I love poems that originate from an obscure (to me) fact, and this wonderful poem is no exception (I admit that I am biased though—I think her poetry collection Boat Burned and the individual poems I’ve read are all fantastic).

For the first prompt, take a random/obscure fact—perhaps that it is illegal to get an elephant drunk in the city of Natchez, MS—and build a poem or story from that.

The second prompt is to use a factual statement as a title of a poem or story (“There Are No Stop Signs in Paris”) and the first line/sentence as a result (“So cars and silk-scarved women savor time like it’s theirs”) with all subsequent lines expanding upon the results with concrete details (even if there isn’t a direct correlation).

For a third prompt, use “I remembered what it meant to / call hunger mine” for your first line and go from there. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet for your inspiration. Or if you prefer, use the line for your title, still crediting the poet.

The next prompt is to write a poem or short story using the following words from the poem: “silk,” “savor,” “coast,” “lipstick,” “suitcase,” “hunger, “cost,” “flute,” “drag” and “glittering.”

Instead of the absence of signs, let’s move to descriptive (or ominous) signs.

Bonus prompt: write an ekphrastic poem or story based on one (or both) of these photos of bathroom signs.

Good luck writing! Have fun with facts today (or with signs)!