Poetry Month 2023 By Red Room Poetry #30in30

2023 Poetry Month by Red Room Poetry

Poetry Month 2023 by Red Room Poetry #30in30

By Sue Ellson

Red Room Poetry are the organisers of Poetry Month and in August 2023, they provided 30 writing prompts for three line poems for 30 days.

I joined the challenge and here are my contributions in bold text.

The writing prompts for each poem are in italic text.

If you click on the date link, you will see it published on Facebook and the engagement it received and some of the other entries (it was also run on Twitter and Instagram).

I started making contributions on 1 August 2023 and you can see them below.

Here’s a video introduction to the series!

Poetry Month Introduction

16 August 2023

Write into a film that you can see in your mind’s eye. Write out of it. ~ Anwen Crawford

PAN IN To woman sitting on bench looking out to sea on the top of a cliff overlooking the bay

Ever searching for life’s meaning
To the depths of sea and the height of sky
A tear falls silently, there are no reasons why

15 August 2023

With a person you love, write an ode to something you both love together, exploring it as a metaphor for the ways and reasons you … love… each other. ~ Rebecca Shaw & Freya Daly Sadgrove

Thy self a love unknown
A construct I only imagine
Seeking deliverance

14 August 2023

For todays prompt, Sean asks you to write a poem as a real estate ad – thinking about sovereignty, ownership and Country. ~ Sean Choolburra

Almighty sovereign
Over me thus reign
Land a plenty, rise again

13 August 2023

Meditate on your favourite plant. Research its botanical and cultural histories, its mythologies, its significance. Anthropomorphise it, ethically. What might it (not) need/(not) want to say, and in what form? ~ Stuart Barnes

Portulaca by the sea
Portulaca please feed me
Portulaca truly be

12 August 2023

‘Ask not for whom the boulders roll…’ poetically respond to this. ~ Bob Brown

Ask not for whom the boulders roll
Out to silence the angry troll
For they are the keeper
Of what keeps our life sweeter

11 August 2023

We all must pay attention to what Country is showing us. Write a poem in response. ~ Barrina South

In silence it cries
In joy it hopes
This land of ours, it barely copes

10 August 2023

Write in the style of a phone scammer to a friend or relative in a way that would convince them that the poem or message is definitely from you. ~ Jennifer Wong

After 20 years on LinkedIn, I am in the sin bin
Please click the link
To get me started again!

9 August 2023

Recall a fond nickname that friends or family have given you. Use this to jump into a poem. ~ L-Fresh the Lion

If you knew Suzie
Like I know Suzie
You’d think I’m crazy too!

8 August 2023

Read through your texts, messages, or emails from an old friend. (Be brave; go back a few years.)
Write a poem based on a message or phrase that touches you. If the phrase doesn’t end up in your poem, use it as the poem’s title. ~ Shastra Deo

Why not be extravagant
In thought, word and deed
Limitless possibility

7 August 2023

Think about a moment where you have held your tongue then write a poem about the words you wished you’d said. ~ Marieke Hardy & Emilie Zoey Baker

To survive, I was silenced
I couldn’t speak
And yet you judge me as if I could

6 August 2023

Write an ode to your friends. Make it fun and delicious: include their names, the joys, the firsts, the quirks, the heartbreaks. ~ Sara M. Saleh

Friends of old
Friends anew
Friends for life
Sparkled through

Suzanne and Grace
Rosa and Colin
Paul and Cathie
Anything but common

Jenner and Michael
Nickie and Lee
Sincerely open
Rescuing me

Joyful sorrow
Fun at the fair
Secret vulnerability
Show they care

Sometimes confronting
Triggering too
But faithfully patient
Through and through

Constant companions
When life frowns
Encouraging champions
Of secret sounds

Friends may be travellers
For part of our journey
But my friends are my witness
And my greatest discovery

5 August 2023

Write a 30 word or 3 line poem inspired by fabric. ~ Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena Moss

A cover
A concealer
A revealer

4 August 2023

Sit and write in the space of stillness, where meaning cannot be translated. The peaceful void where words are not enough, yet words are all we have to make sense of the chaos we have created. ~ Teela Reid

Words of thought
Beauty of meaning
Chaos abated

3 August 2023

Which poet are you most intrigued by? Comb through their poems for a question. Sit with it. Absorb its energies and angles. Now, answer that question with your own poem. ~ Andy Jackson

I have admired John O’Donohue, an Irish Poet for many years… https://johnodonohue.com/works

Where within is my root voice
Beyond the clanging of life
In quiet solace

2 August 2023

What trauma clings in your life, and needs to be released? Write a poem to what you would put the match to.
~ Tara Moss & Berndt Sellheim

Felt not spoken
Trust broken
Endless onion

1 August 2023

Dorothy Porter’s poems ’Raving’ and ‘Reading between My Lines’ are love poems, but not the dewy-eyed, happy-ever-after sort. Love and risk: it’s a common coupling. Write a poem about it. ~ Andrea Goldsmith (Dorothy Porter)

Love of me or love of you
How do I choose?
What if I lose?

See my other poems here or subscribe to the monthly email newsletter to receive links to the latest publications.

See my submissions from 2022 here.

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