Prompt Poem of the Month

The Best from the Weekly Prompts

 
For years, we’ve been offering a prompt at the end of every Rattlecast episode, to encourage folks to write new poems for the next week’s open lines. At the end of every episode, Timothy Green announced the next week’s prompt. Write yours within the next week to share it on the open lines, and submit it to this category by the end of the month to have it considered. Series editor Katie Dozier will select her favorite poems, which will be published as one of Rattle.com’s daily poems. The winner each month will also receive $100.

Submissions for the Prompt Poem of the Month are not anonymized—we still want to encourage everyone to share their weekly poems on the Rattlecast’s open lines—but choices are still being made solely based on the poem’s merit. Submit as many poems as you’d like to this category, but only poems written for the current month’s prompts. A winner will be chosen after the first week of every month.

Find a list of our past prompts here.

Current Prompts

November 3rd (submissions won’t open until next month): Pick a photographic portrait featuring someone you don’t know personally, and write a short poem that explores their story.

October 27th: Write a poem in which someone wears a costume. Include as many sounds as possible.

October 20th: Write a poem in the first person perspective in which something is repaired with the use of a most unlikely tool.

October 13th: Write a villanelle that mentions your favorite season. Make each refrain slightly different.


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Monthly Winners

 

Audio Available Mike Bayles Abyss (August 2024)
Audio Available Jaymee Thomas Voice Lessons (July 2024)
Audio Available Dick Westheimer Where Does a Person with Aphantasia … (June 2024)
Audio Available Suzanne Lummis & Ron Koertge Picnic (May 2024)
Audio Available James Washington Jr. Credit (Apr. 2024)
Audio Available Nancy Beagle The Wedding Doll (Mar. 2024)
Audio Available Kelly Sargent The ‘L’ Word (Feb. 2024)
Audio Available Lynne Knight Body Talk (Jan. 2024)
Audio Available Cindy Guentherman About Those Apples (Dec. 2023)
J.B. Penname The End of Hurt Is Not Healing (Nov. 2023)
Audio Available Tammy Greenwood The Accordian (Oct. 2023)
Audio Available Farah Ali White Rabbit (Sep. 2023)
Audio Available Sharon Ferrante Six Senryu from the Kitchen (Aug. 2023)