the community spirit flourishes through the use of hashtags. multiple people take part as writers, but there are a lot of dedicated readers who go through the hashtags daily and like & retweet entries. so I always get some engagement on my posts, even though it’s a new account with few followers.

the steadfast dedication of the prompt writers is admirable, too. lots of people who have started their own prompts and there is a constant flush of new people who’ll help support them.

my account is here: “@soullapidary”

the daily prompts I use are hosted/managed through the following accounts.

• vss365 - prose, poetry, art, photos, music & more

• 10wordspoet - 10 word micro poem

• Acrostic Challenge - acrostic poem with vertical word theme

• Haiku Challenge - haiku

there are many more - some very specific to theme (eg. love/romance, mystery, horror) and others more specific to form. often many of the people who take part promote the various prompt accounts, so it’s rather easy to find them.

the vss365 prompt in particular is quite popular and often trends because so many people take part and it has been around for many years. it is the most varied in types of artistic expression, and probably my favourite to read through when I have time to scroll.

one of the daily prompt hosts uses the acrostic poetic form, and I’ve enjoyed it so much that I have been experimenting with it (and haiku, too!) for most of my entries.

from Wikipedia:

An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the first letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet.

at first I didn’t look it up. I instinctively saw people were using a particular word as a vertical form and just started writing. but later I realized the form actually calls for the poem to be in the theme of the word used, too. and once faced with that challenge, it became even more appealing!

here are three of my favourites:

with the word “original”:

the word “reflection”

the word “status”

I try and do at least one of the prompts per day, but usually when I sit down to do them, I often enjoy it so much that I end up doing a few.

I’m not sure why I enjoy the challenge of writing to form. honestly, there’ve been times in my life where the concept would have not only bored me to tears, but I might have even rolled my eyes at it. but it’s been great. it seems to tap into a different source of expression. and, of course, I love the instant validation that others are accessing my work immediately.

as an aside, I wonder why such a strong community feature such as hashtags is scorned by so many. people say it lacks aesthetic appeal, seems gauche, or is spammy. but to me it’s an obvious boon to unite an intentional community focus on a large open platform. and it works really well to bring new people and give them a sense of belonging almost immediately.

funny how something meant to unite people actually receives so much derision. much like how earnestness, gratitude and a positive or charitable nature can be scorned or seem “cringe” to many.

and yet, it’s actually life-affirming and ultimately connective.

sometimes I think leaning in to that which is scorned or derided by others might be the truest path to happiness.

xoxo

with love, shannon

p.s. if you’ve made it this far, I have a question. I have a LOT of short poems, but I’m not sure what to do with them. do you think I should post them here one at at time, or a bunch in one post, or do something else with them entirely? weigh in!

I was considering starting a section here entitled “formed” for these poems, and calling my other poetry section “formless”. but I’m still chewing on it.

much of the time when I write poetry, I open the twitter app or a window on my desktop, and either start by writing a post, or a DM to myself, and then transcribe. sometimes I do it in a text editor. but many of my poems come to me when I’m in bed, and I have a tablet near the bed, and so that’s what I grab. and since twitter is my go-to mode of expression, that is the app I open.

(often, if a burst of inspiration appears when on the computer, it’s because I already have a twitter window open - and I just navigate to it automatically.)

and I wrote recently, in my journal, about this process. and then, because I’m insane, I posted an excerpt from my journal to my patreon for my ‘written revelations’ patrons. there’s only one at the moment, so it’s eminently safe to do so. and that’s it’s purpose, really. to reveal my longer form writing, but in a very safe container. because otherwise I may never do it. (am I doing it now? we shall see.)

in any cas…

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I logged on the other day to see I had a “pledge” of support. I didn’t quite understand what this meant. I’d never turned on paid subscriptions here, for a whole host of reasons.

mostly I didn’t want people to have to pay to read my writing. I don’t really write in order to be rewarded with anything except perhaps for my own clarity, and more understanding of the world I live in (and the people who inhabit it).

but I’ve had these nudges lately. towards receiving. and what that means.

there’s a theme that runs through my long-form writing about unconscious contracts. I feel I’ve been subject to many of them in my life, starting in childhood. so much has been done to me in my life. people might say “without consent”. but that addendum isn’t necessary. to be done to is to control. it’s obvious in its naming. and there’s a lot to unravel if one is to try and sort this out, to heal and move forward.

to recover is to see we have a choice. a choice to acknowledge what’s done to us, (instead, I suppose, to that which is created in collaboration with us) and to respond. to recover is to see we have the ability to respond. the response-ability. and then we may practice what it means to be responsible to ourselves.

this is what is often named, but framed poorly, as self care. a few years ago I launched a project to help people learn self care. I did it anonymously & freely. I posted all sorts of ideas, inquiries, tips to taking care of oneself. I’d post inspirations to point towards this deceptively simple idea that actually evaded me, as it does so many others. the fact was: I was teaching myself how to care for myself. working it out by coming up with ideas to help illustrate the concept to others. I learned as I went. and I don’t even know how long it took for me to even realize why I was doing it.

when we are not cared for well by others, often in our formative years, we also do not know what it is to care for ourselves. for if our caregivers didn’t value us, then how we can value ourselves.

and so I set about to rectify this. and, for the most part, through trial and error, I’ve reached a place where I felt successful. and one of the components of self-care is acknowledgement of what receive from the world. we don’t entirely care for ourselves. everything we are in life is supported by a myriad of systems we often don’t even think about. I acknowledge these daily in my gratitude practice.

but I think I forgot all about the work required to accept random explicit offers of care from others. due to the unconscious contracts in my past, I find these tricky. and serendipitously this week (because I’ve been setting up a Patreon), I came to see that I can set up conscious contracts all on my own. these render the unconscious ones null & void. they don’t exist.

so all that to say: due to the pledge I received here, I’ve decided to open up “paid” subscriptions here on Substack. and what this means to me is: I’m allowing myself to receive the support & encouragement from others who freely offer it. and that’s it.

all posts will remain available to everyone who subscribes for free. if you enjoy my work and feel you want to support it, beyond likes and shares and comments (and the most important: simply reading!), you can also start a paid subscription, if you wish.

thanks to all of you for being the wind beneath my wings. I think I’ll soar now.

-with love & gratitude, Shannon