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The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt)

Max Wallis" Daily Aftershock Writing Prompts (The Aftershock Review)

Daily writing prompts from the raw edges of memory, survival, and creative reinvention. Each one designed to crack something open. For poets, memoirists, and anyone writing through the wreckage. aftershockpoetry.substack.com

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1:15

Day 87 - Sound Twins - One Word, Two Worlds

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/25

Yesterday’s prompt was a roaring success with a number of people sending me poems. So let’s continue down that path. Words have more than one world in them. “Still” means unmoving. But it also means still here. Still happening. “Spare” means extra, but it also means to spare someone, to wound less. “Slip” can be falling or a piece of silk.You don’t need to define the word… just hold both meanings.How can you make us shake with the double-meaning?Here’s a not-very-good-example:StillYou are still.As

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2:02

Day 86 - The Rot That Reckons In: Writing Through...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/24

The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.We often think of “wordplay” as something clever, maybe even flippant. But in poetry, it can be far more serious. Wordplay can be griefplay. It can be an exorcism. It can be a reckoning.Take the word routine. It sounds safe. Clinical. A daily procedure. But say it aloud, slowly, and you’ll begin to hear other words buried inside it:* route in — a way in, or a

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0:56

Day 85 - Write in fragments - The Daily Aftershock

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/22

Welcome to day 85 of the Daily Aftershock.Today I want you to write in fragments.I want you to actually come up with a sequence of one or two line utterances, I guess is a better way of saying it.And you could almost lean into sort of epigrams or things like that.But basically I want the poem as a whole to be fragmentary. So each individual statement is different. But as a whole, they create a poem.I don't know if that quite makes sense.I'm currently... sort of struggling with my internet, so I'm

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0:56

Day 84 - The Daily Aftershock - Write a prose poem

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/21

Write a prose poem that captures a quiet, unnoticed moment where the past makes itself known, not through memory, but through sensation and the body itself. Let the moment unfold in your body first: a flicker, a tension, a smell, a shift in light. Avoid dramatic revelation; instead, stay with the subtleties. The poem should move like a fog creeping into a familiar room.Optional guiding lines to begin with:* There are mornings the air folds around me like gauze...* I take my meds like sacraments...*

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2:25

I Am a Woman from the Tribe of Sorrow by Muzhgan Saghar

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/19

It is an honour to publish Muzhgan Saghar in this first issue of The Aftershock Review. Born in Kabul in 1977, Muzhgan fled Taliban rule in 2000 and has since made her home in Germany, where she works as a teacher. Her poetry carries the urgency of survival, the ache of exile, and the undimmed force of a voice that refuses to be silenced.This poem arrives like a flare. It speaks from the fractured edge of history, where language becomes both wound and witness. In her lines, we hear what it means to

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0:46

Day 83 - Write an obituary

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/17

Good morning, today I want you to write a poem in the style of an obituary.If you’re not already coming, we have an event at John Rylands this evening: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-aftershock-review-launch-at-john-rylands-research-institute-and-library-tickets-1415279130979?aff=oddtdtcreatorAll the bestMax This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe

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1:00

Apologies for the brief pause - hopefully back to...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/15

Hello everyone,I’ve moved into a new house and getting it renovated so there’s a delay while I get it all sorted. The good news is it should be finished soon and I’ll have a lot more time to focus back on all things Podcast etc.Max This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe

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0:49

Day 82 - Write a prayer to your... plumbing!

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/08

So, quickly, today I want you to consider writing a prayer to an object that you take advantage of / ignore because it’s an integral part of your life.For example, a slowly corroding radiator pipe.A light in the bathroom.The cooker fan.Your air-fryer.What do you wish to praise in case it decides to stop working after all these long years?Because in a sense the architecture of a place holds us. It can betray us too, of course, but it is also what keeps us able to wash or read in the dark in the first

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1:27

Day 81 - What would you rewire? What DIY task can you...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/08

I have plasterers in right now, and I had an electrician in yesterday redoing some sockets. Here’s a poem I wrote. Admittedly it wasn’t me doing the rewiring. But I also ask you - what other task can you make into a poem?Rewiringby Max WallisFirst, you kill the switch.The whole house hums a final shiver then goes quiet.Somewhere, Alexa stops mid-speech.Second, you pull back plasterunravel another’s intentions:braided wires, logic onlythey knew, tucked into a wall out of sight.Third, you stripand

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1:19

Day 80 - Write nature into love poetry - The Daily...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/06

Today I want you to write nature into love poetry. Include dialogue between two people in a setting that talks about the environment.Use my poem Crowns, published by The Rialto in January as a framework: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe

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2:06

Day 79 - Write a numerical litany - feat. Zero to Ten...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/05

Numbers often shape the contours of memory, myth, and identity. From the symbolic void of zero to the finality (or possibility) of ten, today's challenge is to explore what each digit holds for us personally, poetically, or philosophically.What do numbers mean to you? Could "three" be a trio of childhood bedrooms, "seven" a lucky escape, or "zero" the moment you felt truly free? Write your own numerical litany.Max This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get

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1:00

Day 78 - Your Renovation - The Daily Aftershock

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/04

Good morning everyone, I appreciate I’m behind on things! I’m between two houses and also organising renovation works which includes mending rotten joists beneath the floorboards in my front room, choosing carpets (or wood), and getting my new house dampproofed.Which led me to this prompt - What part of you would you change? And more importantly, what part would you not change, despite the trauma or rot it might hold?PS I finally have wifi but I am whizzing about sorting things so it might be a bit

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0:50

Day 77 - Write about the home - The Daily Aftershock

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/02

Today, write about the home.Whether that’s the home you’ve found, the home you’ve left, or the home you want.Write about the home as metaphor, or as bricks and mortar, or emotional. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aftershockpoetry.substack.com/subscribe

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2:48

Day 76 - Be loud and unapologetic (Max won Verve Poem...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/07/01

Good morning everybody!So I won VERVE Poetry’s June Poem of the Month with my poem Thinking of how many elevatorsAs they say here:Our winning poem for Poem of the Month is Thinking of how many elevators by Max Wallis which was the most loud and unapologetic entry. Beginning with thinking about intimate opportunities in private spaces of public spaces, the poem stops itself mid judgmental-thought to remind the poet and reader that their judgement is also their behaviour. This poem calls out shame and

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2:51

Day 75 - Poetry Mirrored in Red and Green: Write a...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/06/29

In life, red flags seize our attention – warnings etched in sharp attitudes and uneasy behaviours. Green flags, their subtle opposites, quietly invite trust. Today, we'll write both into being, each reflecting the other.I want you to write a duet poem, or a mirror poem, where the first poem looks at red flags, and after the major break or volta, the poem twists to show the green flags that are present in your new life.Part I: Poeticise the Red Flags1. Lean into abstraction* Distort each warning sign

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0:38

Day 74 - Grab the nearest book to you

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/06/28

The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Today is a quick one. Grab the nearest book to you, open to a random page and closing your eyes pick a random word. Do it again. Once you have seven words use them in a poem. I know it might sound silly but sometimes that’s all you need to start you off! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus

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1:30

Day 73 - Write an Acrostic Poem - The Daily Aftershock

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/06/27

Today I want you to write an acrostic poem. This is a poem where the first letters of every line spell out a word.Choose a word or phrase that holds power for you—grief, survival, home, protest, tenderness, Aftershock itself. Perhaps lean into unconventional words: WHAT THEN? for example could be more interesting from an editor’s point of view than reading the word LOVE spelled vertically.Write a poem where each line begins with a letter from your chosen word, in order.Keep it raw. Let the shape

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1:36

Day 72 - The Daily Aftershock - The Kissing Gate with...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/06/26

It's Dr Anna Percy here with a prompt for the Daily Aftershock. I'm asking you to try and find a very large piece of paper which might for you mean A4 but if you have a large drawing pad preferably unlined, that would be a good piece of paper, or stick two pieces of paper together for this prompt.So I want you to think about a kissing gate, which is a kind of gate that exists in the countryside, usually to stop animals like sheep and cows from getting from one field to another but because of the way

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1:43

Synagogue Music by Michael Horovitz

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/06/25

Editorial Note by Max WallisMichael Horovitz (1935–2021)Synagogue Music was one of Michael Horovitz’s most urgent and unflinching late poems; a lament and interrogation of inherited law, identity, and generational dissonance. The audio in this post is from a reading by his son Adam Horovitz live in Bermondsey in 2023, the poem now resonates with added force as both protest and elegy.With characteristic wordplay, rage, and compassion, Horovitz questions the rigidities of tradition and the burdens

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1:01

Day 71 - The Daily Aftershock - Write a litany for...

The Daily Aftershock (Writing Prompt) ·

2025/06/25

The Aftershock Review is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.A litany is a form of poetic repetition often used in prayer or invocation. For today’s Aftershock prompt, you’re invited to write a litany for yourself… not in supplication, but in survival. A chant. A naming. A mantra of what you’ve endured, reclaimed, or are still holding.You might begin every line with:* I am the one who...* Let me remember...* Because I

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