2024 Official DUP Stomp the Prompt Comp

Hosts: Ahavati & Team NaPo'24

RULES

This competition is only for registered members of the Official DUP Napo/GloProWriMo 2024 Competition, who will be copy pasting as many of their Prompt inspired poems here or vice-a-versa!

• Entries must be pasted, not shared from your profile. You may also paste them into the challenge thread as your daily poem, as long as they meet the challenge guidelines.

•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, you 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 of the Trophy 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. The Little Black Box of Un-inspiration: Describe a time you felt a lack of inspiration but wrote nonetheless.

2. Fear is the mind killer: Write about a time that you overcame a fear.

3. What do you despise? By this are you truly known. - Write about something you truly despise.

4. The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience. - Write about a mysterious experience.

5. There is no escape, we pay for the violence of our ancestors. - Write about whether or not you agree that we pay for the violence of our ancestors.

6. Hope clouds observation. - Write about a time that you wore rose-colored glasses and totally missed the reality of what was happening.

7. Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken. - Write about a time you were awakened by a truth.

8. He who controls the [. . . ] controls the universe. - Insert something you think controls the world and write about why it would.

9. Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them. - Write a poem about a machine that developed its own consciousness.

10. Survival is the ability to swim in strange water. - Write a poem about survival.

11. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training. - What steps do you take to direct the way you lean?

12. "Above all else, the mentat must be a generalist." - Write about a decision you are postponing from the perspective of a mentat.

13. Control: how much control do we really have over our lives? Write about a time that life felt out of your control.

14. Motivation: Who, or what, drives you? What lengths would you go to, to protect what is most precious to you.

15. Resources: Time, money, food, shelter, sunlight, fuel - what commodities are most important in your life? Write about a real or imagined situation where resources are scarce.

16. Faith/ Philosophy: To what extent do you think events are predetermined? Is there an element of self-fulfilling prophesy to life? Explore this idea in poetry.

17. Beliefs/ Actions: How do beliefs influence your actions? What would you do in a situation where your beliefs or moral system dictated that you should take a course of action that felt difficult or uncomfortable?

18. Fear: What part does fear play in the development (or lack thereof) of human character? Write about your experiences of this.

19. Growth: Who or what has most influenced your personal growth? How did this happen? Would you want to change your experiences?

20. Identity: What makes you the person you are? How would you define the essence of your character? Tell us who you are.

21. Time/ Survival: "Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow." What will remain of our lives and toils, 100 years from now?

22. Suffering: Does suffering have any ultimate benefit to our lives?

23. Dealing with difficult people. Whether it's with work colleagues, friends, or family, how do you deal with a person who disagrees with anything you may have to say?

24. Betrayal: We have all felt disappointed when a friend, family member or partner has let us down in some way. Have you ever experienced a time when one of those people did not act in accordance with things they have said? Write about a time you felt betrayed.

25. Vision: Write a poem in which you remember something that hasn't happened. Describe sensory images to convince the reader it really happened.

26. Holy War: Imagine being in a holy war. What are some of the emotions you feel. Identify one emotion then identify three unrelated ideas that depict that emotion. Connect them in a poem.

27. Spice: Write about something very small with all its features. Write about showing how it is like something very large.

28. Rival: Write a poem addressed to your enemy or rival. What would you say? Think about the emotional state of the poem. What do you want your readers to take away from reading it?

29. The slow blade penetrates the shield: Write about a time that patience paid off.

30. You’ve proven you can rule yourself, Now you must learn to rule others, Something none of your ancestors learnt: This is all about growth: Write about a time that you were able to control yourself during a situation where you would've otherwise lost control.

Happy writing to all!

#2

I Was Afraid

Preceding experiences, traumatic and unkind
choosing hope over fear, never resigned
spiritual journey meant to emprise

Consideration for perceptual illusions
prohibiting an unquiet mind’s intrusions
as thoughts are often boldfaced lies   

Resolute, upon a prophetic mission
steadfast, firmly holding position
promising future, intended to realise

Leaning into discomfort and pain
disallowing its tyrannical reign
in solitude and reflection, I am wise

Assuredly battered yet never broken
distant memories, leaving unspoken
internal perspective to revise

No more oppressive shackles to abide
growing strength adorned with pride
subsequent escape from that which ties

Out of overwhelming shame into the light
vast wings expanded, taking flight
just as a phoenix, from ashes I will rise

The Myth of Human Decency

Case the heart as you make love like war
Make yourself at home at another’s ground zero
When all you do for anyone else is self its for
When the villain masquerades as the victims hero

Ambush, striking in ways unexpected
Wounds exploited with eyes infected
All you see is everything through the lens of your own scars
As if the blood you shed is what makes you who you are

Ego tripping, the acquired taste
Paraphernalia made of a liars friends
Gold hearts gone to waste
The user thrives on the means to their own ends

Compensations of medicated inadequacy
Leaching off of the thunder of another’s tragedy

Getting off on disease to sell yourself like you’re the cure
When your ways are just as much the affliction
Like a social cancer infiltrating the host
When attention is the hearts’ addiction

Loose lips slander in the ways of a yenta
When gossip proceeds from the mouth like the birth of deaths placenta

Starting fires and adding to the furnace of your own hell
When bitterness challenges compassion
I’m torn between wishing you dead or well
When the soul is ugly as the fads of the world’s unseen fashion

Reminding myself we battle not against flesh and blood
I guess it’s just the devil in your eyes
When crocodile tears are a toxic flood
I swim against the temptation to resign you to my own despise

You have a way it seems of echoing poison sentiments
When kindred demons scavenger like the wolf of a familiar narcissist
Black hole plagues playing tug of war as we reckon with this gravity
This detestable heartache of resisted vengeance follows in the way of such depravity

No stones to cast when the worst in others is the propensity of ourselves
Who do you hate but the mirror when it’s a reflection that you see
Even if it’s not full grown we all bear the burden of our own humanity…

#28

Sand Drifts

Time's winds blow sand drifts aloft
even as monuments and smaller works
lie beneath the uncountable grains
on beaches and in deserts

all we tried to achieve in many lifetimes
barely touches the surface draft
but holds its secrets sovereign
and its whispers only convey neutrality

The sand contains the memory of it all
even as evaporated experience
how everything was fought for
and how it became dessicated

Those made rose to view everything
before the land lost its fertility
and buried all that was necessary
creating the doom loop of endless need

The years confirmed the great closure
and gave us no assurance or measure
that the past would succeed anything
or that things entombed would ever rise up

One hundred years is but a blink in history
and every heartbeat a faintest contribution
to the mountains which stay impervious
unmoved by the eons and their masses


         #21

Prompt # 1

Writing About Writer’s Block

Whenever I’ve felt uninspired
Or felt the lack of flame and fire on the tip of my pen
I write about the frustration wired
Even when it feels like I’ve hit a dead-end

But when the vexation opens up a gate
A torrent of words feels like a flood of blood and ink
Then I think it cannot be contained
Even if the syntax sucks and stinks

It puts things into perspective
Writing about writer’s block is an oxymoron at best
When the page is filled with raw emotion
I feel like fulfilled a little conquest

#10

Beneath the Glass

Far from the shallows
beyond the undulating swells
under toe carries into the deep
of a vast, omnipotent sea

Sinking below the quiet surface
feeling the cold depths envelop
uncharted voyage, I’ve come to seek
sensing the maelstrom develop

Treading just beneath the glass
holding breath yet barely able
drifting slowly off to sleep
pausing here, I turn my will over

Underwater, I seem to breathe
impressions of lost memories
fearless now, I do not weep
how I have longed for this comfort

Familiar tactile sensation
alive, I believe I am home
solitude, intending to keep
acceptance acquired in the abyss

#2

Dwellers in the Cellar

Amidst swallowing depths of darkness,
I found myself frozen like a mannequin
The surrounding shadows lurked thick and stout,
Salivating upon my proximity
I felt their sinister intentions,
Vicious delight, akin to sunshine kissing the skin
One behind the furnace, two by the washer,
Three... I now run out of proclivity
In panicking flight,
Scrambling upstairs to the light,
I'm pulled toward the abyss
Demon chains wrapped round my ankles tight,
Devils gnashing beside my feet
Drinking upon memory supple,
My queen of spells bestowed me protective kiss
From the fall, my pride is all that bleeds
I resolve to no return till task complete
Anger and duty push me watchfully past
Those dwellers that whisper their hate
I retrieve mother's precious garments
From the dryer, ascending, my fear abate

Prompt # 2

Fear of Success

I had thought about returning to college for several years
But the fear of success had kept me in the dark for a while
“It’s too difficult, I’m too old, I don’t have the money or time”
All the excuses I had in my mind filled my heart with anxiety

But for far too long I was feeling I had hit a glass ceiling
The lack of a degree kept my career stalled or at a stand still
Until one day I decided to go back to the old campus
Seeing the buildings and students gave me an old thrill

So that day, standing there on the university campus
I decided to continue and complete my education
Sure it was a couple of years and endless hours of studying
But that’s how I overcame that weird fear of success

And all because I walked around campus

#7

Awakened by Truth

Blinded, woeful, soul asleep
poignant denial, heavy and deep

stagnant in place since early youth
impotent to see the inalienable truth

consuming lethal mead, hopelessly
disregard for austere potency

consequent effects, grievous loss
burning bridges not meant to cross

uninspired, remaining still
dull and stale, becoming ill

drowning, decaying, almost dead
hanging on by just one thread

…

Praying for a revelation
awakened by truth, a manifestation

allergic reaction, medically advised
equipped with knowledge, behaviour revised

disillusionment now resolved
spiritual condition has evolved

freedom from an obsessive affliction
no longer residing in desperate addiction

#3

Middle Hand Man





I give them all, my
Middle of the hand

Those weaving together
The fringes of our morality
Scrawling down in stone
Our words before they sway
Those entrappers, tricksters
I do despise

Beware, you self-indulgent somber prisoners of exile
Beware, hunters of plastic thrills that patchwork their voids
Ministers pit you both in opposition, erasing grey areas
May they have spiritual immolation and be charred to ash

Watch out for the menaces
Militancy behind those smiles
Operators closely standing by
In clandestine for-profit mission
They only rise above, amidst
The fallings of their surroundings

Middle of the hand,
As I bid them adieu

Prompt # 3

Let’s Get Cynical, Cynical…Again

I despise people who are two-faced liars
They pretend to be something they’re not
They get mad when the truth is too hot handle
Then change the narrative when they get caught

I dislike individuals who are duplicitous
They smile but talk smack behind your back
Acting nice in one place but toxic in another
They’re narrative is a bunch of poppycock

And if they get political
It’s cynical
They’re so hypocritical
It’s miserable
I don’t want to hear that gaudy talk
Nope, I don’t want to hear that bawdy talk

I get irked when people are gas lighters
Stirring up things just to get attention
It’s like it gets them off in some off way
Like it gives them a…well you know what I mean

I am irritated by folks who are condescending
They think they are better and so they ridicule
They like to patronize and talk down to others
But when they speak the fools sound like mules

And when they get critical
It’s cynical
Claiming to be biblical
Threatening to get physical
I don’t want to hear that haughty talk
Nope, I don’t want to hear that potty talk

Guys these entries are GREAT! Keep up the good work!

deleted

Prompt # 4


Grandmother’s Mood

When she was young she always had a temper
She may have been little but she sure stood strong
But as she got older she became a different person
Her faith gave made her more stoic, pensive and calm

Grandma only gave a few hints about her past life
She had a rough childhood, she suffered and fought
But when she found her faith she had a connection
To put it simply, let’s just say the woman prayed a lot

It wasn’t until we were older when we got a glimpse
A couple of us kids and grandkids had really pissed her off
I had never seen her semblance turn so apathetic
As if her old self returned so cold you could feel the frost

But what was strange was that on that warm sunny day
In the hour when she got angry the skies turned dark
Then out of nowhere rain poured outside with force
It was as if the heavens had felt the anger in her heart

We heard the rain pound the roof and windows
While grandma sat quiet in her room reading a book
We just looked at each wondering, what in the…hail?
Then to top it off, the thunder! And that had us shook

Call it coincidence, excellent timing, whatever you think
The mystery of my grandmother’s mood and sudden storm
Because just like her anger, that tempest came and went
We’re not meant to understand some things beyond the norm

#29

Augmentation

Not unacquainted
yet holding still
past attempts tainted
by utter self-will

From a deadly place
of perceived fatal pain
seeking solace and grace
now on knees again

Inward realisation
of soul’s decline
necessary augmentation
to spiritually align

A solution outlined
initiating the quest
failures left behind
gratefully blessed

Familiar, this passage
still, something anew
direction without damage
a fevered path to pursue