Gavin Bennett's Blog: 2015 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 28

Whew! The final three days! Where has this month gone?

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “It Was a (blank) and (blank) Night,” replace the blanks with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles include: “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night,” “It Was a Bright and Sunny Night,” “It Was a Calm and Lonely Night,” “It Was a Long and Poetic Night,” “It Was a Short and Sweet Night,” and so on and so forth.

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Re-create Your Poetry!

Revision doesn’t have to be a chore–something that should be done after the excitement of composing the first draft. Rather, it’s an extension of the creation process!

In the 48-minute tutorial video Re-creating Poetry: How to Revise Poems, poets will be inspired with several ways to re-create their poems with the help of seven revision filters that they can turn to again and again.

Click to continue.

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Here’s my attempt at an It Was a Blank and Blank Night poem:

“It Was a Cold and Foggy Night”

When Marcus approached the Carter House
with a sense of eerie dread, he knew something
wasn’t right; he felt like he was losing his head,
but something–anything–just had to be done
in case he could save Jesse or find out what
had become of his former amigo (his former
musketeer). He had to do something, even if
he felt like a hunted deer. So here he was

outside the Carter House, waiting for a sign
or moment to approach. And then, he saw
for the very first time, a giant bat swoop
through the fog as if swung from a vine and
into the window on the very top floor and
as the bat entered, Marcus saw it change form.

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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of the poetry collection, Solving the World’s Problems (Press 53). He edits Poet’s Market and Writer’s Market, in addition to writing a free weekly WritersMarket.com newsletter and a poetry column for Writer’s Digest magazine.

This is his eighth year of hosting and participating in the November PAD (Poem-A-Day) Chapbook Challenge. He can’t wait to see what everyone creates this month–not only on a day-by-day basis, but when the chapbooks start arriving in December and January. Fun, fun, fun.

Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.

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