Earth Day—Prompts Inspired by Jane Hirshfield

As you know, climate change is here. It is not too late for us to work together to minimize the harms. Each step we make can save ecosystems, species and the lives of humans, plants and animals. I am grateful I heard Jane Hirshfield read her poetry and discuss her project Poets for Science at AWP. Her poems and the motivation for the project are inspiring. Poetry can seem useless in a world full of loss and daily horrors, but art can build connections, inspire action and allow people a way to grieve and heal. Here is the project’s website if you would like to learn more: https://poetsforscience.org/.

For the first prompt, write a poem or story about denial—perhaps your own or another’s or an entire population’s. Pair it with a historical fact or a description of a creature looking away or in the wrong direction or believing itself safe or hidden—like my cat who hides his head under blankets and is shocked that we can find him.

For the second, describe an entire series of bizarre phenomena or catastrophes either above or behind a person or group of people that they have not yet noticed. End the poem or story before they do recognize the danger.

The third prompt is to write a poem that borrows the structure of “Let Them Not Say”: use anaphora (a repeated word or phrase that begins each line but with a contradicting statement or a justification for multiple stanzas; then abruptly switch to an image in the penultimate stanza and end with a stanza that connects the image to the previous rebuttals. If the structure follows the original too closely, then you will need to consider this a writing exercise. Exercises can be great ways to build up a repository of lines available for other poems or stories.

For the next prompt, use “Let them not say” as your first line, remembering as with all ghostlines to erase the line after you’ve written the poem and credit the poet for your inspiration either in your title or with “after Jane Hirshfield” under the title.

The last prompt is to write a poem or story using this list of words gathered from both poems: “ship,” “comprehended,” “heard”“trembled,” “spoken,” “voices,” “must,” “kerosene,” “warmed” and “praised.”

Bonus prompt: write a poem or story based on the image above.

I find it helpful to remember that fire can be both destructive and beneficial—some plants require fire for its seeds to germinate—and that change is here but we can work to preserve species and ecosystems and celebrate what remains.

Good luck. I hope you are enjoying April’s 30/30 challenge.

Relentlessly—Prompts Inspired by Kaveh Akbar

Well, last week did not go as planned, so I did not post extra prompts as promised. Perhaps this lovely poem by Kaveh Akbar will help make up for my lapse.

For the first prompt, make a list of what you don’t know—not necessarily about science, any subject or field will do, but try to be as specific as possible. Next make a list of favorite animal or plant facts. Compare the two lists and see what happens.

The second prompt is to create a metaphor for language—or its failure or absence—and build a story or poem around it.

The next is to create or pull from mythology a creature “that loves itself as relentlessly / as even the most miserable man” and build a story or poem around it.

For the last, write a poem or story using the following word list: “candle,” “certain,” “spare,” “lamplight,” “beast,” “seawater,” “doubt,” “bowing,” “lips” and “sleep.”

Bonus prompt: write a story or poem about whatever this photo inspires, perhaps a creature or an organ or an alien fruit.

Good luck with 30/30! Have fun!

Persistence in Failure to Success—Prompts Inspired by Elaine Ewart

Perhaps Elaine Ewart’s “Take the collared dove” best embodies the April 30/30 challenge for me: just persist. Writing every day this month will not lead to thirty poems that I can publish or perhaps even three poems that I can edit to something I am excited aobut, but instead this process will be thirty starts, thirty attempts, thirty practice sessions in which I made myself write and kept writing.

Notice that I omitted “leads” or its synonym in the blog post title since success reminds me too much of the South Park Underpants Gnomes profit meme. How I get to “success” or what success even is changes daily and may involve a Venn diagram, the map to a corn maze, a stranger’s blessing or a larger cup of coffee.

If you would like to visit Atrium for her poem, click on this link: https://atriumpoetry.com/2025/03/14/take-the-collared-dove-elaine-ewart/. Do check out more poems on the journal’s website; I really enjoyed what I found there. You can also find more of the poet’s writing on her blog: http://flightfeather.wordpress.com/.

For the first prompt, follow a similar structure (perhaps even a modified sonnet) with a kind of adage illustrated by some animal’s behavior or a specific example in the news or research and ending the poem with your current life.

The second prompt is to simply describe animal behavior—nesting or delivering its young or caring for them. Let your own experiences as parent or child color the description without overt comparisons.

The third is to write use the line “All they do is persist” as the first line of a poem or short story, remembering to credit the poet even if you later erase the line.

For the next, write a poem or story about “clumsy angels.”

For the last prompt, write a poem or short story using the following word list from the poem: “success,” “collared,” “twigs,” “shell,” “bracket,” “throng,” “clatter,” “hinge,” “unmade” and “carry.”

For a bonus prompt, write an epistolary (letter) poem addressed to this mother whose nest was provided for her. What could society provide for you or parent? If you would like sample poems, check out https://poets.org/glossary/epistolary-poem.

Good luck writing! Remember that the April challenge can be to create the practice of writing every day or to write more frequently. Just persist in trying to write more, and you will succeed (this of course is reminder to myself).

I hope you enjoy the process!

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!

“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!

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!

The Terror in Beauty—Prompts Inspired by Rilke

Along with the biblically accurate angels with a thousand eyes, angels have terrified me, as does perfection and all true beauty. What else splinters the lungs like those transcendent moments of sky and land mirrored in a lake with shifting hues my human eye cannot accurately define? So I am grateful to Rilke and to David Rubin for sharing this poem.

For the first prompt, name the angel who would hear your cry and write a poem or story about what happens next.

The second prompt is to use “For beauty is but the beginning of terror” as a ghostline, remembering to erase the line after you finish the poem and crediting the poet for your inspiration.

The third prompt is to write a list poem of what has declined to destroy you. Or if you prefer, write an essay on surviving beauty.

For the next prompt, write a poem or story using the following word list: “cried,” “hierarchies,” “hear,” “perish,” “power,” “beginning,” “endure,” “awed” and “destroy.”

For an additional prompt, write about a being through whom light shines. What would you give for that light to illuminate your face or hands? What would you sacrifice to make the light pass over you, leaving you in the safe harbor of concealment? What prayers would you make for either outcome?

Bonus ekphrastic prompt: describe this image in a poem or story.

Good luck writing! Have fun!