Poetry Month 2025 by Red Room Poetry #30in30
Red Room Poetry are the organisers of Poetry Month and in August 2025, 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 2025 and you can see them below.
Here’s a video introduction to the series from 2023!
Justin Heazlewood: ‘Write a poem in the style of my poem 13 Ways To Drink Chocolate Milk. It is a mix of observations about the food you are consuming and what is going on around you in the public place where you are consuming it.’
- I think nuts go with chocolate milk, but which nuts should I choose?
- I like hot drinks, so why am I drinking cold chocolate milk?
- I drink chocolate milk to stop worrying about the world.
Leah Senior: ‘Put on instrumental music and dance ecstatically for a minimum of 5 minutes. Write a praise poem.’
Crinkled, cramped and confined
On the floor I dance
And slowly unwind
Eunice Andrada: ‘Write a poem about someone who once mothered you. Work in fragments—think of a story they once told you, the scent of their living room, their superstitions. Gather the fragments into a poem.’
The blackboard of your workplace
The dust and grime of your home
A comforting conversation and I became simply known
Mindy Gill: ‘Write an observational poem about a stranger—you might encounter them on the bus, in a park, or at the grocery store—and imagine their life. What are their thoughts, their desires?’
Your eyes look tired
Is your body too
Could you pause and just do you?
David Ishaya Osu: ‘Visit a waterbody nearby (a lake, a sea, or even a bowl of water in your kitchen), and make a list poem of the things you cannot see or hear.’
In water’s reverie
Calm presence I feel
To truly be me
Tais Rose Wae: ‘Write about a basket, a bag, a vessel, into being; what does it carry?’
Woven grasses
Ease my mind
And restore my heart
Grace Yee: ‘Collect words or short phrases from three very different sources (e.g., journal, weather report, advertising). Paste into a single document. Move the words around until they generate some heat.’
Collaborating computers
Play with our language
And soothe and confuse our minds
https://www.theage.com.au/technology/nvidia-supercomputer-marks-new-era-for-australian-ai-20250813-p5mmjo.html
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, is teaming with Monash University and Dell to build an Australia-first supercomputer that promises to elevate the country into the AI big leagues. The supercomputer, dubbed MAVERIC and built in collaboration with CDC Data Centres, will be purpose-built for large-scale AI and data-intensive workloads and feature technology never before deployed in the country.
https://substack.com/browse/technology/post/170844031
The reason for all this is how language models work. Briefly, for humans, language unites a signifier (a word, like “tree”) with a signified (an actual or imagined tree). This relationship is arbitrary, though grounded in social convention and human experience. When we use language we are trusting in and building a shared understanding. When someone says or writes “tree” (or arbre, in French) a tree might spring to mind, even if it is wildly different kind of tree than was meant.
https://www.mamamia.com.au/deepak-chopra-mental-health-ai-chatbot
During the pandemic, internationally acclaimed guru Deepak Chopra intervened in more than 5000 suicide attempts. But it wasn’t actually him… Before you get concerned, no, it wasn’t a scam. It was artificial intelligence (AI). It’s controversial, I know. I mean, AI is easily one of the most contentious developments in our lifetimes, but Chopra believes if we use it correctly, it can help us lead more purposeful, spiritual and connected lives. His foundation worked to develop a mental wellness chatbot named Piwi that he says helped teenagers who are struggling with their mental health.
Maggie Knight-Williams: ‘Write a poem from the perspective of just one part of your body.’
How can an ear be full
When it receives vibrations
That are felt and not seen
Claire Gaskin: ‘Do nothing, no screens, for 30 minutes. Before bed, write down three words. In the morning, write a poem using the words.’
Stairs, trees, gold
As the sun rises through the trees
I climb the stairs to the station
And dream of the gold at my destination
Tyson Yunkaporta: ‘What’s your divination? Is it palmistry, tea leaves, tarot? Or have you invented your own: bruiseomancy, streetlightmancy, footpathistry? Write a poem from the entrails.’
In silence I listen
My heart speaks
The words flow
Charlee Brooks: ‘Write an ode to the mouth, to the tongue, to language.’
I breathe, I eat, I speak
The mouth my organ
Of sounds so sweet
DOBBY: ‘Imagine coming back to a parking ticket on your car. And how this serves as a constant governmental reminder that your car, nor you, do not belong here. That even on stolen First Nations land, you must pay for your time in this space.’
Freedom for rules followed
Is not freedom at all
But freedom of thought keeps me standing tall
Beejay Silcox: ’Write a poem as a cage for an animal. How might your creature rattle that cage? And how might it rattle you?’
In the river
I swim to and fro
Until there is no flow
Nardi Simpson: ‘Pastel sway fur bone slight flick
elder knowledge knows but does she remember
me why should she I am unrememberable in her remarkable world
View, I miss her now she is gone. Too many leaving
Too much removed. Write a poem to/about/into loss/absence’
Living and losing
Each day a little more
Comfort in sadness before spirit soars
Winnie Dunn: ‘Adopt a kitten
if not in reality
then write a haiku’
My foster kitty
Such a welcome friend to me
Now a joy for you
7 August 2025
David Brooks: ‘T.S. Eliot is misquoted as having said ‘Good poets borrow; great poets steal’ (It wasn’t quite that…). Steal something.’
Just do it
Still do it
Can do it
Luke Davies: ‘Wallace Stevens wrote, “Of what disaster is this the imminence?” And elsewhere: “Of what is this house composed if not of the sun?” Mix imminent chaos with a shaft of light moment, in a poem of 8-14 lines.’
As we say farewell
To a life lived
The grief grinds
The heart
The mind
The soul
It recalls the past
It sharpens the present
It changes the future
And life goes on…
5 August 2025
Amy Crutchfield: ‘Visit one of the world’s galleries virtually. What impresses, surprises, angers or otherwise intrigues you? Look for what unsettles you. Lean into the discomfort. Write about it.’
Foolish endeavour or poignant insight
Is art for the viewer, the artist or the exhibitor
Or is it just another version of work to occupy us all
Based on this piece of art titled ‘Tits’ by Louise Bourgeois in the National Galleries of Scotland https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/125293
Stan Grant: ‘If the human is the limit, the human is the limit. Write a poem responding to this.’
Humanity needs
The human present
Our greatest gift
Suren Jayemanne: ‘Nobody likes being stuck in their head. I like to be in my foot. Is it freedom or a whole new prison? Spend some time in your foot and see what you write.’
Where soles tread
Minds follow
Hearts see
Nyaluak Leth: ‘Speak your truth as if it’s scripture. The mic is live, and the revolution is listening—what needs to be heard to set your spirit free?’
There is no truth
There is only principle
And aligned discipline
Julia Baird: ‘Recall a time you have looked underwater, and make a list of what you saw. Then write a poem that disrupts the surface of things.’
As the sweat dripped from my torso
I slipped beneath the surface of the Murray River
To be greeted by the silence of Ngarrindjeri
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, 2023 here and 2024 here.
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