: Writing poetry forces me to be honest with myself. It frees my soul and saves my spirit.

Continue reading ...
 

June | Day 1 Writing Prompt

Posted by Poetry Potion on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, In : June 2012 
 

"When I Was Young!"


(in South Africa, June the 16th is commemorated as Youth Day. Learn more about this day here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto_riots)


Continue reading ...
 
 

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