Once again I am turning to poems shared on Twitter for prompts in spite of all the wonderful books of poetry I have at home (too lazy to take a picture, I guess). Btw, I enjoy following Jay Hulme who shares so many great poems.

I love the shift between each of the sections in “There is a gold light in certain old paintings.” For the first prompt, take a fragment from three of your older, unfinished poems that you never could make work and build a new poem. You might find it helpful to cut up these poems in separate stanzas. Mix and match these various stanzas to see what connects.

For the next prompt, experiment with repetition. Notice how each of the stanzas repeats the last word for the second and fourth lines and the ending couplets. Generally, I follow the rule of three I learned in Eric Morago’s workshop in which a word used twice is perhaps a mistake but three times is obviously deliberate and therefore a technique. It may help to create a word list. For a fascinating discussion on the form and the connections in this poem, read Mary Margaret Alvarado’s article in the Kenyon Review.

For the second prompt, make a list of loved ones you have lost and a second list of what you find beautiful. Write a poem using any items from the second list that spark with who you’ve lost from the first.

For a third prompt, write what Orpheus sang.

For the final prompt, write a poem or story that is drenched in gold, whether light or wealth, but let that color dominate the setting or theme.

Have fun writing!