Nature vs man (or man’s footwear), mythology, and metaphor, let’s have some fun.

For the first prompt, write a persona poem from the croc (your choice). Are you carrying your namesake to safety (or being carried), or are you displaying the trophy from your recent battle (or are the trophy)? For fun, throw in references to mythology.

For the next prompt, center the poem around another homonym pair (or multiple homonyms), such as “stalk” (follow) vs “stalk” (part of a plant) or “tire” (wheel) vs “tire” (fatigue). Or expand to heterographs (words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings), such as “bear” and “bare,” and heteronyms (words with different meanings and pronunciations but are spelled the same), such as “tear” (moisture in the eyes) and “tear” (to rip).

For the last prompt, take a famous painting such as Francisco de Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son and reimagine it with a modern photo. Write an ekphrastic poem of that photo but use the original artwork’s title.

If you need some inspiration, check out people’s recreations of famous paintings during the early stages of the pandemic here. The photo below was posted on Reddit.

Happy holidays!