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Printed from https://web1.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2299350-Promptly-4-5-and-6/month/10-1-2025
Rated: 13+ · Book · Cultural · #2299350

Poems for years 4, 5 and 6 of the Promptly Poetry Challenge.

A year's worth of poems, every week for 52 weeks, spanning 2023 and 2024, plus the years following, from August 2024 to August 2025, 2025 to 2026 (provided I live that long, of course).
October 29, 2025 at 11:22am
October 29, 2025 at 11:22am
#1100400
An Old Friend

I know him well, Old Father Time,
his stamp is hard upon me now
each morning from the bed I climb
how slow and painful that I bow
beneath the weight of passing years
these burdens that he casts on me
and yes, the aches and burning tears
they all conspire to make me be
this shrunken frail and worn out thing
that once was young and hopeful so
now memories cold comfort bring
upon my soul before I go
though grey and lined this body be
there’s sunlight still within my mind
Old Father Time, he lets us see
the days were good and often kind.



Line count: 16
Form: It’s rhymed abab and each line has eight syllables. It’s meant to be what I call a chant - read without expression and entirely ruled by the beat. Hence the sparsity of punctuation. I thought it fairly apt for the subject of time and its relentless progression.
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 10
Prompt: Time.
October 28, 2025 at 11:56am
October 28, 2025 at 11:56am
#1100331


Bedtime Blues

A nursery rhyme’s a dangerous place to be
there’s no comfort in the message to me
the hunter may help out Red Riding Hood
that hardly does poor Grandma any good.

Hansel and Gretel may enjoy gingerbread
yet they ruin the witch’s wee homestead
though the witch’s intent may be too bad
the kids responses are murderous a tad.

The three piggies are variously lazy
and their architectural ideas quite hazy
but the wolf is doing only what wolves do
and it’s true that pork makes a fine stew.

So consider the villain in these tales
they’re not always deserving to fail
there’s two sides to every bedtime story
and the ending does not have to be gory.



Line count: 16
Rhymed aabb
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 9
Prompt: As per illustration.
October 27, 2025 at 1:48pm
October 27, 2025 at 1:48pm
#1100268
For Jonathan

My friend he lives in old Cape Town,
far off in southern hemisphere,
and so, for us, he’s upside down.

As kids we grew in Africa -
savanna heat don’t turn him brown,
too blond and pink to ever tan.

So now it really makes me frown
that he’s down there and I am here,
toes all iced in a northern town.



Line count: 9
Form: Magic 9
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 8
Prompt: Magic 9 - Nine lines with the last word of each line rhyming with the scheme abacadaba.
October 26, 2025 at 11:49am
October 26, 2025 at 11:49am
#1100183
Luck

My life may be a charm,
I might be safe from harm,
but ascribing it to luck
is something I would duck.

Perhaps a greater power
with fortune doth me shower,
yet it seems there is no reason;
it’s more like He’s just teasin’.

The trick, you see, my friend,
is clearer near the end -
to hear what your life sings
be happy in all things.



Line count: 12
Rhymed aabb
For Promptly Poetry Challenge 6, Week 7
Prompt: Write a poem about luck.


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Printed from https://web1.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2299350-Promptly-4-5-and-6/month/10-1-2025