Poetry

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Cheating Off of Todd’s Test—Stolen Prompts

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I freaking love Todd Dillard’s prompts, so I am posting a couple here. Btw, he has entire threads of prompts. This first one is one I hope to write today:

I love how these instructions can push me into a new direction, and sometimes I need a poem recipe rather than a think-of-something-blue kind of suggestion. And even the title is included! By day 22, I need this kind of help.

And because I am not a totally ungrateful asshole, here is his website where you can find his poems, which I love.

Good luck and have fun!

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Carry Us through April—Prompts Inspired by Joy Harjo

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If you are keeping up with writing a poem every day this month, then congratulations. If you are like me, then perhaps we will catch up, and even if we don’t we have been writing and reading other poets, celebrating their techniques. So let’s turn to a great poet and poem to keep us motivated.

Joy Harjo’s “The Creation Story” is so lovely that I would like to dwell within some of its stanzas, although my house is also in danger of stones that I myself am throwing. I found Twila Newey’s photograph of the poem—with its burst of light at the corner—perfect.

The first prompt is more of a Mad Lib writing exercise rather than a prompt; the resulting poem will be too close to the source material for it to stand alone unless you revise significantly.

  • Take the first stanza and replace “love” and “light” with your own nouns.

  • For the second stanza substitute your own dependent clause for “when my entrails dangle…”

  • In the third, replace “ashamed” with your own adjective and the infinitive phrase with your own.

  • Keep the first line of the fourth stanza but change the rest.

  • In the fifth, replace “stars” and “words” with your own nouns, choose a location other than “house” and substitute “calcium” and “blood” with your own ingredients.

  • Repeat the location and list what threatens it for your sixth stanza.

  • The seventh stanza is your own blessing or prayer or wish.

  • The last line follows the structure but replace “transfix” and “love” with a different verb and noun.

See what you have now. If one of the stanzas seems to work for you—and you have changed the structure and the language significantly enough—use that for your first line(s). Do still give an attribution to the poet.

The second prompt is to create a list of couplets, pairs of what you either do or do not fear and unexpected consequences. Vary the wording and structure from the original but do credit the poet for your inspiration.

The third prompt is to describe what you want your words to do—to carry another through a day, to plug the hole in a levee, to prick a careless reader, what?

Good luck!

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Abecedarian Your Saturday—Prompts Inspired by Laura Kolbe

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

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

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

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

Good luck writing!

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Todd Dillard’s Poem Recipe—A Prompt

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Todd’s instructions will lead to a better poem than many of those I’ve written, so write this. Modify the ingredients as necessary though: name a different music group or list an album, cite a mathematical theorem, and/or describe a moment of shame.

Bonus prompt: use a recent photo you took that contains a reflection of yourself and write an ekphrastic (your image may be indistinct).

Bonus bonus prompt: use this photo for an ekphrastic poem, emphasizing texture.

Good luck with 30/30!

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Tomorrow Starts NaPoWriMo: 30 Poems in 30 Days

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Yes, another April is upon us. It is National Poetry Month, full of readings, celebration, and the challenge to write a poem every day for the month. Of course, you can cut off the last half of the month in your calendar, but technically you need to write thirty to win the cash prize (there is no prize except the reward of writing every day).

Check out the official site for this year’s prompts and those from previous years!

Other poets and writing organizations will also be providing prompts, so I will posting links to their websites and events. I will try to post extra prompts, but I will be writing or editing a poem every day (mostly editing since I need to finish my manuscript).

For preparation, here is a bonus prompt: take your favorite poem (or one of your favorites—I can never choose just one) and use for a ghostline its fifth line (or a line somewhere in the center, likely the heart of the poem, whatever line most resonates with you). Remember to erase and credit the poet.

Remember you do not need to write 30 GOOD poems, just 30 poems. That’s why May is the unofficial month of editing (or every month after until the next April). And, if you write one more poem than you usually do in a month or fewer poems but these are ones you are happier with, you have succeeded. I am revising (pun intended) the challenge to include editing older poems, many from previous 30/30s.

The true challenge is just to keep writing and having fun! Good luck!!!

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Rescue Attempts—Prompts Inspired by Daniella Toosie-Watson

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Some of my favorite memories of my daughter are her attempts to rescue insects from drowning or falling. That impulse to save a helpless creature is perhaps what is best in us, or what we wish for ourselves as Daniella Toosie-Watson observes.

The first prompt is to think back to a time when you tried to rescue a creature and describe the event. Once you’ve finished, write from the perspective of the rescued. Intersperse those perspectives. See what happens.

For another prompt, use the line “To reach out and not imagine myself the” and finish it with something other than “God.” Make sure to italicize the line and credit the poet.

For the third prompt, use the first line “I couldn’t let it drown. I ripped off a piece” as a ghostline for the beginning of a poem or short story. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

The next prompt is to describe who or what you would save if you were God and how would you do so. The narrower your target probably the better.

This is a photo of a Luna moth I found floating in the Buffalo River on a windy day. I had managed to save a bee earlier, but the moth was already drowned. It was so beautiful I tried to preserve its body and took it home with me.

For your final prompt, write a poem or story about that same impulse, but replace the moth with another creature. See where it takes you (dark, dark places).

Good luck writing!

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Happy World Poetry Day!

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It is so easy to get caught in our small circles with little exploration of writers in other countries. I certainly am guilty of that. One of the fascinating experiences of getting invited to participate in an international event with poets reading in multiple languages was recognizing the emotion behind a poem even if I did not understand the words. The music spoken carried across continents.

Here is a poem shared by Ilya Kaminsky, whom I admire deeply. I hope you enjoy the poem as much I do.

Good luck writing and reading today!

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Sonnet a Memory to Preserve—Prompts Inspired by Marilyn Nelson

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I often joke about how poor my memory is—that if I were to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s, there’d be no difference. I suppose we must laugh at what we fear if we are to live a moment of peace in the present.

I adore this Marilyn Nelson’s poem—its unexpected imagery and precise language, but most of all, its recognition of the inevitability of age and memory lapses and its adamant refusal to lose the speaker’s beloved.

For the first prompt, write a poem using the line “and something mushrooms from nothing to now” as a ghostline. Remember to delete the line after you’ve finished the poem and give credit to the poet with an “after Marilyn Nelson” or with a similar method.

For the second prompt, write a response to the poem from the perspective of the speaker’s “dear.” Try to respond with a sonnet if you can.

For a third prompt, write a poem or short story using the following word list: “labyrinth,” “mushrooms,” “vapor,” “trace,” “remains,” “cumulus,” “flame,” “oblivion,” “cloud,” and “wave” but try to switch the nouns to verbs and vice versa.

For another prompt, create an erasure poem from an abstract (or the actual article) from a scientific journal. Remember to only delete, not add words or rearrange their order. See what happens.

Bonus prompt: write about clouds however you wish.

Good luck writing!

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Ways to Say I Love You—Prompts Inspired by a Generous Friend and by Tara Skurtu

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It can be hard to show how much we care about someone else or understand the trust another has in us. Despite our essential loneliness, we are entangled in one another, and those ties create such beauty and strength. Recently I received a message from a friend that brought me joy. I do not believe I have ever helped her as much as she has helped me, but I am grateful she thinks I have. If I could, I would slip into each nightmare to fight the monsters, find her missing clothes or book report, and catch her as she falls. And she would do the same.

For the first prompt, write a poem or story about a dream in which another person rescued you or brought you comfort, or how you would enter their dreams to rescue them. Try to keep the logic of a dreamworld intact.

The other prompts are inspired by this poem by Tara Skurtu, which is a favorite of mine. I like it so much I may have already used it in a previous post. Perhaps what I love best are the two individual lines—how they create a turn in the poem—and the line breaks: “dead then alive again, twirling” and “Today I did. Walked into your morning / shower.”

For the second prompt, write about a moment when you showed someone how much you loved them. Or write about someone offering you their love and trust. How did you respond?

For the third prompt, use the line “It’s hard to say I need you enough” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet for your inspiration. Or you may use the line as your title but still credit Tara Skurtu.

The fourth prompt is to write a new poem or take an old poem and arrange it in couplets but have at least one single line that represents a turn. Experiment with the sonnet form if you like. Often reorganizing a poem into a new form can help with eliminating unnecessary lines or finding the actual heart of poem.

The final prompt is another ghostline (appropriately enough for this line): “And you were gone, like that.”

Good luck writing. And good luck showing how much you love and need the people in your life. Bring them joy.

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Story Prompts: Explain This

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Today should be a long post filled with multiple prompts, but I am tired, so tonight will be fun prompts taken from Twitter before that platform completely burns down.

For the first prompt, write a story or narrative poem that explains what happened at this Quality Inn. Bonus points if you use the perspective of the raccoon.

I wonder if people from a hundred years from now will look back on us with the same bafflement I look at this badge. Write a story or poem based on this; please explain the tails.

Write a romance or a love poem with the perspective from one of these. You can keep them as cats if you wish.

Now something a little less silly. Consider perspective and position and write a poem or story about looking up, however you interpret that.

Final prompt, write a story or poem based on this photo I took in an antique store. That mannequin is creepy af.

Have fun writing! Good luck!

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An NPC Persona—Prompts Inspired by Shane Schick

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Perhaps my favorite parts of video games—and the memes they create—are the quotes from NPCs, but I’d never considered how much of an NPC I must be in others’ lives—particularly that of my daughter—until reading this poem by Shane Schick.

For the first prompt, write yourself as an NPC in the video game of another’s life. Write a poem as the inn keeper/healing potion provider/task provider for your children. Bonus credit if you include well-known video game tasks/quests.

For a second prompt, write a poem or essay explaining a familiar comic book or video game character or trope and connect it to your own life (e.g. final boss) as the poet did here.

For the last prompt, write a persona poem or a flash fiction story for a game’s NPC. Choose your favorite. Run wild with your NPC’s backstory and conflict.

And, yes, I like fan fiction. A lot of writers learned their craft writing fan fiction, and writers become writers because they were inspired by others.

Have fun writing an adventure even if that quest line is your own life or set in another’s. Always give credit.

Bonus prompt: write story using this setting.

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Gold Light—Prompts Inspired by Donald Justice

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Once again I am turning to poems shared on Twitter for prompts in spite of all the wonderful books of poetry I have at home (too lazy to take a picture, I guess). Btw, I enjoy following Jay Hulme who shares so many great poems.

I love the shift between each of the sections in “There is a gold light in certain old paintings.” For the first prompt, take a fragment from three of your older, unfinished poems that you never could make work and build a new poem. You might find it helpful to cut up these poems in separate stanzas. Mix and match these various stanzas to see what connects.

For the next prompt, experiment with repetition. Notice how each of the stanzas repeats the last word for the second and fourth lines and the ending couplets. Generally, I follow the rule of three I learned in Eric Morago’s workshop in which a word used twice is perhaps a mistake but three times is obviously deliberate and therefore a technique. It may help to create a word list. For a fascinating discussion on the form and the connections in this poem, read Mary Margaret Alvarado’s article in the Kenyon Review.

For the second prompt, make a list of loved ones you have lost and a second list of what you find beautiful. Write a poem using any items from the second list that spark with who you’ve lost from the first.

For a third prompt, write what Orpheus sang.

For the final prompt, write a poem or story that is drenched in gold, whether light or wealth, but let that color dominate the setting or theme.

Have fun writing!

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Valentine’s Day is Coming—Collect Your Jars of Hearts Or Eat Them—Prompts Inspired by Rita Dove

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Yes, the heart is a threadbare metaphor, an eye-rolling cliché, and a lump of muscle nothing like the shape of its namesake candy, but still there is a sweetness to be found as Rita Dove demonstrates in her “Heart to Heart.” As she says, “I decided to take these tired metaphors and deconstruct their camouflage, until all that remains is the true ‘heart’ of the matter: one human being, stripped of blather and artifice, speaking to the beloved.”

For the first prompt—or challenge rather—is to write about the heart and love in a way that likewise strips both down to genuine emotion. If it is easier, you too can list what the heart or love is not before redefining it in your own words and imagery.

The second prompt is to use that structure of listing what something is not before redefining it, but this time do so for envy. Gnaw on your own heart on the page.

For another prompt, write about love gone bad, broken hearts, betrayal, and bitterness. Get it all out of your system. Paragraphs if need be. Now take what you’ve written and do a blackout or erasure of it. Get rid of the adverbs, the explanations, and philosophizing. How much can you strip down to get to a single image that encapsulates all the pain you experienced?

For the final prompt—and shift to the weird—take the “Collecting your jar of hearts” line from Christina Perri’s “Jar of Hearts” song literally and write a poem or flash fiction. Let formaldehyde—or another preservative—keep your love forever.

Good luck! Good writing!

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Writer’s Blocks and Bricks—Prompts Inspired by Linda Pastan

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Writer’s block, dry periods, blank pages, and frustration—most of us experience this at one time or another. I love how visceral Linda Pastan makes this experience. I too often want to lie in the snowdrifts within my mind, the cold emptiness of the screen before me.

If you are struggling with this right now, do a freewrite by list five objects you saw today or are around you at this moment. Don’t overthink, just the first things that come to mind or that you see around you. Now describe objects, using all the senses if possible—the smell, feel, shape, color, species or brand if you can without stopping to research it (a plump, red squirrel, an oak tree, a Ford Pinto, Pillsbury Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (safe-to-eat raw), etc. What is the squirrel doing? Did it see you? Is the cookie dough whispering to you, “Eat Me. I’m Safe”?

Now describe five things you remember from yesterday. Look for connections between the two lists and see if anything sparks. If so, explore that interest in either a poem or flash fiction. Perhaps you can take that description and use it for a fiction setting. If not, no worries, the point is to just get some space cleared up in your head. Often a block is from too many ideas to focus on one rather than none, as Brendan Constantine mentions in his workshops.

For just a writing exercise, take the poem and Mad Libs it. Change the nouns and verbs. If you want to change this into an actual prompt, take one of the sentences you’ve written (perhaps your modified version of “I want to lie down / in its whiteness”) and use it for a ghostline.

For a writing prompt, use the line “I want lie down in its / whiteness” as a ghostline. You don’t need to restrict yourself to exploring the same subject matter as the inspiration poem, but of course you can write on writing blocks too.

For the last prompt, remember back to a time when you felt either empty or locked. Create a place or object to encapsulate your experience, similar to the poem above. Try to avoid deserts unless you move deeper into that metaphor or have a different direction than expected. Go all in then: add mirages, some spitting camels, hopping jerboas, and vultures for a positive note. /s

Good luck! Have fun writing!

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Prompts and Encouragement Inspired by Adedayo Agarau and Publication Resources

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I want to share this poem because it is so beautiful and because the poet said it had been his most rejected piece. Since I am awaiting rejections from some out-of-reach publications, I need this encouragement myself.

For the first prompt, create your own footnote poem in which the title explains the lines’ reference(s). A religious book or the name of a myth or famous movie, book, or even character would all work.

The second prompt is to use the opening line “At what point does silence become surrender?” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and give credit to the poet.

For a third prompt, write a list poem on envy using the line “This is envy, this is my blood building a boat in your / raging voice” as either ghostline or title or epigraph. Do give credit regardless.

For the last prompt from this poem, write a poem using the following word list: “silence,” “whimper,” “storm,” “sacrifice,” “platform,” “knife,” “ram,” “voice,” “smeared,” and “speck.” Try to use the nouns in the poem as verbs and vice versa in yours.

Now for a change, rather than writing, let’s talk about where to submit poems. I ran across Angela T. Carr’s list of publication deadlines late so that many of the January submission periods have already closed, but there are still publications open until February.

If you have a full-length poetry collection ready, Emily Stoddard generously shared a list of 183 publishers, their deadlines (if set), and reading fees (if any) on her substack.

As always, I am grateful to the generosity of so many in the poetry community.

Bonus prompt: write an ekphrastic poem or short story based on this scene.

Good luck writing (and editing) and submitting!

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Mad Hatterpillers—Prompts for Molting and New Growth

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I realize I haven’t regularly been posting fiction prompts, so I will try to work on prompts that can be used either.

Since it is a new year, let’s take inspiration from the Uraba lugens caterpillar and build upon what we’ve done in the previous year(s).

For your first prompt, take a poem or short story of yours that you feel was successful and create a “sequel” if possible by starting with the last line of that poem.

Your second prompt is similar: take your favorite lines from four or five of your unfinished poems and Frankenstein a new poem as if you were creating a cento. Mix and match to see what works.

For fiction/creative nonfiction or poetry, write advice/life lessons and offer praise from a former self (or character’s self) to your (or a character’s) current self. If possible, create a Greek chorus trumpeting your achievements.

Another possible direction to explore is to imagine all of the past year’s achievements/sins budding off of you like extra heads or sprouting into limbs or vines. What would you carry with you; what would you let separate from yourself?

And, finally, create a character/persona that mixes human and other traits. Btw, I have no idea what is going on in this store window.

Good luck writing! Have fun!