Writing Through November: The Constant Poet Challenge
The Constant Poet (@theconstantpoet) has a challenge for November that I found especially inspiring.
It’s a series of daily prompts — one for each day of the month — meant to keep the poetry muscle active.
Like anything worth doing, writing requires practice.
The more you show up, the more fluent your voice becomes.
The more honest. The more alive.
Here are the prompts:
Secret life of the patron saint of ________
Playbook of first times
Poem composed of clichés
What to do when the wind/temperature/leaves change(s)
Bonfires & branding irons
Biopic on stark beauty
Come here, come here, come home
Drinking songs that have your name in them
Tongue twisters & other ways I’ve shared my feelings
Filling your head with forget-me-nots
In the age of death & dying
Long drives & longer silences
Unofficial list of grievances
________ & other slow deaths
Asylum for the criminally heartbroken
Candles I’ve left burning
Things I share a birthday with
Field guide for (un)friendship
Seasonal depression & other holiday gifts
Myths of the night-blooming jasmine
Boarding up my past lives/loves/etc.
Ways I’ve burnt my tongue lately
Updating my emergency contact information
Hope & other heists
Definitions for “home”
Conversations I’ll have with my family this year
Thank you card to the last person I should be thanking
Behind the scenes of leaving
A study of soft things that still gutted me
Secondhand Sundays / secondhand sorrows
When I read the first prompt — “The secret life of the patron saint of ________” — I felt an immediate pull.
It’s the kind of phrase that demands to be written into, to be unearthed.
And if you’ve been following my work for a while, you already know my favorite theme to explore: silence.
The ways we hold it. The ways it hurts. The ways it saves.
So, here’s where this prompt led me:
The Patron Saint of Silent Screams
The secret life of the patron saint
of silent screams.
Bridle, pyre, boot.
She carries every word unspoken,
seeks out the bleeding,
the bruised,
the ones drowning in a silence
that vibrates through bone—
yet no one chooses to hear.
I’d love for you to join me in this challenge — whether you write daily, weekly, or just when a prompt catches your breath.
Tag me @emmaloganwrites and @theconstantpoet or share your poems using #TheConstantPoetPrompts so we can write our way through November together.
Because every voice deserves to be heard — especially the ones that have been quiet for too long.
