Journey to the Stars, NaPoWriMo'25 Stomp the Prompt Comp

2025 STOMP THE PROMPT COMP! Sister Comp to the Official NaPo Callenge
Hosts: Ahavati & Team NaPo'24

RULES

This competition is for any member of Deep Underground Poetry. However, if you are not a registered participant of the official NaPo challenge, you can only post your entry here. Those who are official registrants of the sister-comp challenge may paste as many of their Prompt inspired poems into the challenge.

• Entries must be pasted, not shared from your profile. However, you can post them to your profile. You may also paste them into the challenge thread as your daily poem, as long as they meet the challenge guidelines, and you are a registered participant.

•Hashtag the Prompt Number under your entry. Example: #22 etc.

• 50 unique word rule applies.

•There are no editing restrictions in this competition - you may edit to your heart's content until May arrives. However, should you paste these entries into the challenge, remember that the editing rule does apply there.

•You have until midnight of April 30th in your time zone to get your entries in!

•The Winner will be decided by a panel of Team NaPo 2024 judges who did not participate in this comp.

May the Best Prompt Win!

Those not registered can follow the Official DUP NaPo/GloProWriMo 2024 Competition at this link:

https://deepundergroundpoetry.com/forum/competitions/read/12766/

PROMPTS

1. Rewrite the Stars: Describe something written in the stars and rewrite it.

2. Origin Story: Write a poem about the origins of a constellation, or make one up for your chosen constellation

3. I Fell from the Grace of a Shooting Star: Write about a time you wished for something tragic.

4.  I Opened my Eyes and Saw the Stars: Write about a time that the stars took your breath away.

5. T A Star can be a beacon of hope: Who is the shining star in your life?

6. Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you still land among the stars: Write a poem about a time when you were working toward a goal, missed the mark, but somehow everything turned out all right.

7. "I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night." Write about a time that you overcame the fear of darkness.

8. There's as many atoms in a single molecule of your DNA as there are stars in the typical galaxy. Write about how we are, each of us, a little universe.

9. "It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves": Write about a time you realized you had the power to change yourself.

10. "I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars": Write about how you balance light and darkness.

11. "Shoot for the moon and if you miss you will still be among the stars": Write about a time you didn't give up on a goal and ended up succeeding.

12. "We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle": Imagine you are ancient, seeing the stars for the first time. Write a poem about your discovery.

13.  A lodestar is a star that the ancients used to guide their way (such as the North Star), but can also refer to one who guides, a direction, or focus. Write about a time in your life when you used an object or the guidance of someone to help you along your way.

14. Who, or what, have been the sources of light and dark in your life?

15. Write about some of the different ways in which it is possible to shine like a star.

16. Describe something infinitesimally bug, or infinitesimally small.

17. What do you consider to be the meaning of 'Life, the Universe and Everything'?

18. Write a Brief History of Time (or life), from your perspective.

19. Imagine in about 15 years, you're the poet who wins the Nobel prize in literature, you've become a star amongst other poets. What would say about DUP in your acceptance speech.

20. Scientists discover a signal coming from our nearest star Proxima Centauri about 4.2 light years away. Within the signal are strange mathematical equations and a poem in an advanced language. You as a poet are the first to translate the verse. What does the poem say?

21. What is your favorite constellation, and why?

22. Oscar Wilde once said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Write about a time you were at your lowest and how the heavens may have helped you.

23. Which symbolizes Love more? The Stars or the Moon - write why.

24. If you could live on one star, which would it be, and why.

25. Name a time that you saw the stars from a different perspective, and how they affected you.

26. Stars are eternal beacons in the night - write about why they are.

27. Bette Davis once said, "Let's not shoot for the moon, when we have the stars." What did she mean by that?

28. Where do stars go to sleep?

29. There is a legend that under the sea is a beautiful star garden: Write about what would be in it

30. Carl Sagan once said, "The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the Universe to know itself." Write the meaning from your perspective.

Happy writing to all!

Prompt # 1

The Universe Has Written a Verse

The past is calling so you can write about your future
Because leaving it alone can later on create confusion
But if you want to learn you just look up at the stars
And study its origin and history from creation to evolution

Are destinies pre-written even when we make the change?
Are the paths we choose to take all in one just the same?
Do the planets ever align and guide us in the right direction?
Or are we all pieces in some divine being’s larger game?

The universe has written a verse for us to translate
Composed in a cluster of explosions from a long time ago
And now that their starlight has finally reached our eyes
Each flicker says…chase your dream like there is no tomorrow

But I’m going to pursue my aspirations starting today


104 Unique Words
138 Total

Prompt # 2

Castor and Pollux

Duality
Brotherhood
Protection…

And so it was that the twins
In their mother’s womb
One of a mortal father, the other of a divine
Came to have a special connection

Years later
When Castor, the mortal son was killed in battle
His brother Pollux asked his father Zeus to let them stay together
And Zeus, moved by his son’s request
Gave them an eternal bond
Placed them in the northern sky
In the constellation known as
Gemini

57 Unique Words
77 Total

Prompt # 3

Evil Empire

I’m an advocate for compassion and empathy
But the recent political results left me disappointed
Now the world is lacking even more sympathy
While several leaders are illogical and disjointed

But I remember that before all this came to pass
I thought maybe we should let crazy take the wheel
I mean how often do you see a vehicle driven by an ass?
Spellbound by some witchcraft in the art of the steal

I think I wished for this so that all would be revealed
So that even the most blind would eventually learn
Thou shall fucketh aroundeth and find outeh is for real
But I didn’t take into account that all of us might burn

I fell from grace by kind of wishing for something tragic
For a country to be lead by avarice and selfish desires
I know it was just a cynical thought, but it’s not magic
That a once valued nation is now seen as an evil empire

113 Unique Words
162 Total

Prompt # 4

Hemet

I remember it was early in the winter of ‘89
My family was attending a church retreat
Somewhere in the California desert
Somewhere in those hills
In those days
Hemet was very much a desert town

The second night I was there
I remember some of us went out to the campfire
It was cold
But in the desert
Away from all the light pollution
The sky was lit up with all kinds of stars
And at fourteen
Impressionable by faith
I felt that something bigger than me was out there
That something had painted that canvass in the sky

The stars that night inspired me
They inspired me to write


66 Unique Words
111 Total

Prompt # 5

The Wrinkles of Time

Like a star from the past she regaled us with stories
A lesson in each and every one of them
With love and patience she guided us
Even when we didn’t want to listen or understand

But after so many laps around the sun
I began to appreciate more of what she done
For all the sacrifices she made
All the sufferings she must’ve endured
I saw more of her light

Now at ninety-five
She only whispers
A fog has come over memory
Hands that once worked so hard
Show the wrinkles of time

Her faces lights up
Like a beacon of hope
Like a fire of inspiration
Knowing that our time now is more precious

83 Unique Words
116 Total

Prompt # 6

Velvet Knight

I wanted to be a better musician
But my insecurities had me frozen
I wanted to prove to myself that I was just a good
By my fear was making a fool out of myself

So I practiced and practiced and practiced
It got to the point that I could feel each pulse
Each rudiment felt like it was in slow motion
My skill had reached a new height
But still there was more to learn

It was when a group of us wanted to audition
That I again froze
I knew I had it in me
Just maybe
But now I’ll just never know

Instead I picked up a pen
I wrote to rhythm, flow and rhyme
I composed for the broken dreams and schemes
Remembering the times
When I wanted to be
A Velvet Knight

79 Unique Words
137 Total

Prompt #28

Vargary

I don’t believe Stars sleep or even want to sleep
due to SUDDENLY being thrusted into this new
wonderment of light!
Yes, scientifically, sooner or later, much like our
earth’s sun, all stars get to forever rest.
Hooooooooooooowever,
Spiritually speaking, if new Angels can be born
why not a new star from an ended life on earth?
I wouldn’t want to be wasting my time
(there is NO TIME in the afterlife)
ceding into slumber.  I’d become the adventurer
of my neo ethereal existence!

Might ever spook some on my birth planet
just for giggles.  Maybe, if possible, let loved
ones know I AM OK.

Point is, why the heck would I even want
or think of sleeping?
I did that while I was alive.


96 unique words

Prompt  # 7

Overcoming Fear

It wasn’t so much the fear of what happens after death
But the constant guilt over things beyond my control
It just felt like many of the decisions I made in my youth
Were based on the premise – I was trying to save my soul

And yet for some reason it felt like something was missing
Many of the things I saw and witnessed didn’t make sense
I had lost faith and found it and lost it over and over again
And until the veil was lifted it stripped away that innocence

Then I believed I’d achieve something with a bigger purpose
Even the little things were small steps by some divine design
I didn’t have to act or behave a certain way, I could be myself
So long as I was kind I knew I could have peace of mind

When I lost my religion, I then somehow found my morality
I understood the diversity of people, of faith and choice
Old principles wilted me and guilted me into submission
But now that I see the light I understand I also have a voice


113 Unique Words
186 Total