082: Poem + Prompt (Evan Williams)

Evan Williams

“[Beneath]”

Beneath halation,
a night sky ascends toward where
a light beneath the hole expands the whole.
We are dressed as road monks
sipping tonics of asphalt,
ladder-tongued,
leaving you access to our insides.
I live in a halo,
I say hey like a creature.

This is a previously unreleased poem by Evan Williams. You can find more of their writing right here.

Writing prompt: I really love this poem. So much is covered in just nine lines and 44 words. Using Williams’ structure as your template / starting point, write a short poem (10 lines or less) where the first few lines describe the setting. How’s the moon doing? What might the forest (or parking lot, or basement) resemble? Where can you safely (or chaotically) drop your reader as they tumble out of the sky? Then, use your next few lines to introduce a cast of characters. The “we” of the poem. What are y’all wearing? What's the mission? How are you acting? What brought you all here, today, to be inside of this poem? Then, lastly, step away from the “we” and incorporate the “I” for the first time, closing the poem with back-to-back I’s. Bonus points if you, like Williams, take the first word of your poem and use it as the title in brackets. As always, if your drafts begin to stray from these rules/confines, stray away! These are simply malleable measures to help you approach the blank page.

If you write something based on this prompt, please share it by commenting directly here or posting on socials and tagging myself (neonpajamas on all platforms) and/or Evan Williams (evansquilliams on Instagram). It’s a great day to create something new. Good luck!

While this Substack will always be free, I’d be remiss to not mention my new poetry press. Piżama Press. We launched in 2025 and our two latest releases are out now! Split / Game of Little Deaths by Réka Nyitrai and John’s Table by Lesle Lewis. Both are unique collections of (prose) poems and unlike anything else you’ll read this year. You’d be really helping a small indie press and these wonderful poets by ordering one (or both) of these books, as well as spreading the word (social media, Goodreads, local library, local bookseller). And, if you haven’t done so already, please check out last year’s inaugural release, Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi’s Disintegration Made Plain and Easy, which continues to reach new readers eager to find something strange and surreal, different and original. After all, Piżama’s mantra is “The weirder, the better.” See you next Sunday!