Poetry

Persona Prompt Without Excuses—Proclaim Your Crimes

We are not interested in the meek today. The meek may inherit the earth—eventually—but only after all the good parts have all been trashed. Choose a historical figure with a closet full of skeletons, perhaps a whole field or a city block full of them, and rattle their bones. Assert your sins. Let us smell the fires of the cities you razed and hear the lamentations. This is not the day to be on the right side of history.

Check out April Bernard’s “Bloody Mary”  Where else can you hear “strappado” used so perfectly? Notice how crown beheaded is crow. 

 

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Perhaps Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus, but Fatimah Asghar IS Pluto

Time for another persona poem. Now you are not just a natural disaster, you are an entire planet, or maybe you are feeling humble, make yourself a moon or a comet.  Feeling superior today, make yourself the galaxy.

Read Fatimah Asghar’s brilliant poem “Pluto Shits on the Universe” to show you how it is done.

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A Universal Message

Since I am still not quite over the flu, I am cheating today and using a poetry prompt from Poets & Writers: imagine that the universe is trying to tell you something. Click here for the prompt.

If that prompt doesn’t strike anything for you, let’s tweak it slightly by adding the condition that the universe is writing you a love letter. Perhaps the universe is burning part the world just for you. Why else would every store window advertise matches and kerosene? Maybe the trees are bursting into reds and golds even in winter. Don’t be afraid to be selfish; after all, the universe is mouthing promises against your throat. Give in. Write a poem or flash fiction piece or even a personal essay. You know the universe wants you to. 

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To-Do List Prompt

The last prompt—before I got the flu—was about New Year’s Resolutions and lists of what we didn’t get done. Now let’s write a poem for what we plan to do. Use your daily to-do list and make a poem. Let’s get some real use out of that list.

Listen to C. D. Wright’s poem “Living” for inspiration. Notice the frequent repetition of the phrase “If this is Wednesday.” Repetition of a word or phrase that occurs at the beginning of a line is called anaphora. This literary device can be extremely helpful in generating writing. Brendan Constantine recommended it in one of his workshops. If you have a chance to take a workshop with Brendan, do so. I have learned so much from him, and he is truly fun (and brilliant, kind and generous). His next workshop is with poet and novelist Maxine Chernoff on Saturday, Jan. 13th, in Santa Monica (Camera Obscura Art Lab, 1450 Ocean Ave.) at 1-4 p.m. Click on workshop for the link to buy a ticket ($30).

I am so grateful to Chelsea Dingman, Hannah VanderHart, and other poets recommending C. D. Wright’s work on Twitter. I had read a poem or two of hers previously but am rediscovering how much I like her writing.

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New Year’s Resolutions—To-Do’s and Did-Not’s

Most of us contemplate the new year with a to-do list of promises: exercise more, read more, write more, worry less, binge Netflix less, etc., most of which we will break within the first weeks. I am not here to judge you—honest. I am too busy stressing about my own ever-growing list of expectations and likely failures. If hope springs eternal, my clock springs must be rusty and bent.

On that optimistic note...write a poem about what you didn’t get done this past year. Rather than pushing against that mudslide of regret, use its momentum and put your obsessive analyzing of past mistakes to good use. For inspiration and commiseration, read Richard Hoffman’s “December 31st” personifying his undone to-do items. 

Another possible prompt using Hoffman’s poem: describe the calendar’s artwork or specifically January’s to create an ekphrastic poem (a poem that describes a piece of artwork or a scene). We will dive further into ekphrastic poetry in a later post. For now, you can jump to the Poetry Foundation’s definition of the ekphrastic form and its recommended sample, the famous “Ode to a Grecian Urn” by Keats.

Or if you would like your own 17th century still life with skull, refer to the painting Vanitas Still Life by François van Daellen (c. 1650)

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 Click “painting” for a link to its free downloadable image at NGA Images from the National Gallery of Art. Check out other images too.

Breakup Prompt for the Year

Last January, HanaLena Fennel gave this prompt at the Ugly Mug reading: “Break up with last year. You are too good to be treated like this.”

I am unsure about your year, but for me 2016 was a flaming trash heap, and then 2017 waltzed up and said, “hold my beer.” So I am repeating this prompt for 2017. Don’t hold back. Don’t tell 2017 you just want to be friends or that it is really you, not it, that’s the problem. You tell 2017 off for every insult and lie slapped across your face. Get political, get dirty, get revenge. Burn its calendar and erase entire months from your memory. We all deserve better. 

Here is a photo of your ex. Launch a dart or a missile, whichever is more appropriate.

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Here are the two poems I wrote to 2016:

 

2016
bent me over a table.
I was doubly bored.

 

2016,
you rolling dumpster fire,
burning down career,
government, confidence, skills—
I piss on your calendar.

 

If you want more prompts from the fanatastic HanaLena Fennel and wish an encouraging online community, subscribe to her Patreon page.

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I believe the half scratched off price sticker on the bottom of my coffee mug may explain the universe’s attitude towards me... Don't worry, I will write a poem for it too.

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh—Three Offerings

Recently I posted a prompt of three items that can be used for either poems or short fiction. Let’s update that prompt to fit the holiday: choose three items, but make these items offerings. Like the three kings, you may offer three items of value to God’s first-born son, or something less tangible, perhaps the first deep embrace you received after a year alone, the smell of rain after a long drought, the last goodbye you said to someone you lost.

Or make your offerings to some other power in your life, whether benevolent or malignant. Or make offerings to multiple influences. Regardless of who receives them or what the offerings are, you paid a price to have these or will pay dearly to give them away. For inspiration, read T. S. Eliot’s “The Gift of the Magi.”

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‘Tis the Season to Earn that Coal—Sex Prompts

There is time enough to post prompts celebrating the true spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah. Tonight is for all the naughty boys and girls to whom Santa gives coal to keep those furnaces burning hot... If you wish, keep the Christmas theme. Are you Santa’s favorite elf? Write about sitting on his lap. Does Santa carry a candy cane in is pocket, or he is really happy to give you a present? Is there dancing on the North Pole? Santa did name one of his reindeer vixen.  

If the season of giving and receiving does not make you make you think of fishnet stockings, then let’s just get down to business. Write a sex poem. Don’t hold back unless edging is your thing. Remember, really nice boys finish last—after the girl does. 

 For inspiration, read Kim Addonizio’s “What Women Want” and listen to the poet read her work. 

This prompt works for short stories too.  If you need a little help to get started, check out this NSFW random prompt generator. I think I will let you find your own stories...

 

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Christmas

Christmas and Hanukkah are almost here. The presents are wrapped under the tree (nope). Holiday cards have all been sent (oops). The stockings are stuffed (with lint). You may sense a theme.... The Internet is a blessing though and allows slackers like me to borrow ideas from industrious souls. Check out these creative writing prompts for both poetry and fiction at LitBridge

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Three Lists, Three Elements, Good Things Come in Threes

Yes, I know I promised to provide prompts for short stories too. I admit I am a slacker. I do have a prompt (a borrowed one) that will work for either short stories or for poetry. Behold, the Power of Three: three categories, three elements, three spinning rings of hell, however you wish to think of it. I “borrowed” this idea from two places, Steve Ramirez and the website Creative Writing Now.  

Poetry workshops with Steve Ramirez usually involve two or even three categories of five items: i.e. five mythological beasts, five mundane tasks and five embarrassing secrets. Mix and match until you get friction. Perhaps you decide Medusa likes to sing Disney songs in the shower as she washes her snakes. Which song does she like best? Describe her voice. Do the snakes provide backup?

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Now for the short story prompt Three Elements: Choose a set of three elements and write a story that contains all three of them.

  1. A stolen ring, fear of spiders, and a sinister stranger. 
  2. A campfire, a scream, and a small lie that gets bigger and bigger.
  3. A broken wristwatch, peppermints, and a hug that goes too far.

Somehow the “hug that goes too far” draws me in. Check out the full list of three element sets as well as other short story ideas. 

The story “Cat Person” has generated a lot of attention on Twitter. I think Red Vines, movie theater, and bad sex would be its three-element prompt if I were to attempt to reverse engineer the story. 

The CDC’s 7 Forbidden Words—Another Word List Prompt

As you may have read, the Trump Administration is prohibiting officials at the CDC from using seven words/phrases in official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.

The list of forbidden words:

  1. Evidence-based
  2. science-based
  3. vulnerable
  4. entitlement
  5. diversity
  6. transgender
  7. fetus.

Several poets have suggested using these seven words in a poem. I first read of the prompt from Cathy Park Hong on Twitter, but several others posted the idea on Facebook.

Here is an opportunity you might like: Sarah Freligh and Amy Lemmon invited poets to submit poems in any form but using all seven words (preferably in repetition) to CDCpoetry@gmail.com for publication on their blog. Check their blog out for updates, more prompts and poems.

 

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IKEA Instructions for a Pantoum

Yes, I have covered the pantoum form before, but sometimes step-by-step instructions are necessary or at least helpful in writing a new form. The awesome Rachel McKibbens provides such instructions on her blog. Please jump to Writing Exercise #89 on her blog.

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There is absolutely no reason for this photo other than I like it. 

Rachel provides an amazing sample poem on her blog, but if you want to read the poem I created using her prompt, check it out here. It was posted on the blog of Denise Wueve, editor of the temporarily closed Wherewithal, which I truly hope will return soon.

Faerie Tales Revisited—A Prompt from Two Idiots Peddling Poetry

From my last post, you know how much the Two Idiots Peddling Poetry reading series means to me. Along with providing amazing features, supporting local poets and providing a welcome home for zombie and Star Trek poems, co-host Steve Ramirez posts prompts every day for April’s 30/30 challenge.

Here is a prompt from Steve posted way back in 2013. He even provides sample poems, bless his heart. 

Btw, Steve began his own blog. Check it out.

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Because I am personally focusing on poetry right now, I have neglected all other forms of writing. I will try to do better in the future, but Steve’s prompt lends itself equally to fiction, whether flash or longer pieces. Check out Jan Stinchcomb’s story published at Rose Red Review.

To read more of Jan’s amazing fiction, visit her website with its links to her other published stories. And buy her book. ;-)

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