The process and practice of writing are more important than creating a poem to publish. If you are blocked and just need to practice, choose a poem you love and write your own version of it. This can be a serious attempt or a parody version. Either way what you create is likely too similar to the original to publish.

I know I have done this prompt before (with “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams), but this next one is based on Laura Gilpin’s “The Two-Headed Calf” from her collection The Hocus-Pocus of the Universe.

I love Todd Dillard’s take on Gilpin’s poem.

For your first prompt, take the structure of Gilpin’s poem and replace the calf with another animal. Who would find the creature and where? How would the world appear to this creature, and how would the world respond to it?

For the next prompt, choose a poem that resonates with you. Adapt it to your perspective. How does your poem differ from the original? What can you characterize about your own “voice” or style?

Bonus prompt: write a poem that for the model and its data or simply an ode to the creature.