The Mother of All Poems—Prompts Inspired by Lydia Davis

Some poems are terrifying: “The Mother” by Lydia Davis for example. Notice how the poem is a story that builds intensity with its simple language and repetition. It has the feel of a children’s book like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie but for homicidal mothers instead of a demanding (but adorable) mouse.

For the first prompt, write a narrative prose poem that portrays a scene between parent and child.

For the next prompt, use the pattern of a line of action followed by a line of dialogue. Try writing it one one or more stanzas and then revise it into a prose poem. What changes? Which form works best for it?

For the third prompt, Mad Lib this poem by replacing all the verbs and nouns, but do not allow yourself to repeat any of the verbs.

For the last prompt, use “But how much better if it were a real house” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and acknowledge the poet.

Break Hearts and Prompts—Prompts and editing tips inspired by John McCullough and Lucille Clifton

For years, I struggled most with line breaks. I know I have improved now that I second guess as much with other parts of the poem (or regressed in other skills, hard to say). So much of progress seems to be retracing steps and back pedaling assumptions.

Thankfully, so many writers share their insights and poems (their own or of others) for me to learn from.

Something that stood out for me was how the interplay of the last word of the lines—“yesterday” followed by “backs” and then “tomorrow,” the logical connection of “circulation” and “blood,” but the contrast between “round” and “edge” and ending on “now” after “mistakenly.”

Those ending words themselves are a story (carried along on the lines of course but could themselves create meaning. For the first prompt, write a poem from the last word from each line and of the title but in reverse order or in a different sequence from the poem: “now,” “mistakenly,” “time,” “edge,” “round,” “water,” “past,” “blood,” “circulation,” “tomorrow,” “backs,” “yesterday,” “anything,” “forth,” and “gulf.”

What I also loved about the poem (ok, one of many things) is the motion. I felt the rocking back and forth in that initial “so forth,” the forward momentum and then that abrupt stop at “edge” before falling into the next line and finally ending on the swaying “only here. only now.”

Of course, John McCullough explains this so much better than I could:

For the next writing prompt, take a poem that just isn’t working for you and break the lines so that you have a momentum that pauses and then rushes forward. If possible, try to revise the title so that it continues into the first line.

Choose a poem that’s content fits the movement; obviously, time, oceans and rivers all work well. Let the form reflect the metaphor: time as a road with the travelers moving atop it, or the river rushing past and splashing the stones submerged in it. What other themes would mesh equally well with the movement: birthing, breathing, falling into a kiss, a falling out of a relationship, stalking, dancing.

For the next prompt, use the line “every day someone is standing on the edge” as a ghostline. Remember to acknowledge the poet with “After Lucille Clifton” for this poem.

“What do you love”—Prompt from Amy Watkins and Inspired by Fanny Howe

So I am simply taking this prompt from Amy Watkins as is: “What do you love, right at this moment?” Write that and let those who love you know.

A Belated Happy New Year’s with Prompts Inspired by Twitter and Kate Baer

Just returned from Mississippi, where I felt as if I were trying to swim through molasses. I am not productive at home and seem to be even less on vacation…yikes.

But the new year has begun, and it is not a kindly one so far. More of the same. I am approaching this year on tiptoes and with my fingers to my lips.

My daughter of course chooses the opposite approach.

For the first prompt, write about your approach to the year. Will 2022 be cat lounging in a beam of sunlight, a china shop, or a raging bull?

The next prompts are inspired by Kate Baer’s “New Year.”

For the next prompt, take the first line, “Look at it, cold and wet like a” but choose another noun, not a newborn. Use this as your jumping off point. You can use this modified line as ghostline, erasing it, or keep as your opening line. Regardless, make sure to credit the poet.

The third prompt is a ghostline: use part of the last line, “It only wants to live” and describe how it (the year or something else) wants to live. What does living mean to you or to the subject.

For the last prompt, write a sonnet for the year to come using the description and language for a lover rather than that of a newborn.

A Croc and a Croc—More Twitter Prompts

Nature vs man (or man’s footwear), mythology, and metaphor, let’s have some fun.

For the first prompt, write a persona poem from the croc (your choice). Are you carrying your namesake to safety (or being carried), or are you displaying the trophy from your recent battle (or are the trophy)? For fun, throw in references to mythology.

For the next prompt, center the poem around another homonym pair (or multiple homonyms), such as “stalk” (follow) vs “stalk” (part of a plant) or “tire” (wheel) vs “tire” (fatigue). Or expand to heterographs (words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings), such as “bear” and “bare,” and heteronyms (words with different meanings and pronunciations but are spelled the same), such as “tear” (moisture in the eyes) and “tear” (to rip).

For the last prompt, take a famous painting such as Francisco de Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son and reimagine it with a modern photo. Write an ekphrastic poem of that photo but use the original artwork’s title.

If you need some inspiration, check out people’s recreations of famous paintings during the early stages of the pandemic here. The photo below was posted on Reddit.

Happy holidays!

“Hey, everybody, let’s have another year of this” — Prompts Inspired by Amber Sparks

Let’s celebrate another year with rising infection rates and denial because 2020 just won’t leave the building. Or at least try to write.

I love the poet’s parody of William Carlos Williams and the personification of the virus. For more information on Amber Sparks’ writing and events, check out the website.

While many people are justifiably tired of the pandemic and the resulting poems, go ahead write another because most of us have at least a few my-ex-is-an-ass poems. Add another.

For the first prompt, write a persona poem on anything related to the pandemic: isolation, grief, loss, masks, particular phrases or statistics. I will never forget how powerfully Patricia Smith’s personification of Hurricane Katrina in her Blood Dazzler affected me.

For the second prompt, write your own version of “This Is Just To Say.” I thoroughly enjoyed that not-too-distant viral spate of its parodies on Twitter.

For the next prompt, write an epistolary poem (a poem written as a letter) to a lover. What tone do you choose?

For the last prompt, write a hopeful poem about the coming year. Focus on the light reflecting on the water, tree leaning over the rock as if to whisper an endearment. Never mind the skull spray painted on the rock. It’s a poem for the light and water and the rustle of leaves.

Prompt Inspired by Danez Smith—Thanks to Tara Skurtu

So this month has not gone well. Family emergencies and unplanned out-of-state travel certainly do not make me more productive… But there is much to be grateful for. Even in decay, there is beauty; in a fall, movement and a change in perspective. I see the brilliance of the stars much clearer lying on the ground.

Here is another amazing poem by Danez Smith (whose most recent book is Don’t Call Us Dead), posted by the fabulous poet, Tara Skurtu (most recent book The Amoeba Game). Check out their websites for links to their poetry and other projects: Danez Smith and Tara Skurtu.

For the first prompt, use the first line “let ruin end here” as ghostline. Remember to erase the line after finishing your poem and give credit to the poet.

For an exercise prompt, replace every noun and/or verb in the poem with its opposite. For example, change the first line to something like “Forbid rebirth a beginning there / Forbid them vinegar.” This would be just an exercise: the resulting poem would be too much like its inspiration, but this is a good process to keep practicing.

The last prompt is another ghostline: use the lines “let him enter the lion’s cage & find” as the jumping off point for your own poem.

Good luck and keep writing.

Happy Halloween!—Prompts Inspired by Jeannine Hall Gailey

Celebrate the holiday by writing scary and/or magical poems!

For the first prompt, write your own origin story as a witch or monster or magical creature. Make it as realistic as possible.

For the next prompt, use the line “and then — magic powers. It’s not like you think” as a ghostline. Or choose a substitute for “magic powers.” Regardless, remember to erase the line and give credit to the poet for the inspiration.

And for the final prompt—another ghostline—write a poem that describes the “what being asked to step out of life and into” is.

More Prompts from Twitter—Thank you, Eduardo C. Corral!

Twitter and the poets active on it are the gift that keep giving for slackers like myself. Btw, Eduardo C. Corral is an amazing poet. I loved his book Slow Lightning, and his next book Guillotine is on my Christmas list.

For the first prompt, write a poem about how we see what we want to exist in the world. Bonus points if you refer to optical illusions or that Twitter dress controversy—blue and black or white and gold.

For the second prompt, the horse with blanket is Batman. Write a poem about this caped crusader and his oats.

For the next prompt, write a poem from the following nouns in “Cayucos”: “net,” “color,” “coast,” “punt,” “scents” “ball,” “wax,” “shadow,” “tar,” and “honey” but as verbs.

For another prompt, use the etymology of a word—how it traveled from one land to another—to carry the poem onward.

For the final prompt, use the line “Day after day spent shaping” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line after writing the poem and give credit to the poet.

Cruelty—Prompts Inspired by Linda Gregg

I again am behind on prompts but will try to catch up as I slowly adjust to my new work schedule, but as usual poets on Twitter have provided poems to enthrall me and make me want to share prompts.

For the first prompt, use the poem’s first line “Cruelty made me” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and give the poet credit for the inspiration.

Or choose another emotion or other abstract noun and start the poem with that line. Again, erase the line and acknowledge the poet through “after Linda Gregg” below your title. You may want to use your title to name that emotion.

For the second prompt, again use a line from the poem for a ghostline, but this time use the last line “Heaven forbid that I should be saved” as the jumping off point for a list poem of the reasons you do not deserve salvation.

For both prompts, experiment with the prose poem form and with stanzas. What shifts when you change to couplets or quatrains? Which forms works best for the material? Try to articulate to yourself why. (I often have difficulty explaining why something “works” or doesn’t, so this is an instruction for myself.)

For the last prompt, write a poem using imagery of death and rot but use them as justification for deserving mercy, that we all—all living creatures—deserve mercy while we can feel its softness.

Prompts Inspired by Kamilah Aisha Moon

Although I didn’t know her personally, I was saddened to hear of the passing of Kamilah Aisha Moon. She will be profoundly missed by so many.

I chose two poems that friends of hers (also incredible poets) shared. You can read more of her poems and her prose at her website.

For the first prompt, write a poem in which the first two lines are repeated as the last, but alter the meaning through careful punctuation or emphasis.

For the second prompt, use “It would be now when you feel” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line after writing the poem and giving credit to the poet.

This is such a beautiful poem. For the third prompt, use personification to make an emotion or abstract concept real and breathing. Give it life and agency.

For the fourth prompt, write a poem using the following words from “To a Dear Friend Mothering Misery”: “precious,” “life-long,” “sing,” “heartbeat,” “warmth,” “setting,” “place,” “adore,” “grow” and “home” but make it a poem of homecoming and joy, of finding the place where you belong and are not alone.

For the last prompt, write a poem using the phrase “Leave it be” as a ghostline and write a list poem of what you must let go or leave to its (or her/his/their) own choices and consequences.

Good luck and best wishes.

Prompts Inspired by Andrea Cohen—Thank You, Twitter!

As always, I am grateful to poets sharing their favorite poems. “The Committee Weighs In” by Andrea Cohen is an amazing poem, and the ending a gut punch.

For the first prompt, use “It’s a little game / we play: I pretend” as a ghostline. Remember to erase those lines and acknowledge the poet.

For the second prompt, write a poem that begins with a snippet of dialogue between you and another and have the rest of the poem provide the underlying context. Leave something to guess.

In that same Twitter thread, another Andrea Cohen poem was shared: “Refusal to Mourn.”

So much said in so few words!

For the last prompt, write a poem in four lines or less. If necessary, write a longer poem and cut down to its heart. Use the title to help guide the reader.

Good luck!

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.

Labor Day—Cynical Prompts Inspired by Marge Piercy and Gary Snyder

So today is Labor Day, a holiday meant to be celebrated by taking time off, but of course here it is a day in which some employees must work so that others can relax. Telling, that it is also the same day that the unemployment extension ends because nothing says workers are valued quite like forcing them to return to jobs without living wages, sick leave or health insurance in a pandemic.

Work itself becomes our sole value in a society in which purpose and others’ profits are intertwined and even our own identity fades into a job title.

The first prompt is inspired by Marge Piercy’s “The Secretary Chant.” Write a poem in which your body has transformed into your current job, or a former one. Are the lines on your forehead rows in a spreadsheet or rows of corn? Is your mouth a name tag and each hand a styrofoam cup? Try to incorporate onomatopoeia as the poet did.

For the second prompt, write a prose poem about the process of transforming into a cubicle or a screen. Do you resist, or is it a relief to slip into all that beige wall and carpet or an email inbox?

The next prompts are inspired by Gary Snyder’s “Hay for the Horses.”

For the next prompt, use the line “I sure would hate to do this all my life” as a ghostline. Remember to delete the line and credit the poet with your inspiration.

For another prompt, write about a task from your first job and what you do now, either as paid work or the unpaid labor of childcare and housework.

For the last prompt, describe your hands or another part of your body that aches or suffers bruises or cuts after a day at work.

It’s strange how the bones are indistinguishable from the rocks in the picture, but not in person.

Revision Technique—Cutting Up from Kristen Baum DeBeasi

Since I just started a new position at work and am always behind even on a normal day, I am weeks behind here even though a writer I respect wrote up her revision technique and even provided photos. This delay is a whole new level of lazy for me, but you all now get to enjoy learning Kristen’s revision technique without waiting any longer!

***

Revision Technique—Cutting Up

by Kristen Baum DeBeasi

Here’s a technique I used to revise a poem that was mired in too muchness. My first draft lacked focus. Its title was one thing, while its subject was another thing and the idea that emerged was a third, somewhat messy thing. But I wanted this poem to work. I wanted to pay tribute to my high school English teacher, who was the original inspiration for the poem. 

So, based on a recent workshop prompt (given by Moon Tide Press’s Eric Morago) I went to work. 

My first step was to reformat the poem, setting the document to double space and the letter size to approximately 16 (if you try this, use your discretion). You may like slightly larger or smaller letters depending on line length or other variables). For me, I chose a letter size comparable to the size on my fridge magnet words (which I also use to create poems, but that’s another story) so I could easily read them without needing to be too close. 

Next, I printed the entire poem and cut it into words and word-groups. I chose to preserve some phrases while separating others, based on their meaning in the original poem and how much or little I wanted to preserve that idea vs. allow the idea to evolve in my creative play.

Once everything was cut into single words or into word-groups, I set to work arranging and re-arranging, working first in small sections toward the direction I knew I wanted in the poem—Mr. Mortensen. I chose to work on photos from the Upper Peninsula, as that’s where I had attended high school, so the visual inspiration was in the same vicinity as the poem’s meaning and subject.

I kept playing, trying to include phrases then taking them out. Eventually, I arrived at the point where I thought I wanted a couple of words that hadn’t existed in the previous version of the poem, so I wrote them in bright pink and added them to the mix:

There were parts that no longer fit the larger poem and, for fun, I experimented with creating smaller poems of them.

Finally, after photographing the results, I typed the new version of the poem, adding and refining punctuation. Further revision resulted in eliminating the two lines following “And for what, Mort?” as unnecessary. 

Here’s the final result of this revision.  

Mr. Mortensen 

as best he can he works 

at the desk, the beaten

visibly slumped rayon trousers

his olive green, graying 

socks hitched up

him, imparting 

prepositional phrases, predicates

as the dealer of subjects, 

his face glucose dimmed, 

protracting from his brilliance 

and he works to stay in that 

one-blinking-light town. 

and for what, Mort? 

even as I read, eyes open, 

my thirst would say, take

what you can and run

that light

—the blinking yellow—

would tell me

take caution

intolerance 

finds you, 

the outside world 

showing itself 

The original poem, before this process was: 

Blinking Yellow

In my thirst for poetry I read 

of subjects, predicates, prepositional phrases. 

Even as I grope for their meanings 

I remember the long ago classroom—

those melamine desks to fold into, 

the asbestos-tiled floors, the beaten

teacher desk Mr. Mortensen sat behind, 

his face to the windows, we students an army

of unrule between him and the outside world. 

His olive-green rayon trousers hitched up

so his graying socks visibly slumped 

more with each class, each mass of unruliness

before him, imparting English to the ones 

who wouldn’t ever move and to the few

who weren’t meant to stay in that 

one-blinking-light town. Take caution, 

that light would say, telling highwaymen

to slow a bit, eyes open for pretty girls walking

in twos or threes during lunch period, or 

take what you can—it’s all for sale, as the dealer sign says. 

And Mort, at the desk, one massive leg beneath 

The middle drawer, the other showing itself

It could still do math—a forty-five degree angle 

Protracting from his torso. His brilliance dimmed

by glucose. Intolerance finds you wherever you are. 

And he works to prepare each student as best he can

For what lies in store. 

Take what you can. And run.  

***

To read more of Kristen’s writing and to discover her music, check out her website and her SoundCloud and follow her on Facebook and Twitter at @kbaum12. She is awesome, and I hope you get the opportunity to join her in a workshop as I have gotten to do!

Prompts Inspired by Kwame Opoku-Duku

Today’s prompts are inspired by this powerful poem, “Lord Knows,” by Kwame Opoku-Duku. I am once again grateful for all the poems shared on Twitter.

For the first prompt, use the lines “what we lose / once we believe we are clean” as a ghostline to create a list poem. Be sure to give credit to the poet.

For the next prompt, use the following words from the poem: “skin,” “held,” “believe,” “circling,” “weight,” “ground,” “moment,” “unrelenting,” “infinite,” and “allow.”

The last prompt is another ghostline: “What else now but to speak plainly.” Say what you need to say, what you’ve been hiding behind metaphors or forms or any other subject you could write about instead. Say it now.

Schrödinger's Dishes and other Prompts—More Stealing from Twitter

I must say that Twitter is the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to my blog…

For this first prompt, write a poem about a period in your life in which two opposing realities were both true: you both loved and hated your partner and were undecided whether to stay or leave. Put the reader at that moment before you made that decision. Try to end the poem in suspense and don’t give your decision.

For a second prompt, use the line “They are both broken and not broken until you open the door” as a ghostline. Or use the line as your first line and structure the resulting poem as Maggie Smith did in her “Poem Beginning with a Retweet.”

For the third prompt, use the structure suggested by Todd Dillard as the opening line of a poem. Or write an entire book as he recommended.

For the last prompt, take a poem you’ve written and rearrange the line breaks. Perhaps longer and shorter. More white space. Less. Maybe break it into stanzas or couplets or place it into a long column. How does the form modify the atmosphere of the poem? Explore. See what happens.

Bonus prompt: write a poem about either of these photos and credit the poet.

Good luck!

The aggressive hummingbird asshole blocking the feeder this morning.

Retweeting a Poem that Begins with a Retweet—Prompt Inspired by Maggie Smith

I feel as if I have finally succumbed to the meme of the photograph of wearing a t-shirt with a photo of myself wearing a t-shirt with a photo of myself wearing a t-shirt with a photo of myself wearing a t-shirt with a photo….

But I love this poem and the idea behind it. I too must point out every piece or instance of beauty I see as if the lack of acknowledgment will cause that flower or bird or tree or moth to disappear or shift the current timeline so that Finland really isn’t real or fade the part of me that notices such joys.

For your first prompt, use a line from Twitter, Facebook or other social media platform or from a meme as the first line of your poem or as a ghostline that you delete afterwards.

For the second prompt, use the statement “If you smell / smoke and don’t search for fire” or another one from the poem as a ghostline. Remember to delete the line and give credit to the poet.

For the next prompt, create your own series of “if”statements that builds to a breaking point, or create a series of if-then statements that defy current reality.

For the fourth prompt, chose several of these objects and/or creatures to interact with one another, or make one the narrator.

For the final prompt, write a poem using the following words from the poem: “past,” “point,” “shout,” “silence,” “find,” “pool,” “look,” “smoke,” “search,” and “tell” but try to switch the nouns to verbs and vice versa.

Bonus prompt: rewrite a myth into the vernacular and tone of a meme

And I just wanted to share that my plumeria finally bloomed!

It’s just a baby though…

Prompt from Todd Dillard—More Twitter Prompts

So my vacation did not lend itself to poetry…my head was too full of conversation scraps and scenery to settle into a writing space. Perhaps because of my own jumbled chaos, I am particularly attracted to structured prompts at the moment. Here is a prompt that poet Todd Dillard posted and agreed to allow me to share:

I particular like this because this prompt could be the first line that you use to enter a surreal world but that you can then erase it as you would a ghostline if you like.

Bonus prompt: use the photo below as a metaphor for the layers (or teetering piles for me) of people and places within your memory. How does one event stack upon another and collect other memories or distinguish itself from another? What moments do you choose to gather? Which ones cannot you not let go?

And here is the evening sky from my vacation near the Buffalo River in the Ozarks.

Beginnings and Endings—Editing and Writing Prompts Inspired by Ruth Awad

Good editors can show you new directions that you cannot see while in the middle of your poem, but you can use the same strategies for your own editing process. I have been told that some of my poems seem written to get to that last line or image. If you have received the same comment—or if an existing poem simply doesn’t work—take the last line, move it to the beginning, and edit from there.

For the first writing prompt, take either the first line—“And the lie is that I survived because parts of me / didn’t”—or the last line—“None of us got what we deserved”—as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and give credit to the poet.

For the next prompt, make a list of sorrows that you, or others, have carried. Be specific. Are you still carrying them? How did you release them? What now?

For the third writing prompt, write a poem using the following word list: “lie,” “take,” “mirrors,” “look,” “listen,” “light,” “lost,” “worry,” and “remind.” Try to switch the verbs to nouns and vice versa where possible.

For the last editing prompt, take a poem you’re unhappy with and change the verbs to their antonyms. What happens?