National Poetry Month – Day 10

Theme: Emotional Labor

Some people don’t just feel their own emotions. They carry rooms. They manage moods. They translate tension. Today we explore the work that happens beneath the surface.

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Prompt 1 – Who Taught You to Carry That

Write a poem about where your emotional labor started. Not just that you do it, but who or what trained you to. Was it family, survival, culture, trauma, responsibility, or expectation?

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Prompt 2 – Emotional Translator

Write a poem about interpreting what people don’t say. Reading tone, body language, silence, energy shifts. Explore what it means to understand people before they understand themselves.

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Prompt 3 – The Smile That Did Overtime

Write a poem about performing emotions that weren’t real. The laugh that covered tension. The calm that hid chaos. The version of you that made others comfortable while you carried something else.

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