Anaphora

Today’s (optional) prompt asks you to write a poem of at least ten lines in which each line begins with the same word (e.g., “Because,” “Forget,” “Not,” “If”). This technique of beginning multiple lines with the same word or phrase is called anaphora, and has long been used to give poems a driving rhythm and/or a sense of puzzlebox mystery. To give you more context, here’s an essay by Rebecca Hazelton on her students’ “adventures in anaphora,” and a contemporary poem that uses anaphora to great effect: Layli Long Soldier’s “Whereas.”

Enough philosophizing
Enough promises
Enough legislation
Enough election campaigns
Enough team meetings
Enough project plans
Enough money
Enough people forced to sleep on the street
Enough carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
Enough rubbish in the rivers
Enough oil and peat and coal taken from the ground
Enough wind
Enough sunlight
Enough waves
Enough is enough