National Poetry Month Starts Tomorrow—Prompts from the NaPoWriMo

Tomorrow begins National Poetry Month with the writing challenge of thirty poems in thirty days. While it is probably easier to write one poem a day, I am never that organized and end up trying to write five or six the last days to catch up. I cheat a bit too; I count revising a poem as my one for the day if it is a significant revision.

Last year I posted a prompt every day for April. I won’t be able to do that this year but plan to post two a week, if not more. I will also share others’ prompts and links to find more. A good place to start is the NaPoWriMo website, https://www.napowrimo.net/, which posts prompts every day this month and includes previous years prompts as well as hosting links to other websites. Below is a screenshot of today’s prompt; you will want to go to the website for its links to sample poems. Please go to the site; it has so many great prompts (Notice all the links on the right side)!

Here is a bonus prompt: write a poem or story based on this portrait by the famous Venezuelan artist Francisco Itriago. To see more of his gorgeous art, here is a link to his Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/francisco.itriago/. If you wish to see a beautiful video he shared but could not post, please let me know in the comments.

Good luck! Have fun!

“Signs”—Prompts Inspired by Pile of Garbage

I am out of town attending a writing conference, so this will be just a short post. I will have more poems and prompts to share though! The panels and readings have been inspiring.

For your first prompt, choose any one of these signs, or a combination of them, including even the chart itself if you like, and write an ekphrastic poem.

For the next prompt, write a story or poem about what event(s) inspired the sign or place your speaker or characters in the situation presented by the sign.

For the last prompt, write a poem in which one these warnings serves as a refrain.

Bonus sign!

Good luck! Have fun writing!

What’s Left—Prompts Inspired by Joseph Fasano

I heard a poet say that every poem is a love poem. I of course cannot remember who said that or when or even if I read it rather than heard the statement. Instead, I hear just the words themselves, without context or reference, in my own voice that I hear in my head when I read or am writing or editing, a voice that is nothing like the one I speak in.

This is a beautiful poem, fitting for the events happening now and what is rushing toward us, even those of us who have always before been the witnesses or who chose to turn away.

For the first prompt, write a story or poem using the line “And then, very softly, as the bootsteps came,” as your starting point. Whether you erase the line or keep it (italicized or quoted), remember to credit the poet.

The next prompt is to is to write a poem or story using the following list of words from the poem: “child,” “cellar,” “sky,” “falling,” “scrap,” “lifting,” “lips,” “rain,” “trees” and “joy.”

Last, write a love poem or story for the end times, for what love remains as long as you are here to carry it.

Good luck. Find some joy—make it—and share it.

Float—Prompts Inspired by Perceval Everett

I do appreciate all the new stories and poems I get to enjoy because of people posting their own and others’ on social media sites. I admit I do way too much doomscrolling, but the poems and stories people share are why I stay. The first stanza of this sonnet, that echo and inversion of the eight line in its last, and the imagery of “a bizarre fried blood-egg, the yolk of it” is worth the bad news and worse replies.

For the first prompt, write a poem or story, beginning with something you planted or built and including a shift, even if you prefer not to write a sonnet.

The second is to write a list poem of what “want[s] to float.”

For the third prompt, use the line “You take your chances when you praise” as a ghostline, the starting point for either a story or poem. Remember to erase the line and and credit the poet for your inspiration.

The last prompt is to write a story or poem using the following word list: “rose,” “supports,” “soil,” “fence,” “tough,” “chances,” “trench,” “float,” “dead,” “open.” Try to change the word’s part of speech, switch nouns to verbs and vice versa.

Bonus prompt: write whatever comes to mind from this photo of a yolk.

I will be at AWP this year and would love to chat about your process if you are there or at one of the offsite events.

Good luck with your writing! Have fun!

“Neuroses and Camaraderie”—Life and Writing Prompts Inspired by Rachel Lauren Myers

OMG, sometimes a poem just hits, and “Alternate Game Plan” by Rachel Lauren Myers certainly did. I need this poem on a t-shirt, as a reply to last month’s credit card bill, as the Ars Poetica I wish I’d written.

Ok, first prompt, write your own ars poetica. Bonus points if you reference clowns, cartoons, and/or cursed objects. For more discussion about the form and some sample poems, check out the American Academy of Poets website, https://poets.org/glossary/ars-poetica.

The second prompt is to write a story or poem based around “Build a hilltop of cursed” or “A temple to mediocrity.”

One of the aspects I love about this poem is its ability to so effectively combine conversational language with literary devices. Notice the repetition of the short “i” sound, especially in the lower third of the poem, and the “s” in “Listen: if this all goes to tits we’ll skip.” By randomly interspersing rhyming words (or slant rhymes) among lines rather than placing at the line’s end and escalating the repetition, the poem keeps building momentum without sacrificing surprise: “shit,” “manuscript,” “lit,” “relit,” “skits,” “it” and “tits” and the repetition of “Let them laugh at us.” For the third prompt, borrow a phrase from a friend and let that be the central message of your poem or story.

The next prompt is to write a poem or story using the following word list: “closing,” “dismount,” “address, “trust,” “cherry,” “asteroid,” “hilltop,” “temple,” “oil,” “hacks” and “laugh.”

For another prompt, write an essay or poem about what your characters have given up.

Write a list poem about what you will do if you someone laughs at your writing.

The last prompt is to base a poem or story on a similar structure: begin by addressing someone else about a shared worry or insecurity, include a description of spilling or dropping something or other clumsy/forgetful moment, and end on an assurance about the original concern.

Bonus prompt: write a poem or story based on the photograph I took in Twin Falls, Idaho.

Good luck writing! Have fun and support each other; times are hard.

Body for Writing—Prompt by Han VanderHart

I am still working on a longer prompt but wanted to get one out this weekend, so here is a great prompt by a poet I very much admire, Han VanderHart.

Bonus prompt: write an essay, poem or story that works in one or more of common phrases that include the word “body” in them and juxtapose the phrase(s) to the experience of your own body, its location, interactions and value in the world. Here is a list that you can look through to see what clicks for you: “body politic,” “body count,” “body double,” “body check,” “body bag,” “body pillow,” “body of evidence,” “body of work,” “body of water,” “beach body,” “mind and body,” “body and soul,” “the body of the email,” “bodybuilding” and “body shop.”

For a variation on this prompt, take one of the common “body of (something)” phrases and reimagine its parts. For example, what would the physical parts of a “body of work” be? How would they function and what are their vulnerabilities?

Bonus bonus prompt: what objects—whether found or gathered or constructed—would you rebuild yourself with? What parts of yourself would you keep?

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Scams in Publishing and Why I Still Write

Last year was a series of rejections as I (apparently) foolishly entered contests and paid journal submission fees without a chance of success. I do realize that competition is fierce and that journals need resources for printing fees and for readers and guest editors, but what I didn’t know is how many seemingly respectable journals run contests to procure funds from new and lesser-known writers, only to solicit and publish the famous. Are all journals like this, no, but enough of them are—and these journals are known by the better connected—that publishing seems more than ever to be a system of predatory gatekeeping than an artistic community.

For example, look at the Narrative editors who pocketed submission fees but decided not to award winners and the prize $2,500 prize offering. I didn’t submit to this contest, but I had planned to this publication. Bless my endless procrastination for saving me some money.

Perhaps if I had known the co-founder tried selling its craft book for $225, I would have been more leery of the Narrative, but I trusted its legitimacy. Why should I not when Duotrope and other literary submission sites recommend it; it is well known enough for its own Wikipedia page? I wish I had read this article in Electronic Literature, https://electricliterature.com/narrative-magazine-is-selling-a-fiction-craft-book-for-225/

Narrative is so shady it even was part of a ProPublica investigation into nonprofits with the cofounders earning an income of $144,000 and $150,000. People deserve to be paid for their labor, but is holding contests but not awarding the prize money labor? https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/30542711/202422979349301827/full

Again, this is all well known to the inner circles of the literary community (or communities), but outsiders are continually fleeced. Perhaps that is the most useful benefit of an MFA from a prestigious program: you are invited to sit at the table with the people in the know. While I wasn’t cheated by Narrative, I have suspicions about Palette Poetry and Frontier (especially after a post on social media about the latter).

Along with actual scams, if journals need submission fees to survive because they cannot exist on readership, then the whole system seems a pyramid scheme since few people read those small magazines. Paying these fees will not lead to greater success then, although a list of publications often seems necessary for any credibility within the community. So rather than a pay-to-play publishing game, it would seem better to focus on a particular publication that you admire—the work it publishes and the editors’ ethics and efforts to bring attention to new writers.

First and second book submissions are likewise filled with predatory publishers, but publishing a first book by a seemingly reputable publisher is the dream. Now I feel foolish for submitting to Tupelo Press, which receives more money in submission fees than in book sales despite that it receives grant money. Here is an interesting article if you are interested: https://poetrybulletin.substack.com/p/special-report-reading-periods-for.

The last few years have been hard ones. I have given up thinking I will break out of obscurity as a poet or writer, although I certainly will cheer on those who do. I will continue trying to share prompts and any information I’ve collected to help others succeed. The world is better filled with poetry and stories and art of all kinds.

Ultimately, I will continue writing because it gives me a way to make sense of my life and the world around me, to appreciate the beauty that exists and perhaps sustain some small piece of it, and to create something that is in a conversation with other writers even if no one else hears my contribution. I remind myself that some of the most powerful voices in literature are people who are still unknown to the wider literary community, but their words comforted me in times of desolation. I believe my life is richer for having the opportunity to read or listen to them.

Bonus prompt: write a poem or story for you, the one you want to read and share.

I hope you continue writing and that you enjoy the process. I wish you luck and happiness. Please share your successes with me. I want to celebrate with you.

“Love the unloved”—Prompts Inspired by Nicolette Sowder

As someone who hunts for dandelions, earthworms, frogs, snails, mushrooms and muddy moss for admiring portraits, I immediately loved this poem, although I am doubtful of my contribution as an adult. Btw, I find many great poems by following Joseph Fasano, who is also a great poet.

For the first prompt, write a poem praising something usually overlooked or even considered “ugly” or “gross” to many people, such as a turkey vulture gliding on thermals or a glittery snail streak. Be exuberant in your admiration.

The second prompt is to write a poem, story or essay centering on someone in your daily life or society whose contribution is ignored. Perhaps you can write about the garbage collector or plumber. I certainly was grateful to the plumber who came out every time the sewer backed up into the basement, where the laundry and only shower was located, in the house I rented in grad school—my hero! This is the time to thank those in often thankless jobs that keep us and our surroundings clean and healthy and comfortable.

For a third, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “raise,” “dandelion,” “sense,” “needs,” “thorn,” “rainswept,” “grown,” “voice,” “bond” and “tender.”

The next is to write a poem or story from the perspective of moss or lichen, of the barnacle or skittering crab, of worms and minnows or anything that may have a viewpoint you need to share.

For the last prompt, write about the ecosystem of microorganisms that make up you. Write about the minuscule critters living on your eyelashes, the gut flora that is unique to you, or any of the other microbiota you are in a symbiotic relationship with.

Bonus prompt: write an adventure story using the title given, or write an ekphrastic poem with the photo.

And above is another photo prompt you can use if you wish. I found this on a walk in Kiln, MS. I loved how soft and pillowy it looks (but didn’t touch, alas).

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Hearts for Valentine’s Day—Prompts Inspired by Rita Dove

I adore how Rita Dove takes the overused metaphors of the heart and makes love tangible. If you would like to listen to her read this wonderful love poem and also finish what she says about it, please click on the link. https://poets.org/poem/heart-heart

For the first prompt, make a list of clichés about love or loss or any other common subject in poetry and then debunk them with facts and a literal interpretation of the metaphors, ending with a statement powerful in its simple honesty and accuracy.

The second prompt is to write a love poem or story that never uses the word “love” but uses actions and the setting to convey the emotion, and remember this can be about any kind of love, not only the romantic kind. Or write an essay that again never says love, but show it in your remembrance of someone, their words, their kindnesses, their presence in a room.

For a third, write a poem or story using the following list of words from the poem: “melt,” “harden,” “yearning,” “clutch,” “muscle,” “cage,” “key,” “wear,” “bottom” and “take.”

Finally, write a poem about an object or emotion by only saying what it is not. Never name it.

Bonus prompt: write whatever comes to mind with this photo.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

“Listing Along”—Prompts Inspired by Megan McDermott

I started this blog post weeks ago but found it impossible to write or even concentrate with all the terrible news. I will try to catch up and be more consistent (yes, I know I said that last month), but this will be, as always, a work in progress with frequent missteps.

While I had difficulty coming up with any creativity of my own, I found this poem fulfilling, humorous and insightful on each read through and comforting to my former desperately lonely self. The skillful repetition both unifies and moves the poem into new directions. This poem and others by the poet can be found in this issue of Anthropocene at https://www.anthropocenepoetry.org/post/megan-mcdermott-this-morning-my-therapist-suggested-reciting-positive-affirmations-about-my-dating

For the first prompt, use the line “This will not actually kill” as the first line to a list poem of what won’t or perhaps might kill you. Be sure to credit the poet for your inspiration.

The second prompt is to create a stanza listing what your friends, former lovers or you yourself have said to explain why you are alone or why you are not as successful in your career or writing as you wish and a second stanza debunking the self-blame. Give yourself credit. Be fulsome in your self-praise.

The third is to write a list of binary oppositions (open/close as used here or light/dark, wet/dry), focus on one set and build a poem or story around the tension between the pair.

For another prompt, write a story or poem from the following word list: “anticipated,” “vibrant,” “hand,” “touch,” “open,” “unfolds,” “obtainable,” “aim,” “choice” and “shoulder.”

Or, finally, write about what a therapist or doctor advised you to do or comforted you with in a poem, story or essay. I still want to have “With your family, it is amazing you are as normal as you are” framed and hung like a diploma.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Begin—Prompts Inspired by Jill Osier

We are often told to start a poem or story in the middle of the action to avoid unnecessary exposition, but this wondrous poem by Jill Osier sets up the scene, the action, the event, for us to finish, and even though it says so little about what happens, the poem overall works. I loved it. I hope you did too.

For the first prompt, set up your own scene for the readers to fill in the action.

The next prompt is to finish this scene in a poem or story, remembering to credit the poet for your inspiration.

The third prompt is to write a list poem for “It might have happened,” listing where and hinting at what could have been.

For the third, write an essay, story or poem about what drew you (or a character) to an unexpected place, the more unusual the better but grounded (in the muck if need be).

Now for an abrupt switch, here is a bonus prompt: Write about the coming year.

I cannot think of this coming year without fearing what will come even though 2025 will likely be easier for me personally since I finished radiation and completed the required surgeries and should (I hope) be done for now with the most difficult treatments.

For the final bonus prompt, write a poem, story or essay about the coming year with hope and encouragement to strengthen others (and me). Please share your writing from this prompt or any other.

Good luck writing, and I hope you have fun. May this year be joyful for you and everyone you love.

A Less Than Merry Christmas—Prompts Inspired by Beth Gilstrap

Today with family ill is less merry than usual, so let’s dive into Beth Gilstrap’s fantastically dark “That Christmas I Ate Moonshine Cherries and Became a Fortune Teller,” published at https://stonecirclereview.com/that-christmas/.

For the first prompt, write a poem or story about Christmas with family and the secrets and truths stuffed in pies, the meat and bones of conversations and silences, the throat and the belly of a family.

The second prompt is to write what you carry in “pockets and call them signs” or what you carry to ward off disaster and inevitability and family history.

For the third, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “bunting,” “borderline,” “bold,” “shells,” “roiling,” “bathwater,” “foothills,” “roof,“ “synthetic,” “choked,” “manufactured,” “wrong,” and “signs.”

My mother, as the youngest in her family, was the first to use the bath, the water pumped and carried from the yard, and heated on the stove in winter or by the sun in summer. She now uses a washcloth once and reuses a bath towel just once, the water hers alone. She can always buy more milk if she spills it; she isn’t made to cry over its loss. Write about what necessities or deprivations you have left behind.

Bonus prompt: write about the world on this globe-enclosed ship, on seas ever still, ever far from land.

Prompts Inspired by Nikki Giovanni

I was so saddened to learn of the passing of Nikki Giovanni, such a powerful inspiration. I love these two poems, although she wrote too many great ones to choose from for me to pick just one favorite.

For the first prompt, write about what you should do instead of writing while we lurch into fascism.

The second is to create a list poem of what times these really are or what you can make them be.

For a third prompt, write a poem or story about how mythological creatures prepare to hibernate for decades and centuries, what do they set aside for rebirth, what would you if you had their lifespan and abilities.

The next is to write a poem or story how to prepare for winter; what will you gather and store, or if you prefer, how you will prepare for spring.

For another, write a poem or story using the following list of words compiled from both poems: “clean,” “kerosene,” “times,” “burrow,” “bury,” “quilts,” “oatmeal,” “medicine” “bears,” “gather,” “collect” and “coming.”

The last prompt is to take a line from your favorite Nikki Giovanni poem and build a poem from it, placing the line (italicized or set off in quotation marks) at the poem’s center and crediting her in your title or in an after statement.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

A “ruthless mercy”—prompts inspired by Kimberly Wolf

I hope to get back on schedule after the holidays and even make up for the weeks I neglected to post. I suppose that will be my New Year‘s Resolution!

So let’s come back with a bang starting with a poem full of bangers: Kimberly Wolf’s “Mary Magdalene in the Wilderness” takes so many surprising turns and brings us to unexpected places.

If you want to read more by Kimberly Wolf, check out her website https://www.kimberlywolfpoet.com/ and buy her chapbook https://www.bullshitlit.com/shop/p/frogs!

The first prompt is only a Mad Lib writing exercise: Rewrite the poem, replacing as many of the verbs and nouns with your own. What happens? Did you find any lines you like with your replaced nouns and verbs? If so, use that line as a modified ghostline, beginning poem or story with it and then erasing it afterwards.

The second prompt is to write a poem or short story from the following word list: “laid,” “haunted,” “crowded,” “resurrect,” “escape,” “clouds,” “shoulders,” “hands,” “hallucinate“ and “temptations.” Or for a variation, read the poem aloud and underline the words that strike you and build from them. Notice how much impact alliteration and assonance have here.

The third prompt is to write a list poem or a short story of what you would do if you had the power to keep a lover from never escaping your presence or memory even after your death.

For another prompt, make two lists: a list of famous lovers or enemies (or alter the relationship between two famous historical or mythical figures) and a list of binary oppositions in an adjective-noun format, as “ruthless mercy” from the poem. Take the item from each list that resonates the strongest for you and build a poem or story around them.

The last prompt is to complete the sentence “Now he lives in the sky, his terrible” as your jumping off point. Remember, as with all ghostlines, to erase the line and credit the poet.

Bonus prompt: write a story or poem from the trees looking down upon your small self as you enter the forest carrying an ax or chainsaw. Let them win.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Hauntings—Prompts Inspired by Danika Stegeman LeMayn

It is my favorite season—cool weather, clear nights, carved pumpkins and spooky decor—so let’s have another poem to haunt your thoughts. Thanks to Han VanderHart for sharing!

For the first prompt, explain how you know you are loved using supernatural phenomena, perhaps a beam encircling you from something above you in the night sky, a voice that whispers your name from an empty room, a pair of eyes glowing outside your window. Next add a scientific fact or piece of common knowledge and then end by connecting this fact to the supernatural.

The second prompt is to use the lines “It surrounds us / even if we can’t / see it” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line after finishing the poem and credit the poet for your inspiration.

The next is to write a poem or story using the following list of words: “haunted,” “radio,” “flickering,” “folded,” “square,” “emit,” “light” and “surrounds.”

The next prompt is more of an exercise. Take the poem’s lines as a kind of Mad Lib, replacing the nouns and verbs with their antonyms. If any of the lines you’ve recreated have a friction for you, take that line and make it the first line of a poem or story and continue from there.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Ghosts and Ghostlines—Prompts inspired by Andrea Cohen

As always, Andrea Cohen takes my breath away in just a few words.

For the first prompt, write a story or poem from the perspective a ghost who is struggling to communicate with the loved ones. What does the ghost want to say? What methods does the ghost choose if speaking is no longer possible?

Think on the modern usage of ghosting and its origin and constraint how the monster in Shelly’s tale is mistakenly called Frankenstein (yet truly is the monster). What other actions are named for monsters or mythical creatures and write from the creature’s perspective.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following word list: “cavalier,” “language,” “silence,” “ghost,” “will,” “tell,” “last,” “mean” and “leave.” Try to switch the part of speech from verbs to nouns and vice versa.

For the next prompt, write a list poem of “the last thing / we mean” and let your title explain who the “we” is.

The last prompt is to write what you mean to do before you or your narrator in a story means to do before leaving the listener.

Bonus prompt: For this a rather wispy moon, write a poem or story about a dreamy, soft spoken werewolf or set a horror story in landscape of mist and dreary swamp with an obscenely cheerful, fast talking protagonist.

Good luck! Have fun writing!

Casserole This—Prompts Inspired by Steve Ramirez

It is spooky season, and I am gnawing on my liver in envy for Steve Ramirez’s poem. Damn it, I grew up on Midwestern casseroles, and I won’t ever have a line that good!

For the first prompt, make a list of twelve creatures and monsters. Choose whichever two cause you friction, or rely on fate/happenchance, perhaps by numbering the list and then randomly rolling dice. Write a poem or story about the possible interaction, beginning each stanza or paragraph with an “as if” statement. See where you end up.

The second prompt is to write a romance about an alien or otherworldly beauty. Make gills other mouths to kiss, the Mothman’s wings another set of handholds in moonlight, fangs glinting jewels to press against the throat.

The third prompt is to write a story or poem around an image of a town as the food its residents consume—like a casserole or barbecue or donut. Let the townsfolk become a chorus to the protagonist, an outsider to their customs and expectations. What spice or flavor is added. Use a family recipe if you like.

Next, write a list poem beginning with the ghostline “when girls thought they were the color of the sea. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

For the last prompt, write a poem or story from the following word list: “convenience,” “transcends,” “tiptoe,” “seesaw,” “weight,” “revoke,” “fuel,” “oceans,” “landscape” and “remember.”

Bonus prompt: write a story or poem with this humanoid as your protagonist/speaker.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

National Poetry Day with John Wick and Kyra Wilder!!!

It’s time to celebrate with your favorite poems, with new poems, with poems you’ve read and poems you‘ve written. All are good. To celebrate poetry’s holiday, choose a line from a favorite poem or from one you read today and use that line as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

For a second prompt, choose a poem to respond to as if in conversation or as a call and answer. Again, credit the poet and poem in your title or in an after statement.

If you want more prompts and possibly a new poem, here is a great one by Kyra Wilder that someone shared today. I didn’t know I needed a poem about John Wick but now I do!

For the first prompt inspired by Kyra Wilder, choose another character from an action movie and describe how and why the characters is tired or melancholy or mistaken or even blissful or learning.

The second prompt is take one scene from a movie and describe it to another who you wish were there to watch it with you.

For the third prompt, write a poem or story from the following word list: “split,” “cracked,” “listing,” “glissade,” “tiles,” “relief,” “thimblefuls,” “theory,” “diaphanous” and “swollen.”

The last prompt is to write a list poem describing how you want to be sad or angry or cheerful but with special effects or a kind of Hollywood glamour.

Bonus prompt: since it is October, write a horror-themed adventure in Disneyland or its mirror image in the water.

Have fun reading poems and writing today!!!

Burning—Prompts Inspired by Rae Armantrout

Short post today as my brain is a wooly sheep lost on a hillside, and a short poem for a short post!

For the first prompt, begin with an image that in a separate stanza that connects to an emotion. If you wish, follow the format of this poem by inserting a time indicator as a separate line/stanza or with the third stanza that gives speaker’s emotion. Use a famous quote. Make your last line reinterpret the quote and refer to the emotion and image described in previous stanzas.

The second prompt is to write a list poem of burning images. End with a famous quote, perhaps this one by Emerson or another of your choice.

Using “having nowhere to go, persists” as a ghostline for a poem or short story. Remember to erase the line afterwards and credit the poet.

The final prompt is write a poem or story using the following words: “blown,” “end,” “stem,” “lamp,” “blend,” “longing,” “persists,” “star,” and “burns.” Notice how much of the poem consists of one-syllable words. If you want an additional exercise, switch these words with polysyllabic synonyms where possible.

For a bonus prompt, write a poem or story based on this photo but alternate the settings or perspectives to explore how fireworks, rockets explosions, in the night can be celebrations or attacks. If possible shift from differing perspectives or settings to explore that duality.

Good luck! Have fun writing!

“When I was truly great”—Prompts Inspired by Hanif Abdurraqib

I was lucky enough to get to hear Hanif Abdurraqib read at an event. I hope to again one day and hope I will get to hear this poem in person. I am feeling the passing of time and possibilities in my bones. Although no one could say I was once great, I might have been called nice until I realized that niceness never stopped a slur from being dropped in a crowded room nor kept someone I love safe. I sometimes miss the girl I was though.

Use the title’s format but substituting a different sports team or a famous musical group or an event as the first prompt for a poem or short story. I would probably choose the Chicago Cubs, a team long considered cursed by a goat and even a black cat and that never failed to disappoint my relatives when I was growing up.

The second prompt is to write a list poem of reasons you are no longer great or when you will be again, the more surreal the better.

For the third prompt, write a poem or story using the following word list: “mean,” “mountain,” “dust,” “shoreline,” “candles,””sugar,” “drown,” “passing,” “decade” and “incessant.”

For the last prompt, use the line “I just woke up one day and I was a still photo in everyone else’s home but my own“ for a ghostline. Remember to erase the line after you finish the poem or story and credit the poet.

Bonus prompt: describe yourself or a character as a dimming candle as the starting point of a poem or story.

Good luck writing! Have fun!