I was so saddened to hear about the loss of Martha Silano whose poetry is inspiring and lush world building. Her “Everything Ends” seems particularly apt.
For the first prompt, provide your own response to the factual statement that everything ends. What drives you on?
The second prompt is to write a list poem of pleasures in your life with as much sensory detail as you can. Or you can describe a moment of intense sensory pleasure in a story or poem, emphasizing its transience.
The third is to write a poem or story describing a “planet without smoke.” What is this world? What creatures would live there? How would they eat and survive? How would the cycles of destruction and rebirth occur?
For the fourth, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “sultry,” “unravel,” “pant,” “brushfire,” “floodlit,” “seaweed,” “random,” “microbe,” “sharpening” and “catch.”
Bonus prompt: write a poem or story from the perspective of either the cardinal or the bottlebrush whose leaves and branches were killed by a winter storm but will regrow after cutting. Or write whatever the photo calls to mind.
Good luck writing! Have fun!