Poetry & wordplay21 categories
Cut this poem to half its length
You suspect the poem is buried inside a longer draft.
Cut the poem below to roughly half its current length. Method: 1. Mark every line that repeats something an earlier line already established. 2. Mark every line of scaffolding: setup, transition, explanation of an image that stands on its own. 3. Mark the lines that would survive if the poem had to be eight lines. These are the spine. 4. Produce the cut version, keeping the spine and as little else as holds it together. Then list what you removed, grouped by reason, and flag the two cuts you are least sure about so I can argue with you. Do not add new words. Rearrangement is allowed. Minor adjustments to connective tissue are allowed if you say what you changed. Poem:
Making it yours
- Paste your own material where the prompt asks for it. Everything above that line is instruction, not content.
- Delete any rule that does not apply to you. A shorter prompt that fits beats a thorough one that does not.
- If the answer comes back vague, add a line saying what you do not want. Constraints work better than encouragement.
Finishing a poem. Cutting, ending, titling, and the last decisions before you call a draft done.
Related prompts
Break this form on purpose, in one placeA formal poem feels too neat and you want a deliberate fracture.Twenty titles for a finished poemThe poem is done and "Untitled" is not going to cut it.Stop the poem tying itself into a bowThe last two lines explain the poem instead of ending it.Ten titles for this poemThe poem is finished and Untitled will not do.Cut this poem in halfYou suspect a shorter poem is buried in the draft.Does this ending earn itself?The last few lines might be explaining the poem instead of ending it.
Keep this one
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