Tag: Poems

Oct/POEM/ber 2025 – A Poem Writing Challenge

by donnywinter, posted in Poetry Challenges

It’s that time of year again; it’s officially OCT/POEM/BER! Throughout the month of October, I challenge willing participants to write one poem per day for 31 days! What’s even more exciting is that this year, I’m partnering with the Friends of Roethke Foundation to promote this challenge!

What is Oct/POEM/ber: Back in 2019, I grew envious of artists and fiction writers because they got to enjoy monthly challenges like Inktober and NANOWRIMO. So, I decided to create a monthly writing challenge for poets and thus, Oct/POEM/ber was born. Throughout the month of October each year, I challenge myself to write one poem per day not only for the fun of it, but to also expand on my content and improve my craft.

How to Participate: Open up a word document or notebook and just start writing! To make it easier for participants, I’ve designed 2 tracks for completing Oct/POEM/ber. The first track provides you a daily prompt to follow. The second track is self-guided and expects you to write a poem per day without the assist of prompts. Some writers benefit from having guidelines, whereas others benefit from not having any! So, there’s a track for both schools of thought! (those are listed below)

Submit Your Work: Your poem has a chance to be PUBLISHED! After the challenge, submit your work to a form which will be made available at the challenge’s end, which will remain open throughout November 2025, to allow participants revision time. The Friends of Roethke Foundation will review poems submitted by participants and select a number for publication on their website. If your work is selected, you’ll receive an email from [insert email] with further details. If your work is not accepted, you’ll receive an email thank you for your participation and interest!

Oct. 1: Haiku

Write a haiku about an object in your immediate vicinity. (These are 3-line poems with 5-7-5 syllable line lengths).

Oct. 2: Alternate Reality

Imagine yourself thriving in an alternate reality and write a poem about what your life would be like in that universe.

Oct. 3: Thresholds

Write a poem about reaching or crossing a threshold in your life. What does “crossing thresholds” mean to you? Are they good or bad? Neutral?

Oct. 4: Aubade (NEW PROMPT)

According to Merriam-Webster, an aubade is “a song or poem about greeting the dawn.” Sometimes it may be about two lovers parting ways at dawn or in general, just about dawn itself. So, for today’s poem, write about dawn.

Oct. 5: Tanka

Write a tanka about any subject. (These are 5-line poems with 5-7-5-7-7 syllable line lengths).

Oct. 6: Weather (NEW PROMPT)

Write a poem in any style and/or length about weather.

Oct. 7: Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

Write a poem about artificial intelligence. You could write a poem about the vastness of AI, the fear/excitement surrounding it. Perhaps you may want to write a poem featuring some sort of alien AI from a different planet!

Oct. 8: STATIONERY CHAOS

Write a poem on a piece of stationery you’re not accustomed to using – a napkin, piece of tissue, old birch bark on the forest floor. For an extra challenge, write with a utensil you’re not accustomed to using – crayon, marker, eye liner pencil – the sky’s the limit!

Oct. 9: Pantoum

Write a pantoum (follow link for pantoum structure instructions).

Oct. 10: Sisyphean Synergy

Write a poem about a characteristic, aspiration, or struggle you have that’s always been difficult for you to resolve or reach.

Oct. 11: Artistic Ekphrasis

Find a piece of art and write a poem about it. Allow your poem to engage in conversation with the art piece, expand on what the art piece is already saying, or change the meaning you think the art piece conveys. (Example: “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by Keats).

Oct. 12: DAIKAIJU (New Prompt)

In Japanese, the word daikaiju means “great strange beast.” Write a poem about a great, giant, and other-worldly beast. (Examples of Daikaiju: Godzilla, Kong, Mothra, Clifford the Big Red Dog, certain dragons)

Oct. 13: Acrostic

Write a poem in which the first letter in each line spells out a word.

Oct. 14: Socio-Political

Pick an issue or event happening in the world currently and write a poem about how it makes you feel.

Oct. 15: Fictional Fugue

Create a fictional character whose identity has been lost and write a poem about their journey toward self-discovery.

Oct. 16: Journal Journeys

Find an diary or journal (old or new), then write a poem inspired by an entry you wrote.

Oct. 17: Utopia (NEW PROMPT)

According to Merriam-Webster, “utopia” is defined as “a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions.” Write a poem imagining a perfect utopian world, the moral implications of utopia, and/or how it contrasts with dystopia.

Oct. 18: Prose Poem (NEW PROMPT)

A prose poem is a poem that often does not conform to verses or stanzas. Sometimes it may be story-like. Write a prose poem about a subject of your choosing. Click here to see a definition and examples of prose poems.

Oct. 19: Boundaries

Write a poem about a boundary. This can be a geological boundary, mental boundary, human-made boundary, or a social boundary set in a relationship/friendship.

Oct. 20: Object Permanence

Find an object wherever you are that connects to a person you care about. Write a 5-10-line poem about said object – describe it using sensory details and use the inspiration it creates to help readers develop an understanding of the person it’s connected to.

Oct. 21: Persona Play

Write a poem with a persona speaking (or narrating) separate from your voice. Oftentimes, these poems are written in second (you) or third person (he, she, them, they) points of view. These poems sometimes have dialogue in them. (Example: your present-self visits your past-self but it’s narrated in third person point of view, so the audience doesn’t know who’s doing the speaking).

Oct. 22: Sublime

Think about a feature in nature that fills you with curiosity and fear, then write a poem about your reactions if you were to be in the presence of such feature.

Oct. 23: Concrete Poetry (NEW PROMPT)

Concrete (or pattern) poetry experiments with creating shapes or patterns on a page using verses and stanzas. Write a poem that creates a visual shape or pattern.

Oct. 24: Recipe

Write a poem in the form of a recipe or about a recipe that’s important/personal to you.

Oct. 25: Sonder

Write a short poem (10 lines or less) about the concept of sonder, which defined as “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” Click this link to see the full-length formal definition of sonder.

Oct. 26: Erasure Poetry

Research, then copy and paste an article into a word document, then use the strikethrough (or dark high-lighting feature) to blot out the words until the remaining words create a poem. You can also do this using a page from a book or other physical media – strike through or marker out chosen words/line on a given page to make a poem with remaining words.

Oct. 27: Entropy

Write a poem about lack of order, randomness, and/or chaos.

Oct. 28: Zeitgeist (NEW PROMPT)

According to Merriam-Webster, zeitgeist is defined as “the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an area.” Write a poem about the zeitgeist of a given space and/or region.

Oct. 29: Poetic Letters

Write a poem to a person who’s no longer in your life.

Oct. 30: The Gothic

Write a poem inspired by the gothic containing dark and/or haunting imagery.

Oct. 31: Horror

Using grotesque imagery, write a poem about something that induces fear.

TRACK #2: INDEPENDENT/SELF-GUIDED

The independent track of Oct/poem/ber does not have any prompts or guidelines!

Recommendations, Helpful Hints, & TidBits

  1. Select whichever writing medium you are most comfortable with: electronic or handwritten.
  2. Most of the poems, aside from the form-focused ones (tanka, pantoum, haiku, and sonnet) are all free-verse or free of particular form. Your poems need not rhyme or be structured in a particular way if you don’t want them to!
  3. Do your best to set aside designated time every day to write – create a routine!
  4. If you fall behind, you can always catch up!
  5. If there is a prompt that you get stuck on or don’t like, switch to the Independent Track that particular day.
  6. Sharing your poems across social media is not required but encouraged. The world deserves to see your work!

Content Discretion

When writing about personal topics, always consider your own well-being above all else. Regardless what prompt you follow or self-guided poem you write, only write about what you’re comfortable writing about. If you need to skip a daily prompt, feel free to do a self-guided/independent poem on that respective day.

Sharing

If you share your poems across social media (which I encourage), please use the hashtags: #octpoember and/or #octpoemberchallenge .

The Assembly Line Has Lost Its Teeth: 2024 Accomplishments & 2025 Plans

by donnywinter, posted in Announcements, Uncategorized, Writing Advice

My office is clean, organized, and I just poured myself a cup of tea. That means its time to do what many others are currently doing: reflect on goals and aspirations for 2025. I remain steadfast in my avoidance of labeling them “resolutions,” as to me, they create a lot of pressure with minimal flexiblity. Instead, I prefer to refer to these goals and aspirations.

To begin, I’d be remiss if I didn’t reflect on 2024. Technically, as a writer, I have not put out a full body of work since my chapbook of poems, Casting Seeds (Alien Buddha Press, 2022) three years ago. It feels like a lifetime and throughout most of 2023, I felt immense guilt for not churning out more work after three back-to-back releases since 2020. I needed some rest and 2024 became my year of resoluteness: I discovered I measured my output based on the other writers in my life, which aggravated that guilt I was feeling. I learned to embrace taking downtime between projects because what we do in the liminal spaces of output matters. With much discomfort at first, I began to celebrate the small accomplishments bit-by-bit, then, discovered that I was actually accomplishing pretty notable things that I was downplaying. After all, western society always convinces us to downplay our own momentum, does it not? So, I’d like to celebrate some of my 2024 accomplishments on both writing and media fronts:

AN EXTENDED PLAY OF MUSIC & POETRY – URGENT FIRE (WITH BROTHERWELL)

As a poet (and former musician), I never dreamed I’d have the opportunity to combine my poetry with music. I’m grateful the universe coaxed Brotherwell and I to cross paths. The past few years, we worked together on songs here and there, but to have the chance to work on an entire album with a concept, I never believed it’d happen until this past year. Back in January 2024, we released Urgent Fire, an extended play of four spoken word songs examining current events, mental health, and so much more. There’s much more from us to come! (Will discuss later)

WORK ON THE GODZILLA: 70th ANNIVERSARY ANTHOLOGY

Similar to my thrill about my work on music, having the chance to write for an official Godzilla comic story was not on my bingo-card. I’ve discussed it at length in interviews and on my podcast Growing Up With Godzilla; however, when my friend Matt Frank approached me to write poetry for a character in his story, “In the Shadow of a God,” I eagerly accepted. Not only did it help me learn about the comicbook writing world but it built a friendship with someone I respect considerably. Fast-forward throughout the year, it led to me having the opportunity to speak at G-FEST 2024 on the Kaiju Writer’s Panel, a co-signing session, and led to a number of guest appearance opportunities on some podcasts, including but not limited to: United Kaiju Podcast, Kaiju Conversation LIVE, Collect All Monsters, Tomes of Evil, and SKREEONK! As a writer and lifelong Godzilla fan, 2024 marked a major milestone for me in this regard.

CONCLUDING OUR PODCAST “RESTITCHING THE TAPESTRY“

A major part of my life since 2020 was our podcast Restitching the Tapestry. Ari Whipple, my friend of 20 years, joined forces with me to discuss current events, pop culture, social justic, and art regularly on Thursday evenings. After 5 seasons and 180 episodes, we decided to conclude the show. It was an emotional end; however, looking back on all we’ve accomplished, I’m incredibly proud. We covered a lot of ground, had revelations, shared poetry, cried together, laughted together… and so much more. If anything, I’m most grateful for the friendship I’ve cultivated with Ari, and I’m happy viewers will always be able to watch (or listen) to our massive project. If you’d like to listen to Restitching the Tapestry on YouTube, click the image above. Otherwise, it can be found on streaming services.

COMPLETING SEASON 3 OF MY PODCAST “GROWING UP WITH GODZILLA“

I’d be remiss to not mention the completion of season 3 of my Godzilla podcast, Growing Up With Godzilla! The show has started to take off, to the extent where attendees at G-FEST 2024 ACKNOWLEDGED it. 2025 will mark the show’s 4th season starting in February.

MAJOR POETRY READINGS: THE QUEER CONFESSIONAL & CASTING SEEDS

I had two major poetry readings throughout 2024: THE QUEER CONFESSIONAL during Pride Month and CASTING SEEDS in late summer. Both of them were a huge success. Special thank you to Lolobees Lounge in Bay City, MI and the Roethke Museum in Saginaw, MI for hosting. If you’d like to watch either reading, you can find them on my poetry YouTube channel via the links above.

Here are some other accomplishments I’d like to list:

  • Getting 11 poems published
  • My poem “The Symphony of Sullen Warnings” placing first runner-up in Wingless Dreamer’s Petals and Pines 2024 poetry contest
  • My book Feats of Alchemy was listed as a Favorite Book of 2024 on Walden’s Poetry
  • Starting and sustaining a successful newsletter for PFLAG Great Lakes Bay Region, a local LGBTQ+ organization
  • Becoming a board member on Friends of Roethke, a local organization charged with protecting the legacy of Theodore Roethke
  • Facilitating a partnership with Friends of Roethke, distributing my Oct/POEM/ber Poetry Challenge to a wider audience
  • Guest appearing on a local podcast, Saginaw Valley Spoken Word Podcast, to discuss my career as a queer poet
  • Being invited as a guest speaker at Delta College for an Author’s Spotlight
  • Guest appearing for 3 episodes on the Star Trek podcast, IDIC – Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations
  • Helping launch a literary magazine for Delta College called 1961
  • Resumed the podcast series “Universal Journeys” with my dear friend Brenda Bates.
  • Participated in an author’s reception facilitated by Bookmarks in Midland, MI
  • Guest appeared at Great Lakes Bay Pride with Leopard Print Books

Looking back on this list accomplishments in 2024, my immediate insecurity is: how will I catch lightning in a bottle again? One of my major goals this year is to ignore that voice – because it creates a pressure and fear of failure. Instead, I’m trying to affirm myself by saying: our accomplishments vary and take different shapes depending on where we are in life. In 2025, I may accomplish one thing as opposed to a dozen and ultimately, that’s completely okay. This capitalistic assembly line we’re on inbeds this deep conditioning that we must constantly need to churn out content and accomplishments. I’ve found that when I fall prey to that, fear-based ambition short-circuits actual output. 2025 will be about continuing to unlearn that conditioning and replacing these fear-based habits with grace-granting ones.

Despite my TedTalk in the prior paragraph, I don’t want my being cognizant of fear-based ambition to negate my excitement for what’s to come. As always, a new year brings new goals and aspirations. Here is my 2025 list:

  1. GET MARRIED: I’m getting married this year in November! I’m pretty stoked about this! Anyway, I’d be ridiculous not to list this first!
  2. READ MORE: Since working as a teacher involves a lot of reading, I find myself depleted when it comes to liesurely reading after coming home from work. In 2025, I’d like to carve out more time for casual reading. In fact, my friend Ari (who I mentioned before) has been sharing some thoughtful tricks about low-stress reading that have empowered me. I plan to start a reading journal, read at least 1 book a month, and actually use my Kindle to improve my access to reading material.
  3. FINALIZE AND SEND OUT MY CHAPBOOK: Yes, I’m nearly done writing a chapbook of poems! I don’t want to share too many details, but I’m finishing up some final poems and organizing. I’ll be sending it to my editors some time in the next month or two. Then, it’s going out to publishers!
  4. FINISH MY NEXT FULL-LENGTH POEM COLLECTION: I’m about 75% through completing my next full-length book of poems. I doubt it will be released this year but that’s progress, right?
  5. BEGIN WORK ON A FICTION SHORT-STORY COLLECTION: This is probably an unexpected one, but yes, I am slowly getting back into writing fiction. In fact, I’m hoping this short-story collection will lead to a full-length novel series. It’s ambitious (oh the irony considering my ambition tirade earlier); however, we writers dream big don’t we?
  6. FINISH ANOTHER EP WITH BROTHERWELL: We are beginning work on the next segment of what will be a full-length album of poetry and music.
  7. SUBMIT (AND HOPEFULLY GET ACCEPTED) A GODZILLA COMIC BOOK PITCH: Throughout late 2024, I’ve worked on sending out Godzilla comic pitches to IDW Publishing. I haven’t had any bites yet, but I’m not giving up. I have a lot of stories in me, so, one of my goals is to score my own Godzilla story in comic book form. I don’t care if it is a limited series or one-off, I’m just excited to stretch myself to other genres outside of poetry.
  8. WRITE A BLOG POST PER MONTH: I honestly should use my website blog more!
  9. WORK ON PROMOTING WORK MORE: Marketing is always this writer’s worst enemy – it is quite time consuming!

I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to accomplish this list throughout 2025; however, I’m excited to forge forward and do my very best. As we navigate this year, I wish both writers and readers love and creative energy. Let’s keep doing what we love because we owe ourselves this enrichment. Happy New Year!

XoXo

Donny Winter

2024: Getting Ready for the New

by donnywinter, posted in Announcements

I couldn’t be more excited for what 2024 has to offer on the creative front. I spent 2023 recuperating and recharging my creative energies and now, I’m ready for what’s next. Here’s what I’ve been and what I will be working on:

#1: Urgent Fire, an EP of Poetry and Music with brotherwell

Urgent Fire, Out now and all streaming services.
Check out our EP on all streaming services!

I’ve always had a dream to weave my poetry together with music, and brotherwell (a musician [and good friend] from Florida) has allowed me to do that. Having been a musician for a number of years, I never quite found the way to merge these worlds. However, brotherwell’s talented way with words and sound have provided me the perfect alchemic brew. Over the past two years, we’ve collaborated on numerous tracks, especially on his prior collaborative album Re:covery.

In mid-2022, brotherwell approached me to collaborate on an album composed entirely of our own work, and I jumped at that opportunity. This extended play is the first segment of a much larger body of work which listeners find more about later. These four songs touch on mental health, climate change, LGBTQ+ survival, and so much more. You can now stream and/or purchase Urgent Fire across all streaming services!

#2: Work on a COMIC BOOK

Godzilla: 70th Anniversary comic book image showcasing its release date on May 8, 2024.
Check out my work in the upcoming Godzilla: 70th Anniversary comic book!

In late 2023, I was invited by my dear friend, writer, and comic book artist Matt Frank to collaborate on a story in IDW Publishing’s upcoming Godzilla: 70th Anniversary comic book one-shot. Obviously, I can’t reveal any details about this beyond that. All I can say is that it’s going to be awesome.

I can talk about my feelings though, right? I have to say: this is something I’ve always wanted to do and I never thought I’d get the opportunity. So, big thanks to Matt for believing in my work and inviting me to participate. If I could go back in time and tell my teenage-self that he’d go from writing Godzilla fan fiction to writing in an official Godzilla comic book, he’d be awestruck. These characters, films, and stories are so important to me. I’m grateful to have some small involvement in this 70th anniversary celebration.

#3: Beginning Work on My Third, Full-Length Poetry Collection

An image of Donny Winter's three collections of poems, Carbon Footprint, Feats of Alchemy, and Casting Seeds.
My first two, full-length collections of poems and my first chapbook.

After the success of my first two, full-length collections of poems, Carbon Footprint (2020) and Feats of Alchemy (2021), along with my chapbook Casing Seeds (2022), I needed to take a year off from book writing. As an artist, I think downtime is just as important as productive time. (More on that in a future entry) [wait, was 2023 downtime considering I was still working on poetry for other projects?] In entering 2024, I’ve been feeling an energy I haven’t felt in ages, and I’m ready to begin my next writing era.

I can’t reveal a lot about this new collection beyond the fact that I’ve generated about 30 poems thus far. I may not finish it this year; however, some significant progress will be made. Depending on how many poems I generate, workshop, and edit, I may even consider putting out another chapbook if the next full-length takes awhile to complete.

Regardless, I’m in such a good place as an artist. I know there’s a lot of good things on the horizon and I don’t feel bogged down by the pressure to over-produce or rush. Poetry is wine – it betters as it sits in the barrel.

As always, thank you for beliving in my work. There are other small-scale projects I’m working on, but I’ll reveal those in the near future!

Talk soon!

xoxo Donny

Unpacking “Carbon Footprint” Interview

by donnywinter, posted in Uncategorized

Donny Winter sat down last week with fellow writer (and friend), H.M. Kanicki, to discuss multiple aspects of his book of poems, Carbon Footprint. Incrementally, these episodes will be uploaded to Winter’s “DonnySpeaks” poetry YouTube channel of the course of this week. So far, two episodes feature discussions about themes of geology in the book and Winter’s love of the characters Godzilla and Mothra.

In this episode, Donny Winter discusses geology themes in his book “Carbon Footprint.”
In this segment, Donny Winter discusses how the characters Godzilla and Mothra influence his writing.