Source Caleb Femi, poet, photographer, filmmaker and teacher, born in Kanu, grew up in London.
Welcome to Week 6 of The Ink Well's Summer Poetry Challenge. Each week you will be offered two prompts to start your creativity - you can use either prompt or both; you can include them in your poem or use them to get your thoughts going and see where they take you ... and never mention the prompts in your writing at all!
Everyone who meets the Rules for Entry will:
- Receive 100% upvote from The Ink Well.
- Be included in the draw for 500HP delegation for 7 days.
- Have a chance to be in a Show Case Post in future weeks.
Entries that meet the criteria will also be curated for a curie vote.
The 500HP delegation and The Showcase Post will be announced seven days after this post pays out.
How To Enter The Challenge
The Ink Well is about encouraging high quality creative writing. The challenge is open to everyone, whether you are an experienced writer or just starting your writing journey. Every week, there will be two fresh prompts to help you develop your writing skills.
Week 6 Prompts
Option 1: nervous
Option 2: Adé saves the day
You can use either prompt - or both - to create a poem. You can include the prompt in your poem, or use it as a jumping off point for your ideas.
The Fiction Challenge has the same prompts as the Poetry Challenge each week.
See all the prompts for the Summer Season.
Rules of Entry
- your entry must be posted in The Inkwell Community.
- poetry must be a maximum of twenty lines, excluding the title.
- include tags: #theinkwell #challenge #poetry.
- title format: theinkwell poetry challenge | title of your work.
- post a link in the comments of this post.
Remember, original work only - no plagiarism or re-posts!
Check the Curation Policies and Community Rules before you submit.
The deadline is when this post pays out on Monday 29 June 2020.
What We Are Looking For
The vision for The Ink Well is all about encouraging and rewarding high quality creative writing. We know that everyone has to start somewhere, and that your writing skills improve the more you write. To help you develop those skills, we've set out some categories that you will want to think about.
Poetry is the most complex literary form and spending between four and six hours developing and editing a poem over the course of a week would not be unusual for a well-crafted poem. This is the quality The Ink Well is looking for.
| Category | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Voice and Setting | Who is speaking? Is it one or many voices? Where and when is the poem is set? How does this affect the poem? |
| Tone and themes | What mood or emotion does the poem create in the reader? What ideas is the poem expressing? How is that shown? |
| Structure | Has the writer chosen a poetic form? How does the form and rhythm (eg fast and breathless) affect the poem? |
| Style | The writer's use of words, imagery, metaphor and simile. |
| Presentation | Does the presentation and formating enhance the writing? |
Any Questions?
If you have any questions, put them in a comment below.
Before We Go
Don't forget to read other people's entries and leave them a comment. The Ink Well will be searching for and tipping good comments!
We're looking forward to reading your poems!
Poetry Inspiration
Coconut Oil by Caleb Femi
Here are two versions of this poem by Caleb Femi. Sometime after he wrote it, Caleb changed the ending. Which do you prefer?
It is common for artists to reshape their work, it adds dimension and allows growth, and no artist should be stagnant. Caleb tells [the interviewer], that “for [his] dissertation, [he] studied the work of a philosopher named Friedrich Schiller, who had a theory, that ‘the best type of art mimics the living form’”. Caleb explains that his understanding of this quote is “every art that is considered great is because it is like a living organism; it is able to change and grow in different situations.” He used Emily Dickinson to test this theory in his dissertation, a writer who often had about ten variations of one poem. “She consciously believes in revising poems or leaving them blatantly unfinished.” (gal-dem, 2017)
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