Chicken Spaghetti

David Lehman mentions a poetry prompt in his intro to The Best American Poetry 2025 that intrigued me, and that is to write a short poem starting with the final line of Whitman’s “Song of Myself”: “I stop somewhere waiting for you.” Back in 2016 at the American Scholar, Lehman held a little contest with the same prompt, and I look forward to reading the winners after I come up with my own poem. (I don’t want to lift anyone’s line inadvertently!)

Please join me if you would like to. I’m planning to post a “I stop somewhere waiting for you”-inspired poem on Friday, February 20th.