Category: PA
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Day 01 NovPAD Challenge

The Architecture of a Moment In Its Quiet Occupation The window latch gives way,a tired click,and just like thatthe day begins to spill its sunlit gold across the sill,not in request,but in quiet occupation. Then the radio hums,a singer’s plea:can you read my mind?A breeze, the conspirator,stirs the embers of the beech,a rush of rebellious…
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Preface NovPAD 2025

The Architecture of a Moment Preface: On the Nature of Anglo-Saxon Accentual Verse Author’s Note It’s November once more, and that means The Writers’ Digest Poem-a-Day Challenge and Chapbook Contest has returned. I’ve taken part in this annual event since 2009 — sixteen years of daily prompts, poems, and friendships that have grown from shared…
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26.04: Poem-a-Day Challenge
A Hermit Crab Poem: On the Back of a Receipt 1 bottle full-fat milk(life is too short for skimming anything)3 overripe avocados(they bruise faster than first loves)1 jar of honey(thicker than apologies at 2 AM)2 donuts(the baker knows my name.asks, “where’ve you been?”I say, “somewhere warmer.”he nods like a priest absolving an absentee.) 1 bouquet…
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26.04: Poem-a-Day Challenge
The Dark with Gold i save your voice in a jam jar—it hums when shaken.your laugh—a fireflyi release at dusk,stitching the dark with gold. the fridge still holdsyour half of the brownie—fossil-sweet,still waiting, some losses don’t grow lighter,only wider—like a treeforgiving its own roots. only 4 more days of too many poems a day 🤣…
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24.04: PAD Day 23 – Book
A poem starting with a line from Poem for Passengers by M. Zapruder and ‘writely‘ molested by Shakespeare (unlikely, but possible) A 33 Word Poem Like strangers on a trainwho find themselves movingin same directions, looking out the windowwithout downing books,thus Fate, that strumpet, doth but feignto keep our marginsfree of stain.
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15.04: Poem-a-Day Challenge
Sestina for the Cliffs at Beachy Head Here, where the chalk cliffs meet the endless blue,I walk to shed the weight of thought, to standlike wind-struck grass—alive, yet barely touched.The lighthouse spins its scarlet warning—brightagainst the tide’s slow gnaw, the edge’s creed:what falls—will rise again in salt and light. No prayer but this: the gulls’…
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15.04: Poem-a-Day Challenge
V.And the Forest Takes You Back Again your heart was never mine—only borrowed by the light,by the resin’s golden cursive,by the leaf that turned its faceto your breath and whispered, i remember how you taste. take this with you:the way shadows lick your faceas you step onto the path home.how the air, thick with green,loosens…
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14.04: Poem-a-Day Challenge
IV.The Grammar of the Forest the air tastes—of green penniesand the ghost of last night’s rain,of split cedarand the slow dissolve of light on wet bark. breathe deep: your tongue learns a new alphabet. moss is a vowel here,pine resin a consonant—sticky as unspoken truth.even your teeth feel it—cool as river stones,humming with chlorophyll. tilt…
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13.04: Poem-a-Day Challenge
III. How the Forest Gathers You listen—a single leaf, parchment-thin,twists on its stem like a keyin a lock you can’t see. it clicks open the breeze,and suddenly the whole canopyis whispering in code. feel—the light doesn’t fall here; it clings—to your arms like warm honey,to the creases of your sleeves,even to your eyelashes,until you blink—slow—and…
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12.04: Poem-a-Day Challenge
II.It Remembers touchthe cold bark. warm resin underneath—thick as a century’s worthof swallowed thunder. the tree does not speak.it remembers. press your earto its black veinsand hear the humof a thousand moons pumping like slow syrupup the spineof the world. this is where time folds: the mist at your kneesis the same mistthat once lickedthe…