As always I am grateful for all the new poems and poets Twitter introduces me to. I too love Jacquelyn Bengfort‘s “Apple Sonnet” with its juxtaposition of sound and imagery, fruit and myth and craft.

For the first prompt, write a food poem that emphasizes its sensory associations as well as the sound of its name in the mouth. Try to include historical or mythical references.

For the second prompt, use the line “And I want to write you a poem like that:” as a ghostline. Remember to delete that line but still give credit to the poet.

For the third prompt, choose a word and compare its sound and meaning in two languages. How does the differing sound alter the feel of the word, its connotations? What remains unchanged?

The last prompt is a Mad Lib exercise and will likely create a poem too similar to the original for publication. Replace every concrete noun with another object, switch the verbs to their antonyms, and change all the similes to metaphors (delete the “like” in the comparisons). What happens?

For the last prompt, write a poem on a completely different topic from the following word list: “little,” “ruin,” “wearing,” “good,” “touch,” “winter,” “stains,” “want,” and “gone.”

Good luck with 30/30!