Let’s celebrate another year with rising infection rates and denial because 2020 just won’t leave the building. Or at least try to write.

I love the poet’s parody of William Carlos Williams and the personification of the virus. For more information on Amber Sparks’ writing and events, check out the website.

While many people are justifiably tired of the pandemic and the resulting poems, go ahead write another because most of us have at least a few my-ex-is-an-ass poems. Add another.

For the first prompt, write a persona poem on anything related to the pandemic: isolation, grief, loss, masks, particular phrases or statistics. I will never forget how powerfully Patricia Smith’s personification of Hurricane Katrina in her Blood Dazzler affected me.

For the second prompt, write your own version of “This Is Just To Say.” I thoroughly enjoyed that not-too-distant viral spate of its parodies on Twitter.

For the next prompt, write an epistolary poem (a poem written as a letter) to a lover. What tone do you choose?

For the last prompt, write a hopeful poem about the coming year. Focus on the light reflecting on the water, tree leaning over the rock as if to whisper an endearment. Never mind the skull spray painted on the rock. It’s a poem for the light and water and the rustle of leaves.