If you are keeping up with writing a poem every day this month, then congratulations. If you are like me, then perhaps we will catch up, and even if we don’t we have been writing and reading other poets, celebrating their techniques. So let’s turn to a great poet and poem to keep us motivated.

Joy Harjo’s “The Creation Story” is so lovely that I would like to dwell within some of its stanzas, although my house is also in danger of stones that I myself am throwing. I found Twila Newey’s photograph of the poem—with its burst of light at the corner—perfect.

The first prompt is more of a Mad Lib writing exercise rather than a prompt; the resulting poem will be too close to the source material for it to stand alone unless you revise significantly.

• Take the first stanza and replace “love” and “light” with your own nouns.

• For the second stanza substitute your own dependent clause for “when my entrails dangle…”

• In the third, replace “ashamed” with your own adjective and the infinitive phrase with your own.

• Keep the first line of the fourth stanza but change the rest.

• In the fifth, replace “stars” and “words” with your own nouns, choose a location other than “house” and substitute “calcium” and “blood” with your own ingredients.

• Repeat the location and list what threatens it for your sixth stanza.

• The seventh stanza is your own blessing or prayer or wish.

• The last line follows the structure but replace “transfix” and “love” with a different verb and noun.

See what you have now. If one of the stanzas seems to work for you—and you have changed the structure and the language significantly enough—use that for your first line(s). Do still give an attribution to the poet.

The second prompt is to create a list of couplets, pairs of what you either do or do not fear and unexpected consequences. Vary the wording and structure from the original but do credit the poet for your inspiration.

The third prompt is to describe what you want your words to do—to carry another through a day, to plug the hole in a levee, to prick a careless reader, what?

Good luck!