What Is a Sonnet or a Poem?—Prompts Inspired by Diane Seuss and Gatekeeping Trolls

Sorry for the delay but a busy week and a head full of fluff. So this post is in response to Twitter drama in which a poet who has elected herself gatekeeper for what is a sonnet or a poem directly attacked Diane Seuss for attention. I doubt I could respond as gracefully and as kindly as Diane Seuss did. Btw, her critic is also the same poet who proclaims erasures and centos are not poems, so while this poet is someone to ignore, asking what makes a poem a poem or a sonnet a sonnet is a good exercise for poets.

While the individual answers differ among poets and readers, most people know what a poem is even if they do not have specific criteria—perhaps it is density of language, rhythm (even if rhyme and meter aren’t needed for most people now) or simply a sense of awe or wonder from reading it. For me, adherence to a form or to accepted conventions is less important than the sense of wonder or surprise created in the reading or hearing of it. There are some poems that are fit all the requirements but are forgettable and others that push the boundaries in such a way that I don’t care if it is technically prose or poetry, I am lost in the world it created. What are your requirements or characteristics a piece of writing must have before you consider it a poem? Do you use the requirements/ingredients when you edit?

Some people have stricter requirements for a sonnet—must be fourteen lines in iambic pentameter in the Shakespearean or Italian/Petrarchan form. Contemporary poets such as Seuss and Terrence Hayes have moved the sonnet into new directs. Other poets, such as Donna Hilbert, have poems that feel like sonnets to me even though they do not consider them as such.

Note that the poem above has fourteen lines but certainly doesn’t follow the classical form. For many modern writers, the key requirement is the volta, or turn, in the poem. For me, there is such a turn in the poem where the narrator says, “what’s to be sad about” and then explains the reasons for sadness. I think on a quick, careless read, this poem could seem stream of consciousness without much craft (as described by another sour-ass gatekeeper), but the language is deliberate, with a thread running throughout and repetition carefully used. I have to admit I am biased though: reading Diane Seuss and getting to hear her read aloud brings me joy. I heartily recommend Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl and frank: sonnets and plan to read her earlier collections.

For the first prompt, decide is required for a sonnet and write your own. Decide if you want to go full Petrarchan or modernize the form for yourself.

The second prompt is to write a poem to illustrating what “done for good” means to you.

The third prompt is to write about a “sad day / though not a tragic day.” Let the poem or story build from minor or not-so-minor inconveniences to what underlies most sorrow for you (or humanity in general) but overall keeping the specifics in.

The last prompt is to write a story or poem (a lament?) from the perspective of the taxidermied bear.

Bonus prompt: write about the real Elvis joining this group or what makes Elvis real as an archetype.

And just because I like this photo and the memory of that day with Don and my parents, here is a picture of a canal.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Gratitude—Prompts Inspired by W. S. Merwin

I am awed by this praise poem by W. S. Merwin. I have not learned to adapt to the tragedies, the injustices and sorrows of life and certainly cannot feel gratitude for them. Perhaps it is enough to feel grateful for the small kindnesses, to smile at strangers on the street and at doors, to wave at a car that lets me in onto a busy road, to thank people during our brief interactions, and to mean it when I say, “Have a good day.” Or perhaps these small courtesies simply allow us to sink deeper with a smile.

For the first prompt, make your own praise poem of resentments, fears regrets and tragedies, thanking each one. Remember to give credit to the poet for your inspiration.

The next prompt is to take one tragedy or hurt in your life and see it through the perspective of gratitude. As much pain as the stillbirth caused me, my daughter would not been conceived if her brother could have lived. I cannot imagine my life without her in it.

A third prompt is to use the line “with the animals dying around us” as a ghostline. See where it takes you. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

For a final prompt, create a list poem with the last word or phrases repeated. Don’t use “thank you” though; use an endearment, a curse or a phrase you commonly use.

Bonus prompt: write a story or poem in which the photo above is the setting. Choose whatever time period seems appropriate, although this is a photo I took this week of an old barn on the gravel lane to my parents’ house. What does it say about time when a modern photo could seem decades old? Why does black-and-white still convey the past, as if time is a bleaching or fading of events?

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Abecedarian Your Saturday—Prompts Inspired by Laura Kolbe

I love the abecedarian form—it offers so many possibilities. Although a very old form that can be found in religious texts, the abecedarian with its lines, or even stanzas, arranged in alphabetically, has fabulous modern examples, such as Natalie Diaz’s “Abecedarian Requiring Further Examination of Anglikan Seraphym Subjugation of a Wild Indian Rezervation.”

Your first prompt is to write your own abecedarian. Abecedarians are often relegated to poems for children, but they certainly can have dark themes and complex structures. Nor do they need to be acrostics, as Laura Kolbe demonstrates in her “Buried Abecedarian for Intensive Care.”

The second prompt is to explain a medical procedure or to define a related set of medical or scientific terms. Use repetition and play with the structure. See what happens when you use quatrains or couplets and then compare to a single stanza or a prose poem. What works best for you and why?

For a third prompt, use the line “when you hope the machine lied” for a ghostline. Or perhaps use another of my favorites “when the gauze smells like gin and tonic” or one that resonates with you.

Good luck writing!

Sonia Greenfield’s Recommended Reading List and Inspired Prompts

Had a migraine, so I am definitely not with it today. I do want to share the list of poems that Sonia Greenfield shared on Facebook though. I hope you enjoy the poems as much as I have. You can read her own poems on her website. Btw, Sonia’s book All Possible Histories is amazing, and she has a new book out, Helen of Troy is High AF, which sounds awesome. Links to purchase the books on also found on her website.

Your first prompt is to write a response to one of these poems. You can do so however you wish: use a line from one of them for an epigraph or a golden shovel, create a conversation to a poem, or take lines from several and write a cento.

Your second prompt, inspired by Sonia’s new book, is to write a short story or poem from the personal historical or mythological figure(s) who is “high AF”: what kinds of snacks do they reach for, what ex do they want to text or send an animal messenger to, what obsesses them at that moment (the play of light on a stream, flickering torch, the laces on their shoes)?

Bonus prompt: what the hell is my new kitty thinking? Trick question: nothing! Write from the perspective of the void (or of Onyx, aka Goofball).

Have fun!

Follow This—Prompts for Misunderstandings

We’ve all been there—in a bar or crowded restaurant and misheard someone’s comment. You think to yourself, “Why is he asking about whales?” only to realize later the topic is ales. Or perhaps that happens mostly to me. God knows what I’ve agreed to when I just smile and nod to a question I’ve already asked to be repeated.

Or we’ve attached the particleboard side front facing rather than in the back when putting together an IKEA shelf (well, I usually do).

These next prompts are about misunderstanding directions or comments.

Of course you can write a sestina if you wish, or you can imagine trying to follow these directions after they were yelled to you in a crowd and break the form in interesting ways.

For a second prompt, take these directions or another set of directions, and replace one word with another object or image. What would happen if you replaced “stanzas” with “decades” and “line/lines” to “loss/losses”? The inspiration for this exercise comes from HanaLena Fennel who has an amazing poem that does this in her collection Letters to the Leader.

For a third prompt, write the instruction manual for your life. How do you build your years? How do you adhere your memories, sort the people you’ve turned to, fasten the houses you’ve lived in and left?

If you need a freewriting exercise to get going, try writing the instruction manual for this escape route.

Have fun writing!

The Science of Capturing the Invisible—Prompts

Sorry for missing last week’s prompt. It has been a rough week. I hope you are writing; I am managing only a couple a week. I may try to do a binge day, but the results are likely not to be very useful, even for editing projects.

Rather than using a sample prompt, let’s try to science a poem.

For the first prompt, write a love poem using the following terms: “hydrogen,” “subatomic,” “cloud chamber,” “bubble chamber,” “supersaturated,” “superheated,” “electromagnetic,” “recompressed,” “collider,” “interactions,” “voltage,” “amplifier,” and “positron.”

If none of those words resonate with you, try reading CERN article “Seeing the Invisible: Event Displays in Particle Physics” or the “Bubble Tracks: A Window on the Subatomic” from PhysicsCentral. Or use one of the articles as the subject of an erasure or blackout poem.

Finally write an ekphrastic using one of the images above. What messages or sigils do you see in the patterns?

“The frame is a door”—Prompts Inspired by Paul Tran

This week’s prompts are inspired by Paul Tran’s “Let me be clear./Inside this story is another story” from their All the Flowers Kneeling, shared by Victoria Chang whose book Barbie Chang is one you should check out.

For the first prompt, write a sonnet about your language choices, or be truly ambitious and write a sonnet crown in a modified terza rima. I found this interview with the poet in Electric Literature fascinating.

For the second prompt, use the line “Inside this story is another story” as a ghostline. For an added constraint, reference another story within the poem. Look into the “box” of the story.

For a third prompt, think what your purpose is and lead the poem up to explaining what that purpose is.

The fourth prompt is another ghostline: take the line “Behind the door is another door” and describe the room within. Or use the line “Behind the door is another door as your title (crediting the poet) and jump into an immediate description.

These prompts of course reflect my own obsession with boxes—the ones others place us in as well as the boxes we trap ourselves and the gaps between the boxes inside boxes.

Ars Poetica—Prompts Inspired by Aracelis Girmay

I know that I have a previous ars poetica prompt, but I so love this poem: its depth, the lack of pretension, its humanity. I have written a few, but most of them are self-deprecating, one of them even titled arse poetica. But this poem is truly lovely.

For the first prompt, write your own ars poetica. Keep to a single image, unrelated to actual writing techniques and paraphernalia. Let it open up to your own life and hopes.

For the next prompt, use the line “Everywhere I go” as a ghostline and say what you have left of yourself.

Stolen Twitter Poem Prompt from Eduardo C. Corral and “chelsea, a human woman?”

This photo may sum up life as we now know it. Write an ekphrastic poem. Bonus points if you use “razzle dazzle” or “Hello, My Baby” or cartoon dancing frogs.

I can never unsee this.

Yes, the song IS stuck in my head…and now yours.

The Duplex Poetry Form—Let’s Build a Great Poem

Well, this prompt was supposed to be up days ago. This week has not gone as planned, nor has 30/30 nor the last decade really.

These prompts are all inspired by the amazing poem “Self-Portrait as Etioly” by I. S. Jones and by the creator of the duplex form, Jericho Brown, and his brilliant “Duplex (I Begin With Love).” Click on the links to listen to a recording of the poet reading the poem.

The duplex is a combination of the sonnet, the ghazal, and the blues. It is 14 lines, arranged in couplets in which the first line of the couplet repeats words and phrases from the previous line. For the last couplet, the last line repeats the very first line. For a better description of the poem’s movement, check out this interview with Jericho Brown.

For the first prompt, try to write your own duplex. And please share. I am in love with the form.

For the next prompt, use the line “Some of us don’t need hell to be good” as ghostline. Or use it as an epigraph and write a list poem on what we do need to be good (whatever that is). Another possible direction is to describe what we need hell to be. And as always, be sure to credit the poet for the inspiration.

For a third prompt, replace the verbs and nouns with their antonyms. What happens? This would be for the purpose of an exercise only as it would be too close to the original.

For a fourth prompt, use the line “‘Home’ means what you love cannot return the same” as a ghostline to erase after you’ve finished but give credit to the poet.

For a fifth prompt, write a poem using the following words found in “Self-Portrait as Etioly”: “spell,” “name,” “mother,” “return,” “open,” “thirst,” “face,” “mouths,” “pull,” and “ends” but try to use the verbs from the poem as nouns and vice versa.

Good luck with 30/30. You are almost there! And regardless of how many poems you did or did not write, The Luminaries and I are proud of you.

Fun With Venn Diagrams—A Visual Ars Poetica

Ouch. Perfect detail that “Art i make” barely touches “Art i like” and completely misses “Art that makes money.” Use the diagram as inspiration to write a combination ekphrastic and ars poetica.

Mother’s Day—Prompts

Today was a hard day. Many people cannot see their mothers due to the risk of spreading the virus or because of distance (and restrictions on travel) or by loss. I am sorry. It is hard to be away from loved ones and harder still when we can never see them again. And it is difficult for people who had to cut family ties for their self-preservation or whose continued meetings with family bring more pain than joy.

For the first prompt, write a poem about a moment in time when you and your mom seemed to completely understand one another. Try to create a conversation between the two using the contrapuntal form (discussed in a previous blog post).

Or perhaps nothing was said, but your eyes met or you reacted the same way simultaneously. If so, describe the setting. Use inclusive language as if even the furniture and pictures on the wall and the TV show playing in your home were all part of this moment with the two of you. Or if outside, bring the breeze, the humming of insects, the smell of grass into the experience.

If you have never shared a happy moment of understanding with a mother, write about that moment you did have with someone else. Family can be by blood or by choice. Celebrate a loved one.

Here is a lovely poem by Ada Limón that can be your inspiration.

For the next prompt, write a poem using the following words from “The Raincoat”: “brace,” “work,” “unspooled,” “unclouded,” “drive,” “unfettered,” “home,” “solid,” “give,” and “whole.”

For the last prompt, start a poem using “I never asked” from “The Raincoat” and go from there. As always, give credit to the author.

Short Poems to the Rescue—Prompts

So we’re deep into 30/30, and we’ve been writing diligently and the words are scattering like ants in a mowed over mound, or you are so behind that you need to add another civilization’s calendar to catch up. Either way, short poems can save the hour, the month, or the decade…

For this prompt, think about what you have recently learned from isolation, the pandemic, parenting, capitalization. What has surprised you, disappointed, or inspired you?

Write a haiku or tanka (traditional or modified) using the following as the first line (or altered for syllable count if you wish to follow the 5-7-5 or 5-7-5-7-7 syllable structure):

________ taught me

Go from there.

For the second prompt, write a poem about a short poetic form’s structure using that form. Perhaps the best sample poem ever written was by this 5th grader:

You (we) can do this! Pebbles believes in us.

Good luck! Head scratches for all!

The Cento—A Prompt

One of my favorite poetry forms is the cento, which is composed of lines from other poems or pieces of writing. Click here for a description of the form’s origin as well as sample poems provided by the American Academy of Poets.

One reason I like the cento so much is that I practiced it in a Poetry Lab workshop guest hosted by Natalie J. Graham whose writing and teaching style I so admire. In the workshop, each of us drew a number that determined the page from which we selected the line from the stack of books passed around.

Another reason the cento is a favorite of mine is that it works as an editing exercise, helping to develop surprising connections from disparate elements and forcing writers to cut and rearrange until lines fit together. In a subsequent workshop, I was amazed by how much each poet’s cento sounded like the poet even though all of the lines were written by others.

For this prompt, gather a stack of ten or so books. It is probably easier to use all poetry books for the first time, but you can include novels of any genre, collections of short stories, memoirs, or even textbooks if you wish. For these as well as for poems with longer lines, especially prose poems, you will need to cut the line down so that it fits with the other lines chosen.

Roll dice to determine the page number (try to choose a number that will generally fall between a table of contents and the acknowledgments). If one book is much shorter than the rest, choose the last page with a poem, and if a particular page is blank or only has a section heading, choose the next closest page containing a poem.

Make sure to record the poem (author and book too) so that this can be included for later publications. Some editors may want to verify that the lines come from multiple sources, and you should include this information in your own acknowledgments section.

Some poets create entire collections out of centos, often under one unifying theme. I haven’t been able to find an available copy Diana Arterian’s Death Centos, composed of people’s last words, but I absolutely loved Simone Muench’s Wolf Centos, especially the poem below:

The Sevenling—Poetry Form and Prompt

In honor of Roddy Lumsden, let’s experiment with the poem form he created: the sevenling. The form consists of seven lines (duh) with two stanzas of three lines and one line at the bottom. For a really great explanation of the form and an absolutely beautiful sample poem by Anna Akhmatova, check out the sevenling writing challenge found on the YeahWrite blog.

So for the prompt, write a sevenling. For an added constraint, use a flower, a weapon and chemical compound or element in your lists.

Other examples of the sevenling are published on D’verse Poets Pub. Here is an interview with Roddy Lumsden you might find interesting.

Chanting Turkeys, Final Countdowns, and a Basement Vortex—Prompts for October

For October all of my prompts will be weird and creepy. Also, I am trying to write more horror poems to jumpstart next month’s NaNoWriMo challenge (National Novel Writing Month).

For the first prompt, write what the turkeys are chanting as they circle a dead cat in the road. Is it a dirge, an elegy, an ode, or maybe a limerick? Perhaps it is the nine-line, countdown poem, the nonet?

For a video of the circling turkeys, click here.

For the next prompt, write a poem on the theme of a countdown to the apocalypse, armageddon, the Rapture, a Nickelback revival, or similar event of wholesale terror and bloodshed using the form nonet—a nine-line poem in which the first line has nine syllables, the second has eight, and so on until the last line with only one syllable. For more information and a sample poem, check out Robert Lee Brewer’s explanation on the Writer’s Digest site.

For the last prompt, write a short story or poem based on the photo below. What came through the vortex and why? What happened next?

Good luck!

The Prose Poem—Prompt Inspired by Danielle Mitchell

What is a poem—the answers given often contradict the prose poem. What is a poem without stanzas echoes what is a poem without meter and rhyme. Perhaps what I appreciate most about the prose poem is that it requires a poet to think about what defines his/her/their own poetry and consciously choose those elements in this hybrid form.

For the first prompt, write a prose poem using imagery and themes from the tale of the minotaur in the labyrinth from Greek mythology. Here is a link to the myth if you need a refresher. Notice imagery/repetition the poet uses: “labyrinth,” “spiraling steps,” “thread,” “string,” “maze,” and “stairwell.” Who or what else could be a labyrinth? Are you the minotaur or Theseus?

For the second prompt, use the italicized line “If you get lost, just go deeper in” as a ghostline. Where do you go? Or your narrator? Are they one and the same? Or do you choose to keep the second person? After you have written your first draft, consider switching (from second person to first or third to second, for example). What changes?

For the third prompt, consider the differences between this poem and the poet’s other two poems published in the same issue of Connotation Press. How do these three prose poems differ? What themes/images does the form lend itself to? Write a poem using ten words compiled from two or all three of the poems.

For a fourth prompt, write a poem mapping the three landscapes described in the poems: forest and maze, muddy field and pond, and swamp.

And as always be sure to credit the poet for the inspiration, be careful to maintain your own voice in any poems you plan to submit and of course buy the book (check out her site)!

Form This!—A Prompt from Rachel McKibbens

Challenging forms are a challenge, and, my oh my, this one is a doozy. Good luck! I will need it too!

Here is a picture of Miss I, Incredible Inventor, from The Letter People to help you start creating those lines! 

Picture from https://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/1448/the-letter-people 

Failed Ekphrastic Poem—Prompts to Try, Break, and Rebuild

Failure happens. I tried to respond to an ekphrastic prompt for a contest and repeatedly looked at the drawing, but nothing came. I finally did write something (two days before the deadline) but didn’t like it. Even failed attempts teach though, and after a friend helped me, I ended up with a better poem and ideas for how to edit it further.

Here is the drawing ”The Davenport” by poet and writer Steve Davenport: 

And here is the editor’s hint:  

For your first prompt, use the drawing and the editor’s hint to create a poem. Please share! I would love to read your resulting poem! 

Here was my original poem, which I find choppy and unconnected and contradictory to the interweaving inherent in the subject matter: 

Here is the suggested revisions from the generous Adrian Ernesto Cepeda: 

For a second prompt, take one of your existing poems (or perhaps the poem you inspired by the DavenTree) and break up the lines to avoid end stopping, or perhaps cut them at the punctuation. Play around. Start with your very last line and see what happens. I have a poem that a friend recommended that I try that exact exercise with. (Full disclosure: still on my to-do list, although I started it). 

While I like the poem much better (THANK YOU, ADRIAN!!!), I think the subject matter may be better suited to a form—particularly the pantoum. I want the weaving and repetition of the poem’s lines to replicate DNA’s function in life. 

For a third possible prompt, take an existing poem and pilfer its lines/phrases/images/words for pantoum. Here is the pantoum form in case you need a reminder and a link to a helpful site if you wish more information on this form or others: 

Good luck! Good writing...and breaking and editing! 

Discussion—Inspiration, Voice, Attribution, and Honesty

Centos and erasures are two of my favorite forms, and I use epigraphs and ghost lines. Yes, they draw upon others’ materials for both text and inspiration, but they give credit and what is created is (and should be) something unique. After a recent incident of serial plagiarism—which seems to be outright theft from several poets—and cultural/personal appropriation, these forms and poems that clearly draw inspiration off of other writers seem tainted. 

I believe there is a place for these forms and for conversations among poems and between poets within works, BUT attribution is required. I don’t ever condone or promote plagiarism. Yes, poets imitate poets they admire. I have been to readings in which younger poets’ cadences and imagery were clearly influenced by a poetry idol within their community. Much of this imitation is unconscious and an indication of admiration and learning, but the poets were clearly writing their own poems.

Developing one’s voice can be a long process—I am still developing mine, but the centos that I have created do seem to have what I consider my voice. I am very careful to note the origin of each line. If you do create a cento or use a line for an epigraph or consciously structure a poem after another, give credit and ensure your poem is not just a copy. If in doubt, ask someone to look over it. If the poem seems nothing more than a replica or an echo of the other poet, put the poem aside. Come back to it when you have a clearer sense of your own voice. Be good to the community and to yourself. 

I welcome hearing your viewpoints on these forms. Best wishes and good luck writing!