Paper Poetry’s July Prompt Announcement
With All Due Respect
A poetry prompt of elemental importance
Update: Please be advised that the July prompt, Respect Respect, has been extended for an extra month!
The prompt is open for submissions until Thursday August 31st (UTC-10hrs, Cook Islands 11:59 pm).
I bid you, with all due respect, let’s leave our shoes by the door Yours and my work is not done Poetry will bless us, I do implore
Salutations to all our Paper Poetry friends,
It is with heartfelt gratitude and a humble twittle that I greet you. And it is with respect, that I give thanks to the bountiful planet we call home — the planet that sustains us — the planet to which we each have a duty to care and keep healthy for all who succeed us.
It is, therefore, with much appreciation that we thank those who joined us at Paper Poetry to celebrate World Environment Day with their poetic responses to Indubala Kachhawa’s June prompt : Get Your Shoes On (and do your bit for the environment).
💚 To kickstart the proceedings, I donned my gumboots and dug up Digging into Mindfulness.
💚 William J Spirdione discovered his boots weren’t quite up to the job but his heart certainly was in, These Boots Weren’t Made for Digging.
💚 Douglas Lim encouraged us all to get our boots on and clean up the planet in, The Filth We Love to Leave Behind.
💚 Thalia Dunn swore by her Birks in, Flip-Flops, Sandals, Shoes? — her story has done really well off-platform but fell in one of those Medium holes we’ve all be in at one time or another — I hope you can do your bit to dig it out of the hole. 😉
💚 Toni Crowe got her groove on — and her flip-flops — to go save the planet in, Love to Love Ya Baby.
💚 Sherry Atkinson wondered about the stories lurking in the abandoned shoe on the side of the road and appealed to our sense of duty to Be Kind to Our Mother, planet Earth. This is Sherry’s first published story in Paper Poetry. Welcome, Sherry. We’re delighted to have you join us. 💞
💚 Sinus Kosinus showed us how you don’t even need to wear shoes to appreciate Nature’s miracles — all it takes is a moth orchid flowering in your home and hey presto!, Gratitude Blooms. 😊 💚
Indubala’s prompt spotlighted our need to respect the environment by doing everything we can to protect planet Earth — everything in it, on it and around it. 💚 🌎 💙
It’s an intimate relationship we have with the natural elements, just as we have an intimate relationship with the people with whom we share our lives. Those relationships are built on respect. And that’s the theme we’re carrying forward into July-August’s prompt: respect. 🙏
Poetry Prompt: Respect Respect
To emphasize the importance of respect, we’ve done a double-up for the prompt’s title: Respect Respect.
The double dose of respect also reflects the double function of the word — respect as an active verb, and respect as an actionable noun.
I respect your need for respect.
Let’s look at what others have said about respect.
I turn first to Dwight D Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, whose statement from his farewell speech, on January 17 1961, I have, with all due respect, configured into a free verse poem -
Down the long lane of history yet to be written America knows this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Jack (Jackie) Roosevelt Robinson (1919–1974), the first African American to play in Major League Baseball, and an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement, spoke of respect being integral to human rights and equality —
I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being. Jackie Robinson
Contemporary music legend, Taylor Swift expands on the theme of respect when she says -
My parents taught me never to judge others based on who they love, what color their skin is, or their religion. Why make life miserable for someone when you could be using your energy for good? We don’t need to share the same opinions as others, but we need to be respectful. When you hear people making hateful comments, stand up to them. Point out what a waste it is to hate, and you could open their eyes. Taylor Swift
Respect — it says a lot about the person who actively chooses respect — of self, of others, of all things.
For the months of July and August, we’re inviting you to poetically explore the theme of respect.
- What does respect mean to you — as a feeling, an action, a value?
- How does respect manifest in your life and of those around you?
- What is it about respect that makes it such a vital ingredient to happiness and prosperity?
- What happens when respect is lost?
Look at respect from every possible angle and tell us in a poem what resonates with you the most.
Submission Details
Theme: Respect
Form: any form of poetry will be accepted Please note: only authentically written poetry will be accepted. The editors of Paper Poetry reserve the right to reject any submissions that are seen to be AI-generated with or without disclosure.
Word/line limit: no restrictions
Title/subtitle/kicker: please use ‘Respect Respect’ as the kicker; your choice of title and subtitle
Tags: please use the ‘Respect Respect’ tag when submitting your story
Images: maximum two images Please note: as a mandatory requirement, at least one of your images must incorporate a handwritten/handcrafted element in either paper or digital format in accordance with Paper Poetry’s submission guidelines. Suggestions: a handwritten segment of your story, a decorative title, an illustration that depicts an aspect of your story, a digitally enhanced photo (free-to-use or personal) that relates to your story. AI-generated images are acceptable providing you include your source link as evidence in the caption or explain how the image was derived. Please refer to Paper Poetry’s homepage for more examples.
Extensions: please include a promotional link to this prompt and invite (@ handle tag) up to five other writers to join the prompt.
Submission period: Saturday, July 1 (UTC-10hrs, Cook Islands 12:00am) — Thursday, August 31 (UTC-10hrs, Cook Islands 11:59 pm)
We welcome new writers to join the prompt. Please leave a comment requesting to be added as a writer and include your Medium @ handle; or email us at [email protected]
Respectfully,
