What Should Break a Heart—Prompts Inspired by Brian Turner

Many years ago I was able to meet Brian Turner at a conference. I had just read his Here, Bullet and was telling a vendor how much I loved it when he walked up. He was so kind to me. I want to share his poem because it tells the deepest truth, and the photo it is paired with should break our heart.

For the first prompt, write a one-sentence poem that builds up to a devastating statement. (Yes, I know, I am giving you a Follow that! here)

The second prompt is to the line “you carry in your fists, my friend” for a ghostline. After you’ve finished the poem or story, erase the line and credit the poet.

For the third, write an epistolary poem offering advice with the direct address near the end.

The next is to write a poem or story using the following list of words: “shake,” “desert,” “irrevocable,” “seared,” “adrenaline,” “muscle,” “crackling,” “down,” “fists” and “break.”

Bonus prompt: write about ice breaking and thawing into spring or whatever this photo from northern Minnesota inspires.

Good luck writing.

Topical—Prompts Inspired by Isaac Pickell

Sorry, everyone, for the long delay. Once I missed a couple of weeks due to the holidays and a new job, I just couldn’t get myself writing again, the blog or poetry. I have been in a bad headspace in spite of such beautiful poems to discuss.

I had the fortune to run across Isaac Pickell’s powerful poem “Settle/ment” online and have loved everything I’ve read since. He kindly sent me “They took Dylan Roof to Burger King” and “Topical poetry when you are the topic” to share here.

I now have two more books to add to my ever-expanding to-read list (a wonderful problem to have): everything saved will be last (https://blacklawrencepress.com/books/everything-saved-will-be-last/) and It’s Not Over Once You Figure It Out (https://www.blackocean.org/catalog1/its-not-over). You will likely see one of them featured in September for the Sealey Challenge.

I admire poems that are honest and acknowledge the complexities of identity, of who is targeted and the collective response. This poem was posted after the Bondi Beach attack in Australia. After every reported mass shooting—most are no longer “newsworthy” here—I too pray that it will be a white man with well-known rightwing views so that an entire group of people will not be smeared and their safety further threatened. For the first prompt, write about reactions to targeted violence and which voices are heard.

The poem opens with the reference to the famous poem “First They Came.” For the next prompt, write who you will speak out for and who will speak out for you.

I found the poem’s deliberate shift of pronouns powerful. The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of pronouns and other words: “everyone,” “target,” “universal,” “fear,” “threat,” “right,” “mine,” “my,” “they,” “mourning” and “you.”

For the next prompt, use the last lines “Don’t worry / they won’t come for you” as a ghostline, remembering to erase the line after writing your poem or story and crediting the poet for your inspiration with an after statement or in the title.

Often what is left unsaid in a poem echoes in the spaces and after the last line. For this first prompt, ask a question within the story or poem but leave the reader to answer it.

Because I admire the careful use of language in both poems, the next prompt is again a word list: “topical,” “sorrow,” “steeping,” “wait,” “innocence,” “ashes,” “whisper,” “deserve” and “true.”

The last prompt is another repeat: a ghostline. Begin a poem or story with “don’t / tell me how to” but fill in your own action. Remember to delete the line and credit the poet. This prompt I admit is my own reaction to years of obedience before rejection.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo from New Orleans’ Audubon Riverview Park inspires.

Good luck writing. I hope I have finally broken through my own block. I hope this year is a productive one (and better than it began).

The Museums Within—Prompts Inspired by Nikita Gill

Nikita Gill’s “When You Asked Me If I Still Think of You” is such a tender reaction to the loss and grief we all must experience. It is one of the poems to reach for after the initial shock passes.

For the first prompt, build a museum within your body for those you love. Perhaps one exhibit is found within the shell of your ear for the lover you spent a summer with at the beach and whose voice you hear within the waves.

One of the most difficult losses is that special language that lovers and best friends share, the inside jokes and catch phrases that only make sense with that person. For the second prompt, start with one of those remembered phrases and translate it for someone now in your life.

I love how the line “Who can I tell about it when all the vowels are you” conveys the devastation and isolation from loss. The third prompt is to imagine a language in which a specific letter (rather than all vowels) represents the person now gone from your life; write a poem or story about that lost letter without ever using that letter or naming it.

The next prompt is to create a story or poem using the followIng list of words: “herringbone,” “exoskeleton,” “crumbles,” “wreckage,” “sea,” “panic,” “shadow,” “shape,” “truth,” and “hearts.”

For the last prompt, use the phrase “I still say your name even if” as a ghostline. After you’ve finished the poem or story, remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

Bonus prompt: write a story or poem about who sits in this chair.

Good luck writing!

Gratitude—Prompts Inspired by Naomi Shihab Nye

Thanksgiving is my least favorite holiday with its whitewashed, ahistorical propaganda and past family drama, but a national holiday of gratitude is a lovely idea, if honesty were allowed. I find Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Gratitude List” a palate cleanser to the holiday’s usual saccharine humblebrag and rancid xenophobia.

For the first prompt, write two lists, one a list of favorite foods and the other a list of insults or losses you’ve endured. Mix and match these lists to see what sparks for a poem or story or essay.

The second prompt is write a list poem of hard-fought gratitudes: “the one who got away” but now without regret, the swallowed recriminations that long passed out of you, the rejection that pushed you onward.

The third is to write a poem or story using the following word list: “worth,” “power,” “forgotten,” “wider,” “weaponized,” “worst,” “time,” “lemons,” “raw” and “salted.”

The last prompt is to spend ten minutes or so remembering people who have mentored, inspired, comforted and helped you and describe a perfect moment in your life all the while imagining them as your audience. What would you like for them to experience; what would you give them?

Bonus prompt: I sometimes prefer images that blurred or abstracted in some way. Write whatever this photo brings or mind, or describe a scene obscured by rain or shadows or glaring light.

Good luck writing. Have fun.

Building Blocks—Prompts Inspired by Ruth Stone

The title of this poem is a question that can never definitively be answered but how beautifully Ruth Stone does answer it here. Notice how she makes poetry—its structure and the very language—physical: the “building blocks” of stanzas, the feel of words and letters in the mouth, the leaves on the trees and on the ground.

For the first prompt, write your own answer to the poem’s title.

The second prompt is to imagine each stanza or a poem’s overall structure as a brick or building and the resulting universe each one creates. Walk your readers through these spaces, the foundations spanning centuries and languages.

The third prompt is to make the alphabet physical, its feel in the mouth or its sound (perhaps like the rustling of leaves), or its appearance on the page as the driving force in a poem or story.

The last prompt is to build a poem or story from the following list of words: “slight,” “pressure,” “teeth,” “transparent,” “ochre,”“sisters,” “ground,” “handful,” “blocks” and “invent.”

Bonus prompt: Write whatever this photograph (taken years ago with the now defunct app PaperCamera).

Good luck writing and building. Have fun!

The Bells—Prompts Inspired by Victoria Chang

Yes, I am posting another gorgeous poem by Victoria Chang, one that the Litbowl account rightly notes builds to an epic last line. Ooof.

For the first prompt, write your own (or a character’s) changing aspirations through the stages of life.

The second prompt is to make the landscape an active participant, providing plants or doors or street signs with sentience and agency in your poem, story or essay.

The third is to use “Bells have begun to notice me” for a ghostline, erasing the line after finishing your poem or story and crediting the poet.

For the last, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “passing,” “romance,” “bearable,” “frightened,” “question,” “noises,” “daytime,” “bells” and “notice.”

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photograph inspires or write a poem or story that gives an individual voice to each of these bells.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Falling and Other Aspirations—Prompts Inspired by Jordan Sanderson

When I first began writing poems again, my early ones often had the feeling of falling when I wrote them. I miss that early response. I was able to regain it from “Falling Man” in Jordan Sanderson’s Abattoir, which a friend lent me.

The first prompt is from the cover: write about the objects, useful or otherwise, that someone would find in your purse or backpack, nightstand, the kitchen drawer or other so-called junk drawer. Weave a story or essay around those objects.

The first prompt from the poem is to write about waiting below the Earth’s edge. What would you catch?

The second is to use “He envied the water at Niagara, how it never had to stop falling” as a ghostline, remembering to erase the line after you’ve finished the story or poem and crediting the poet for your inspiration.

For the third, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “rung,” “balcony,” “intentions,” ”Niagara,” “fog,” “guzzled,” “tumble,” “railing,” “sprout” and “waiting.”

The last prompt is to use the format of the statement “He tried carelessness, but he was careful in his carelessness,” substituting carelessness and careful with your own antonyms and building a poem from it.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this image of a waterfall in Idaho inspires.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Halloween—Prompts Inspired by Stacy Gnall

Finally getting over a cold, I am posting this Halloween prompt at the last moment. I am once again returning to an early favorite poetry collection: Stacy Gnall’s Heart First into the Forest.

As a former and always Midwesterner, I love this poem, its envy and awe, its challenge.

For the first prompt, begin writing about water and night and end the story or poem on a challenge.

The second prompt is to use “I’ll dress as a hand-held mirror for you” for a title and reflect images of a lover in yourself or surroundings. Remember to credit the poet in an after statement, as part of the title or through some other indicator.

For the third, write an essay, poem or story about what water is for you and your home, its heavy presence in the throat and across the nape or perhaps its aching absence in chapped lips and dusty roads.

The next prompt is to write a poem or story from the following words: “applause,” “narcissistic” “scrawled,” “hand-held,” “x-ray,” “costume,” “sheet,” “séance,” “seaweed” and “bully.”

The final prompt is to start a poem or story with the line “and this thought raises my soul as by séance” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet for your inspiration.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo of Brunswick Lake Peninsula in Ohio inspires.

Final bonus prompt: write about waking to see this shadow below you.

Good luck writing! Have fun tonight!

Claw—Prompts Inspired by Ankh Spice

Tonight let’s tell stories in whatever form you want: verse or prose or hybrid forms, anything that will immediately pull a reader in as Ankh Spice’s poem did me.

For the first prompt, tell a story about an arcade or childhood game in which you change all the rules.

The second prompt is to imagine how you were chosen for your current life, by whom or what, or perhaps the life you live pulls you on like a favorite pair of jeans, folds around you like an origami bird or plucked you randomly from a hat.

For the third prompt, make a story or poem using the following list of words: “unearthed,” “marrow,” “tenderfoot,” “clotted,” “chosen,” “sifting,” “fortune,” “growl,” “rounding” and “claw.”

The last prompt is to write about childhood treasures and the process of and uncovering and sifting in an essay, poem or story.

This post seems to fit well with the previous prompts. I particularly like the description in the Alt text:

Here is something I found in my parents’ yard on a visit, and it weirdly seems to have a similar shape to the stuffed animal the dog hid.

Bonus prompt: write anything that the photos above inspired or write about anything you have uncovered and why it was hidden.

Extra bonus prompt: write about a zombie attack or whatever this doll planning to do to the green bear (the pumpkin seems to know something is up).

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Relativity—Prompts Inspired by Susan L. Leary

Words have so many meanings, layered and even obscuring or contradicting one another; some meanings are recorded definitions but others private associations. For me, “contentment” contains satisfaction, yes, but also peace and a quiet joy, not limitation nor smug self-satisfaction; it is entirely positive. Susan Leary’s poem “Clean” first uses “clean” with laundry and then to less simple meanings, building a poem around its connotations and associations for her and her relationship to her brother. It is beautiful and generous.

For the first prompt, choose a common word that has deep significance for you, using the word as the title and layering images to invoke its multiple meanings and finally ending on the word. This prompt can work for a poem, essay or even a short story.

The second prompt is to begin a poem or story with a call, not necessarily about a death or an emergency, but one that galvanizes the subsequent actions or reflections.

The third is to write a story or poem using the following list of words: “call,” “house,” “standing,” “couch,” “fatigue,” “stretched,” “shovels,” “summery,” “ocean” and “clean.” Try to switch the usage from noun to verb or vice versa.

Another prompt is to use the phrase “while it seems so symbolic, it’s all rather simple” as a ghostline, remembering to erase the line after you’ve finished the poem and to give credit to the poet.

For the final prompt, write a series of explanations as a Rube Goldberg machine of cause and effect. If you want musical accompaniment or just want to watch a fun Rube Goldberg Machine, here is Okay Go’s “This Too Shall Pass”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w.

For a bonus prompt, use the following Venn diagram to inspire a poem or story. Or find another or, please, create your own and share:

Final bonus prompt: write whatever this photo of the beach at San Clemente inspires.

Good luck writing and have fun reading.

Explicit—Prompts Inspired by Paul Celan

I am amazed by poets who can do so much with so few words (and of course by Paul Celan in general). I am sad that this poem is so relevant today in the US.

Btw, National Poetry Day is celebrated in UK on the first Thursday in October.

For the first prompt, begin with an image for the title that serves as a metaphor for which the essay, story or poem will expand upon.

The second prompt is to use the first line “What times are these” as a ghostline, erasing the line after the poem is complete and crediting the poet for your inspiration, or use the line as your title but still giving credit to Celan

The third poem is to write about what actions are now deemed crimes (in spite of established laws and previous norms) and what crimes by the state are now allowed. Make explicit what has happened here and elsewhere. Be as blunt as you need in a first draft after which you can decide—perhaps a few days later or weeks—what to cut. I believe there is a place for rage and stark protest as well as more oblique resistance to fascism and authoritarianism.

For the fourth, write about the transition from dog whistle to bullhorn, making the objects themselves shift and adapt.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo inspires.

Second bonus prompt (also from Kōke’e State Park): translate the shape of this lichen as if it were a word or message from one of its component organisms to another or from this symbiotic colony to us humans.

Good luck writing.

Anaphora and Epiphora with Pedro Iniguez

Social media is rotting our brains, but it does give us a way to discover and share great writing. At least we will be lyrical in the looming apocalypse.

I love how this poems uses anaphora and epiphora (or epistrophe) to build depth and power from modern, everyday language. This repetition along with assonance, consonance, and actual rhymes throughout provide rhythm and momentum.

For the first prompt, let’s borrow the poet’s structure: build a poem of eight lines in which the first four lines share the same beginning phrase (anaphora), a fifth line that provides the shift into epiphora. Note that the poem alternates words in the repeated phrases. These slight changes can function to deepen meaning: the “we” and the “they” of their bodies. I take the last line to mean that the Mexican people nourish the Earth while alive and after death, connecting back to the title. What may work best is to structure the first half as a problem or question and the second half as the solution, answer or a rebuttal.

The second prompt is to build a poem or story using binary oppositions (life/death, mind/body, Earth/space or others such as light/dark, male/female, young/old, spring/fall, temporary/eternal, etc.) only to blur those categories. You can break down those categories in the very title as the poet did or gradually complicate their boundary. This focus on binary oppositions could seem outdated, so maybe pair the structure with modern and conversational language and syntax.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of words: “afford,” “corpses,” “scrape,” “age,” “minds,” “clear,” “repair,” “bones,”“corrode” and “nourish.”

The last prompt is to write an essay, poem or story on the looming, or perhaps existing, “digital hell.”

Bonus prompt from Todd Dillard:

And a final bonus prompt since it seems like cheating to use someone else’s prompt: find beauty in the breakdown or write whatever this photo inspires.

Good luck writing. Find joy where you can.

Building to a Fall—Prompts Inspired by Emma Bolden

I admit I fangirl Emma Bolden’s writing, so it will be no surprise I am sharing another poem of hers. I love the imagery and precise control of sound, the depth within the often conversational tone, the unexpected turns, the ending.

If you would like to read the recent issue of Whale Road Review, a fabulous journal, here is the link: https://www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-40-fall-2025/

For the first prompt, write a list poem of the lies your body tells, or write a story or essay if you prefer.

The second prompt is to replace the last word with your own and build a story, poem or essay around the line “I’ve never/known a verb more terrible, more gorgeous than to,” remembering to erase that line afterwards and credit the poet in your title or with “After Emma Bolden.”

The third is to use the language and imagery of structures—buildings, bridges, cities, institutions, family relationships, etc.—and then show them breaking.

The next is a writing exercise: rewrite the poem replacing all the nouns and verbs with your own. If you find a line you like, use that for a starting point for a poem or story.

For the last, write a story or poem using the following word list: “centered,” “clot,” “sharpen,” “eye,” “translation,” “shelter,” “blank,” “shutter,” “bud” and “smooth.”

Bonus prompt: write about whatever this photo of a fake medieval castle built in the 1920s inspires, or if you need something more direct, write about the ocean looking in onto this courtyard and what it thinks about the invention of time.

Good luck writing and living during this fall.

Layers—Prompts Inspired by Melissa Eleftherion

I love the complexity described here—how tactile the lifeforms, the fossilized remains and rocks—all exposed by the fog and by the waves’ ceaseless movements.

For the first prompt, begin with an uncovering of a scene. You could perhaps describe a crowd appearing as a train moves past, or a narrator’s view around the curve of a path or river bend or looking down from a balcony upon a parade. How do humans, wildlife, and the environment interact. Try to move the focus as you would a camera.

The second prompt is to build a poem, story or essay around indehiscent fruits that do not split open to release seeds, about the waiting potential and possibility.

For the third, is to use the last line, “what emerges from such care,” as the ghostline for your own story or poem, remembering to erase the line and credit the poet in an after statement or the title.

For the next prompt, write a story or poem using the following list of words: “cling,” “retreats,” “scars,” “rigor,” “nacreous” “fissure,” “tidal,” “index,” “coax,” “decay,” “tether” and “emerges.”

Bonus prompt: Write about the layering and interaction of the wishes from these pennies in their watery environment.

Good luck writing.

Physics Puzzles—Prompts inspired by Sharon Olds

I love this poem by Sharon Olds: how it progresses from a young child’s simple puzzle to a complex physics problem as the child herself progressed and how it connects the physics example to the mother-daughter role and then upends the expectation.

For the first prompt, open by describing the physical action of a game or child’s activity, connecting it to a specific memory either from your own childhood or from parenthood. See where it takes you in a poem, story or essay.

The second prompt is to use a scientific theory or concept as a metaphor for a human relationship or interaction.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of words: “pieces,” “flush,” “frames,” “wooden,” “groan,” “scarlet,” “gaps,” “rung,” “hum” and “grown.”

For the next prompt, use the line “I have not grown up yet, I have lived” as a jumping off point, finishing however you would. After deleting the line (or kept in with italics or quotation marks), give the poet credit for inspiration.

The last prompt is either begin or end with the line “I have not been born yet” in a poem or story, again remembering the poet.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo of butterflies crowding around a wasp trap for a drink.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Sealey Challenge—Prompts Inspired by Yusuf Komunyakaa

For the last day of the Sealey Challenge, I am ending on a poem from the great poet Yusuf Komunyakaa. He visited my college, and I have never forgotten the beauty of his poetry or kindness towards students, including my awkward not-yet-a-writer self. I have kept that sense of awe and gratitude all these years.

As you can see, I borrowed this book from the library. While I want more books of his for my own home, I want to keep poetry valued in library systems. I would like to see more poetry collections there and in bookstores and more poetry readers and writers everywhere.

For the first prompt, write about a material good or product, referencing its origin (whether by plant or creature or both) and connecting it to the narrator or yourself in an essay, story or poem.

The second prompt is to use “Humans crave immortality, but oh,” as your starting point for a story or poem. You can erase the line as you would for a ghostline or indicate through punctuation or italics that the line isn’t your own; either way, remember to give credit to the poet.

For the third, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “perfume,” “iron,” “pagoda,” “trails,” “radiance,” “flounce,” “crave, “leaves,” “wove” and “world.”

Bonus prompt, write whatever this image inspires, although I wish the photo could convey the sweetness of its scent.

Good luck writing and have fun reading!

Sealey Challenge—Prompts Inspired by Shira Dentz

I was fortunate to get to hear Shira Dentz read at the New Orleans Poetry Festival. I had seen her poems online but hearing her read and the discussion about her poems afterward was a treat. Despite the stacks of books I’ve yet to read, I bought her Sisyphusina, and it is opening up new directions for me. It is a book that I will need to read slowly and repeatedly access all of its layers.

For the first prompt, write a poem in four stanzas with each preceding stanza setting up the next—the loaded in the first becoming the loaded gun in the second.

The second prompt is to describe in a story or poem or essay what this “new season” of wind would be: where and when does it reside?

For the third prompt, write a story or poem using the following word list: “sand,” “loaded,” “vista,” “static,“ “wind,” “fall,” “crawls,” “iron,” “tool” “branches,” and “marrow.”

The last prompt is to write a poem that is in conversation with another poem as this one is with Emily Dickinson’s “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” (https://americanliterature.com/author/emily-dickinson/poem/my-life-had-stood-a-loaded-gun).

Bonus prompt: Write from the perspective of predator or prey and then switch midway.

Good luck writing! Have fun reading!

Sealey Challenge—Prompts Inspired by Clint Smith

While the challenge is usually to read new books for August, it is also good to go back and reread great books, such as this one by the great writer Clint Smith. I find more to learn and to admire in each reading. If you want to read his essays and buy his books, please check out his website, https://www.clintsmithiii.com.

For the first prompt, write about your own playground experiences and connect them to your life now in a poem or essay.

The second prompt is to write an elegy for your childhood innocence or a parent’s regret.

For the third, write about a world in which raised hands lead to answers, to another hand pulling them to safety, to life for all hands.

The last prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of words from “Playground Elegy”: “slide,” “hold,” “gravity,” “weight,” “ripple,” “defiance,” “answer,” “growing,” “raised” and “live.”

Bonus prompt: write about flight and safe landing.

Good luck. Have fun reading and writing this month!

I forgot August is the Sealey Challenge—Prompts Inspired by Han VanderHart

Time once again has raced past me, and I forgot to post about the Sealey Challenge. Wonderful poet Nicole Sealey created the challenge to read thirty poetry collections or chapbooks this month. It is a great time to get book recommendations and share your favorite books with other readers. You can find more information and ways to participate on the website, https://www.thesealeychallenge.com/. You can also get great recommendations on the site: https://www.thesealeychallenge.com/start-here

My recommendation is Han VanderHart’s What Pecan Light. I’ve just begun and so far love it (not surprising since I have loved everything I’ve seen online).

For the first prompt, fill in the line “What are we for but to make a terrible” with your own noun and answer it yourself. Make sure to credit the poet and indicate the direct quotation.

The second is to write about the sounds of wildlife around your childhood home in a poem, story or essay. What sounds bring you back no matter how far away you’ve traveled?

The third is to write a poem or story using the following word list: “locusts,” “cadence,” “whirr,” “crept,” “retreated,” “notes,” “angles,” “pines,” “beats” and “silence.”

For another prompt, try to describe silence without using that word or its adjective or adverb forms.

The last prompt is to choose a poetry collections or chapbook and write a poem, story, or essay in response.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this image brings to mind (and yes, I know I shouldn’t have centered the flower but I like the photo as is).

Have fun writing and reading. Good luck.

“Who will come flying”—Prompts Inspired by Lucille Clifton

Poets sharing poets is beautiful, and I am collecting all the moments of candlelight to brighten these stormy days. I have shared Lucille Clifton poems before, but this one is new to me too, and I find all three poets here delightful, though the poem itself is one of pain.

For the first prompt, write an epistolary poem addressed to a superhero or god or anyone who you wish could rescue from one moment in your life.

The second prompt is to make a list of five superheroes—or villains if you prefer—five foods/drinks and five seats or rooms in your house or yard. Mix and match to see which items spark with those from the other two lists. Invite them into your home in a poem or story. What will you offer for a drink or a meal, where would you have them sit, and when—if ever—would you ask them to leave.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following word list: “darkest,” “voice,” “apart,” “ice,” “blessing,” “furniture,” “imploding,” “web,” “flying” and “buildings.”

For the next, write about your life now or childhood memories but pull in a pop culture reference however you like. Ground this inclusion with specific details.

For the last, build a poem or story using the “if should” as an anaphora.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo inspires.

Good luck writing. Have fun.