Every Thursday, I post a poetry-writing prompt here on the site. This weekly tradition is designed to help you explore new ideas, experiment with different writing techniques, and expand your literary horizons. My aim is to is to provide you with thought-provoking themes, intriguing images, or captivating wordplay that will stimulate your poetic senses. You are free to interpret the prompt in any way you like and express yourself through poetry or creative writing.
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| artwork created by me ©Stacy M.S. |
I have always been inspired by city lights. There's just a certain vibe about sitting beside a window, gazing into the lights of a city. I particularly remember all the time's I've sat by a window in a hotel room and gazed into the bright lights of a strange city...daydreaming, reflecting, imagining. There's just something magical about how the streetlights and stoplights and the lights from windows in tall buildings sort of highlight the complete skyline, particularly in a big city.
Small cities are just as enthralling to me. The quirky side-streets and lost alley-ways. The secrets of ancient cobblestone and the stories of historical buildings, especially alit at night. I remember college dazed, crazed by the idea of opporunity, dancing beneath a streetlamp while cars whiz past.
And I'm always delighted when I come across poems about the city, written by other poets and dreamers.
Like the short poem by Carl Sandburg, as he describes the incoming fog of a city:
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
on little cat feet.
Or this nostalgic poem by Robert Frost, as he describes a walk through the city at night:
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
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| artwork created by me ©Stacy M.S. |
So, my challenge for you this week is to write a poem that portrays your perception of the city at night.
You can draw upon the artwork posted and the sample poems for inspiration, or you can go entirely your own way!
My challenges and prompts are not interactive. You don't have to come back to link up. No comments are required, just your creativity!
For more inspiration, here is the poem I wrote:
This City
This city
is a breath
between the void
of what I feel
and what
you feel you need.
It's an invisible
bridge I can't
quite precede.
We settle in
our separate ways,
merely miles apart
but it might as
well be galaxies
and decades.
And I
am suffocating
beneath the weight
of what
I still carry.
My chest
is bruised,
ribcage bulging
of the love
my heart
still hoards.
I want to shed
what's left of you,
the things you said,
like the flowers
shed their dead,
or how the earth
sprouts new seed
from the depth
of decay.
But I can't.
I am
immobilized
by the orange
flash of moon
across tin roof,
the many
lighted windows,
the secrets of
their shiny
ice-block facades.
I walk streets
manmade of
lonesome loitering
and dirty sidewalk,
wishing I had
somewhere to go,
wishing that
where ever I end
up this night,
you'll be there too.
Even though
I know you won't;
I know.
I won't find you
in doorways,
waving me past,
or in old beds
in seedy hotel rooms.
We once joked
about that,
do you remember?
You won't be
riding shotgun
in my red car,
nor driving us
to empty parking lots
or department stores
where strangers
won't know
our sin
as we hold hands
and steal kisses.