The Poetry Haul Challenge

Week Two

The Poetry Haul is back with Challenge #2, and we’re thrilled to see your creative sparks fly! This week, we’re diving into a new set of words designed to inspire, provoke, and challenge your poetic instincts.

Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash

Here are the 10 words for Week 2:
missing, wish, blame, gem, lost, long, phenomenal, crime, history, interstellar

Your mission? Write a poem using all or some of these words. Let them guide your thoughts, twist your narrative, or build your imagery. Whether it’s a reflective piece, a bold declaration, or a journey into the unknown, we can’t wait to see what you create!

How to Participate:

1. Write your poem.

2. Share it with us by [posting directly on Substack with #artstackpoets] and tag us

   ARTSTACK

3. #artstackpoets on social media if you share your work elsewhere—we love celebrating your talent!

We’ll feature some standout poems in next week’s ARTSTACK newsletter, so don’t hesitate to put your best creative foot forward.

Need inspiration?
Imagine a treasure lost in the cosmos, an unspoken wish, or a crime that shaped history. Play with contrasts or dig deep into the phenomenal and mysterious.

Let’s see what magic you make with these words. Ready, set, write!

Poets from last week:

Quit lingering under my windowsill,

You stupid moon

I’ve got 10 manuscripts to rip

Carefully into 2’s and 3’s

Open up their guts

Into the sewer grates

With their blackened teeth

Gleaming full of gum wrappers

Since the silence from your side

Of the telephone line

My heart is beating hard all the time

I put your Prosecco to chill in the icebox

And stand here waiting for you to come up

The fire escape

You stupid

Pearl moon

With your empty gaze

And face full of acne scars.

I’ll give you 20 more minutes

Let your acrimony dissolve

On your great grey tongue

And then,

And I mean it

I will get myself a new

Watch with which

I will tell the time.

Sandolore Sykes

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The Left & Right

Jon Murphy

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Two Lost Childs (lyric poem)

and now Miguel

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“The Actor"

You hit a fuse
When you become my muse
An electric jolt
Is what I felt
I knelt at the sight of you
I was the painter
And you were
Mona Lisa
I was the sculptor
And you were
Athena
I shaped the edges of your flaws
Until my hands bled
"Perfect" I would sigh
You stood at my alter
And I would worship
You
Three times a day
Bowing and kneeling
I made you beautiful
Giving you
Traits
You did not portray
Fictional is all you are
On paper with the pen in my hand
I conjured scenes
Puppeted our love story
I played the director
Actor and actress
In this tale
Atlas

Now faceless is what I am
Somehow
Somewhere
My identity of self
Got lost into you
Whoever you are.
Reality versus fiction
The character I made
Did not align
With who you were
I felt like
Saying…..

"CUT!"
"You went off script."
Dangerously
I obsessed over your character
You possessed my sanity
Pleasantly I liked it
But rapidly
You drained me
In the Sahara desert
Our story perished
And there I lay
wilting in the sun

Lani

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