all over the place. no smooth transitions. bad grammar. not on purpose. fluff. pointless. empty words. nothing heartfelt. stuck. writer’s block. frustrating. forced. fake. unsatisfying. unfulfilled. nothing quotable. no witty ending. no gem drop. i even feel bad when i hit “published”. failed. giving up. why do i even bother.
Your prompt for today: Write a bad poem. What does a “bad” poem mean to you? Interrogate that. Is it a poem that sounds like a sappy greeting card, starting with “Roses are red,” or “How do I love thee?” Maybe “bad” means something about form to you. A poem with too much rhyme in it, so every line is a singsong. Or maybe a bad poem has no form at all, so the lines wander across the page, maybe in your least favorite font (Comic Sans?), the tackiest color (neon purple?), or the worst pen (blunt Sharpie?).
Or maybe “bad” isn’t about the shape or the quality of the writing at all, but about the content. A “bad” poem might mean saying the things you shouldn’t say, or feeling the things you’re not supposed to feel, or copping to your pettiest, dumbest, most embarrassing complaints. Let your “bad” self say the thing you don’t let yourself say. If you want to swear, swear. If you want to write the word “NO” over and over for twenty lines straight, then—yes.
The badder the better. It might be so bad it’s good.
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