I wrote Almost Unheard in response to Jaideep Khanduja’s prompt for this week’s W3 Poetry Prompt #178. As poet of the week, Jaideep invites us to write a heartbeat poem—just 12 lines, sandwiched (or book-ended) by silence.
Details of Jaideep’s prompt guidelines
Jaideep’s prompt guidelines
- Write a poem that starts and ends in silence.
- The first and last lines should directly evoke or describe silence.
- It could be the literal word silence, or imagery that suggests quietness, stillness, or absence of sound.
- The point is to frame the whole poem between two moments of silence.
- Use enjambment to sound like a heartbeat.
- Enjambment means carrying a sentence or phrase over from one line to the next without a pause.
- The short, broken flow can mimic a heartbeat: steady, pulsing, slightly uneven.
- Think of each line as a “beat” that pushes into the next one.
- Keep it to 12 lines, like 12 heartbeats.
- The entire poem is only 12 lines long.
- Each line equals one “pulse,” so the poem itself becomes a heartbeat sequence.
- The brevity forces intensity and rhythm.
- At least once, use a one-word line that makes the reader pause.
That single word should carry weight—emotionally, visually, or sonically.
Somewhere in the poem, have a line with only one word.
This acts like a pause or a sudden strong beat in the rhythm, making the reader stop and notice.
Almost Unheard
Audio – Almost Unheard
THANK YOU
Thank you, Jaideep, for your inspiring prompt.
Thank you, David, for your encouragement and for hosting the Weekly W’eave Poetry Prompts.
And thank you, dear reader, for spending time with Almost Unheard—for reading, and for listening to my first heartbeat poem.
LesleyScoble.com 
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