Sunday is a small-poem appreciation on Bluesky, and Suzanne Buffam’s “On Last Lines” is a banger.
The first prompt is to write a poem that provides writing advice or demonstrates a technique.
For the second prompt, write an essay that reflects on what you look for in a piece of writing. What do you admire or wish to improve in our own writing and why?
The third prompt is to write a short poem. Mine are usually awful, but some writers are amazing.
The last prompt is to use the line “You should never see it coming” as the title or first line of a poem or short story. Remember to credit the poet in an after statement and place the line in quotation marks or italics.
I’ve definitely experienced this while writing or, perhaps worse, writing a poem that is driving itself to the ending, a predictable “let’s-put-a big-shiny-bow-on-this-poem kind of ending. For your bonus prompt, write a poem that demonstrates this meme all the while lamenting the difficulty of finishing (anything).
Last prompt: write about a flag on end of pier and the sun setting on an empire built on rickety stilts.
Good luck.