Call a Priest! 

Creating a Cursed (Alive) Poem

The Challenge

This poem does not want to be written.

It knows it is being created.

It knows it is being read.

It does not like this.

This challenge asks you to write a **metapoem ** (a poem that is aware of itself). But this is no ordinary self-aware poem. This poem is alive, and it is cursed.

Maybe it is a poem that argues with you as you write it.

Maybe it is a poem that changes shape the more it is read.

Maybe it is a poem that begs the reader to stop before something terrible happens.

However you write it, this poem should break the fourth wall—and maybe a few others.

Guidelines

• The poem must acknowledge its own existence. It is aware it is being written or read.

• It must resist, shift, or react. Maybe the poem changes its own form, fights back, or rewrites itself.

• It must create unease. The reader should feel like something is… off.

• You can use formatting, repetition, missing words, or strange gaps to make the poem feel unstable.

Questions to Consider While Writing

• Does the poem speak directly to the reader? Does it warn them, taunt them, or beg them to stop?

• Does the poem change itself mid-way—shifting tone, form, or logic as if it were glitching?

• What happens if the poem is read aloud? What happens if it is unfinished?

Model Works & Inspiration

Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves – A book that rearranges itself as you read.

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven – A poem that builds dread through repetition.

Postmodern Poetry – Self-aware, playful, and unsettling works that question the nature of the text itself.