Grief and Choices—Prompts Inspired by Layli Long Soldier

As always, Chen Chen shares amazing poems, and Layli Long Soldier is a wonderful poet, whom I need to read more of.

The first prompt involves two parts. The first is a Mad Libs writing exercise in which you keep the format of the original (including the shape and the spacing), substitute “grief” with another emotion (try for a positive emotion first) and replace all the verbs with your own. Next replace the “we” to another pronoun (“I” or “you”). For the second part, remove the last lines from the original (“into light as ash / across our faces”) and rearrange what you’ve written into stanzas (couplets, quatrains or whichever feels the most natural to you). Provide your own ending. See what happens.

The next prompt is to write your own poem using ten of the verbs from this poem. For a constraint, use nature imagery.

The third prompt is a like a Choose Your Own Adventure. For each line, choose one of the options (e.g. “As we / (embrace) / the (past) / we (begin) / to (accept) / the grief / we (shift) / into light as ash / across our faces”) and make this a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and give credit to the poet.

Bonus prompt: What emotion or event has carved your own path (or that of a character’s in planning a short story or longer piece of fiction).

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Because—Prompts Inspired by Beth Marquez

I love this poem by Beth Marquez, published by Mulberry Literary, builds upon itself to that breathtaking ending and allows readers to make their own connections between the images and reasons.

For the first prompt, make a list of causes without stating the effects or clarifying their connections, using “Because” as an anaphora.

As a supplement to this prompt, change “Because” to another conjunction for the anaphora. What happens when you use “but” or “when” or “if”?

Your second prompt is to use “Because the footsteps in the hall / are approaching” as a ghostline for a poem or short story. Or choose another statement from the poem for an ghostline. After using it as a jumping off point, remember to erase the line and give credit to the poet.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following word list: “flush,” “steep,” “shine,” “leaves,” “locks,” “lace,” “clasp,” “bloom,” “mouth” and “fall.” Try to switch up the parts of speech (nouns for verbs and vise versa). Bonus points if you can use “oubliette” and “shawl” in your piece.

And the last prompt is simply a writing exercise. Mad Lib the poem, changing all the nouns and adjectives. If you like a particular line (or entire because-statement), use that for your first line.

Good luck! Have fun!

Gratitude—Prompts Inspired by W. S. Merwin

I am awed by this praise poem by W. S. Merwin. I have not learned to adapt to the tragedies, the injustices and sorrows of life and certainly cannot feel gratitude for them. Perhaps it is enough to feel grateful for the small kindnesses, to smile at strangers on the street and at doors, to wave at a car that lets me in onto a busy road, to thank people during our brief interactions, and to mean it when I say, “Have a good day.” Or perhaps these small courtesies simply allow us to sink deeper with a smile.

For the first prompt, make your own praise poem of resentments, fears regrets and tragedies, thanking each one. Remember to give credit to the poet for your inspiration.

The next prompt is to take one tragedy or hurt in your life and see it through the perspective of gratitude. As much pain as the stillbirth caused me, my daughter would not been conceived if her brother could have lived. I cannot imagine my life without her in it.

A third prompt is to use the line “with the animals dying around us” as a ghostline. See where it takes you. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

For a final prompt, create a list poem with the last word or phrases repeated. Don’t use “thank you” though; use an endearment, a curse or a phrase you commonly use.

Bonus prompt: write a story or poem in which the photo above is the setting. Choose whatever time period seems appropriate, although this is a photo I took this week of an old barn on the gravel lane to my parents’ house. What does it say about time when a modern photo could seem decades old? Why does black-and-white still convey the past, as if time is a bleaching or fading of events?

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Tense Times, Voice and the Partings of Speech—Editing Prompts

I’ve been thinking about the power of language to divide and categorize: the euphemisms used in war and violence by those with power; how passive voice hides the perpetrator of a shooting or a bombing; how one group of people are agents of their actions, but others recipients, innocent of deed.

What voice do you use in your poems; in spite of the constant reminder to use strong, active verbs does the passive slip in? Is there a poem or story in which your speaker denies agency? Would passive voice demonstrate that stance? As always, who is your speaker/narrator, some version of you, or another persona entirely? Some critics denigrate the use of “I” in a poem or story, but I distrust anyone who believes they can be fully objective in their own life or perform as some omniscient observer neutrally accounting an event even if I enjoy the stories written in third person.

For the first editing prompt, take an unfinished or discarded poem or short story and adjust the voice of the speaker/narrator—changing syntax and tone—to one different from the original or from your own habitual style. In Eric Morago’s workshop series, we are often asked to write in another poet’s style. Focusing on someone else’s voice taught me much about my own and offered more directions for me to move within my writing.

Even verb tense can illustrate as much as it obscures.

I am unsure how helpful such focus is in the initial draft of a poem or story, but I think such considerations are necessary in the revision and in developing as a writer.

For the next prompt, again choose a poem or a short story that feels unfinished to you, and (making a copy of that document) change the verb tense—yes, I know past tense is traditional for prose. What happens to the pacing? What other changes do you need to make for it all to fit? Does a story or narrative told in first person feel as “factual” or “recorded” in the present tense? Can the reader—or will a reader other than you—feel the weight of prior events influencing the present moment you describe?

Again, this is just for experiment, so you will probably change the tense back to your original, but it may offer insights in revising rough areas or lines/sections that don’t fit together.

Let’s move from tense to parts of speech. Since reading Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red I cannot stop thinking about this particular section:

To me, adjectives also are a way of further dividing and separating into categories. Sometimes the particulars are needed to express your meaning, setting a scene or creating an imagistic poem. While writers are often told to avoid adverbs and focus on active verbs, adjectives can build up.

For the next exercise, take a poem or story, and strip it of all of its adjectives. What happens? Do you need more nouns? Does the piece become too stark, empty or even vague? Add back an adjective one at a time but pause to consider how each one allocates the place a character/speaker or object within the described moment or place. What positions are you assigning to your subjects (objects)?

I hope these exercises will be helpful.

Bonus prompt: write a brief description of this photo of Cleveland Clinic

Now reconsider that description or combine it into a poem or the setting of a story after seeing the black and white photo of the same building (and different angle/location). What draws your eye?

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Protest and Reflections—Prompts Inspired by Mimesis

I have to share this poem with what is happening especially since this poet has lost so many family members and his community.

It is wrong (and all too easy) to appropriate others’ trauma but seems callous not to acknowledge the horrors taking place.

Your first prompt is to write a protest poem against the killing of civilians and ethnic cleansing.

The second prompt is use the title of the poem—“the representation of imitation of the real world in literature”—as inspiration. Take a personal moment or conversation to represent the current atrocities or a lesser injustice.

The last prompt is to write a love poem to a lover, a friend, family member(s) or to an entire community.

Good luck writing and may tomorrow be a better day for everyone.

Erasing Rejection—Prompts

Hi all, I once again missed posting about NaNoWriMo—the challenge to write 50,000 on a new novel during November. You can start now, although it can be hard to catch up. If you’ve already started, keeping going and congrats! It can be a lot of fun, especially if you join the community surrounding the event.

For poetry peeps though, let’s write some poems using erasure of our submission rejections. I’ve loved the poems I’ve seen on Twitter and other sites. I am unsure who came up with the idea, but I first came across those by Rachel Orta. Somehow the harsher the funnier these are.

After yet another rejection from Palette Poetry, this one particularly spoke to me:

So for the first prompt, take a rejection letter from a recent submission and erase all those kind encouragements, form-letter letdowns and harsh rebuffs into a soul-destroying or just funny response. Do remember to delete the publication’s and editor(s)’ names so that exercise doesn’t become an attack. I have so much material to choose from! Yay?!

As an alternative use this same process to create a poem from a breakup letter or text (once the pain has subsided and the relief has set in).

Bonus prompt: Create a list poem of phrases from rejection letters as Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz does in her “Notes on Rejection.” Listen to her read it here.

Have fun with the pain! Good luck!

Gentleness—Prompts Inspired by Heather Swan

Short post despite the delay—I am having difficulty concentrating on anything but my mom’s upcoming surgery. Every day is a stone to carry.

Btw, Joseph Fasano is a great person to follow on Twitter (while it lasts) for his lovely poetry threads.

For the first prompt, write a description of a scene from nature, or perhaps an intimate moment in your home, to build up to the point you want to leave the reader with.

The second prompt is to use the following word list to create a love poem that never uses the word “love”: “bend,” “spine,” “rests,” “leaves,” “floats,” “sways,” “upright,” “opening,” “burden” and “breaking.”

The last prompt is to use the lines “If it could always / be like this” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the lines and credit the poet for your inspiration.

Good luck writing!

Homebound—Prompts Inspired by Kelly Grace Thomas

California is having its first tropical storm hit landfall in decades as I am leaving it for a coast barraged with hurricanes, and with the current warmth of its waters, likely to be a hard September of storms. Changing desert and irrigated lushness for bayous and canals and flood zones. I am hoping for home, one closer to family though farther from the friends I’ve made into a second family. By my side will be a partner without whom I would slip into pale emptiness, both a drowning and a desiccation by degrees. I am a woman who finally found shelter even from the storms of my own spinning, the disasters I’ve made of the life given me and taken from me, a haven for all my days.

For the first prompt, describe yourself or your family as a building or structure. Are you/your family made of stone or sticks, glass or cast iron? Is the roof secure, the walls thick? Is there a door? Do you want there to be one that you could walk outside yourself and leave?

The second prompt is to start the first line (or your title) as “I raised myself to believe” but describe how you’ve cut yourself or your possibilities down. Be sure to credit the poet for your inspiration.

For the third, write a poem on what you wish you could talk about with your family. What can you not say until you leave or they are gone?

Your last prompt is for a writing exercise: Mad Lib this poem, replacing nouns and adjectives with your own. The structure will likely be too close to the original to publish, but it can spark your writing in a new direction. If possible, take one of the lines you recreated and use that for either your first line or last line.

Bonus prompt: write an ekphrastic poem or short story under the theme of shelter. How well would you/your protagonist survive here?

Good luck writing!

Waiting—Prompts Inspired by Nomi Stone

So much of healthcare and the act of caring involves waiting and holding—for an appointment, for results, for a cure, for someone to come back to you in their own time or to hold on and wait just one more day to leave.

At such transitional moments, time oozes along the spinal column, dragging its shambling mass and tentacles across the back and chest until we bend under the weight. Waiting is hard on all who love, but we have our clocks and calendars for compass, while other creatures have their own internal guidance systems. I hope you enjoy Nomi Stone’s “Waiting for Happiness” as much as I did, particularly its opening lines.

The first prompt is to begin and end with the perspective of another creature, a pet or a wild creature, with the narrator echoing the action or emotion in the middle section.

For the second prompt, create a list poem of signs that you (or the narrator) is missing someone. What do you do when the longing hits and you have no choice but to wait?

The third prompt is to use “Here we are in our bodies, ripe as” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

Lastly, choose a time—5:00 or midnight or perhaps the moment you are happy—to describe. Is it when you pull into your driveway, the moment you can finally slip off your shoes, the soft meow you hear when you open the door, the thudding of children’s footsteps in the hall, or the feel of your lover’s shoulder next to yours on the couch? Give this time a density, a texture that you can feel in either a poem or as the setting for a story.

Good luck writing and loving. Have fun!

For My Mother—Prompts Inspired by Wanda Coleman

I missed last Sunday’s post. I was in the hospital visiting both my dad and my mom. Both of them are in poor health and there have been scares, but this time it was Mom who had to be brought back. Like with my dad three years ago, it doesn’t feel real that she was almost gone, that the hands that held ice to a bee sting or checked my forehead for fever would still.

I think if she goes, he will soon follow, that the boy and girl who started going steady in the fifth grade, bickered and dated all through middle school and high school, and climbed into the other’s hospital bed for comfort wouldn’t be without the other for long.

I know not everyone has a mother and father who gave them what they needed but thought I understood my good luck: I was wrong.

I cannot describe the last few days as well as this poem by Wanda Coleman. I hope you enjoy this poem too.

For the first prompt, describe the “realm children go” in either a poem or short story.

The next prompt is to use “when it will be the only coin i possess with which to buy peace of mind” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

The last prompt is to write about a parent or loved one, listing all the ways you want to remember them, to tether them to this world.

Bonus prompt: who shines within the lonely nights of your mind as you try to comfort yourself to sleep.

Good luck writing and holding onto your loved ones.

Galloping Night and Returning Grandmothers—Prompts Inspired by Rule Breaking and I.S. Jones

I often find that the rules people spout off about poetry usually are arbitrary and needlessly limiting, so I appreciate the comment by Gabrielle Bates and her sharing this lovely poem. I too enjoy poems about grandmothers and family, and even if I did not, I find being told I cannot do something my strongest motivator.

The first prompt is to take a rule that you’ve heard people state and break it. Write about the moon, the body, death, your first love, a tree, whatever subject you’ve been told to avoid and dive in. Mix a metaphor—deliberately. Use second person. Throw in ellipses or even an exclamation point. Write a love story centered on a hamster—a friend wrote an awesome story after an editor gave this as a topic no one would want to read and even included space travel. It kicked ass! (See, exclamation point).

For the second prompt, write a poem or story about one of your grandmothers (or both) to make Gabrielle Bates happy. Post it on Twitter and tag her if you like.

The second prompt is to begin with a name and use its meaning (or your assumed meaning)—try to choose a name that means a specific object or creature—and for an extended metaphor.

For the third prompt, use the title to set up a scene and take the line “Give me a truth I need to survive” as a ghostline. See where the poem leads you. Make sure to erase the line and give credit to L.S. Jones.

The next prompt is to write of a list poem of all that was “a waste of devotion” for you.

The last prompt is another ghostline: “The story goes: her presence / would remind men of their mortality.” Or you can use it for the first line of a poem or story but make sure you indicate it is a quotation and attribute it to the poet.

Bonus prompt: write an ekphrastic poem using the photo of these sculptures.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Connectives—Prompts Inspired by Vievee Francis and Nadia Alamah

Sorry for the delay—I have been in Mississippi and planning the upcoming move to there from California.

It can be easy to overlook how much we can affect one another. When one trips, the other reaches forward to catch and winces at the fall. My worry creases my husband’s forehead; my insomnia keeps him up at night. This morning the mumbled words that escaped the shouting in my nightmare woke him, so he called my name to wake me. I wish I could express the connection as Vievee Francis does here.

For the first prompt, think of a friend or lover or relative whom you feel a deep connection with and make a list of events/actions of one or yourself and the effects experienced by the other/yourself into a poem or story.

For the second prompt, take that list and choose only one of the shared causes/effects for the heart of the poem or story.

Your third prompt is to write the “secret story” of the first line.

For the next poetry or prose prompt, describe what “once you know, you / can’t unknow” and what you (or a character) did to survive that learning.

Another prompt is to write a poem or story from the following word list: “bow,” “part,” “ravages,” “pull,” “pressure,” “need,” “grip,” “demands,” “present,” “string,” and “quiver.” Try to reverse the forms: verbs to nouns or vise versa.

The next prompts are based on two photos in a series I saw in an art installation.

Here is the artist’s statement:

“Redlining Henna I-IV”

This photographed series depicts an interpretation of redlining via body paint and henna. The two hands depicted here have lines from both district maps of Long Beach, California and Beirut, Lebanon to reflect how two entirely different cities, countries and parts of the world can experience the same discrimination-fueled sociopolitical phenomenon. The process is photographed so that the viewer can “see” the redlining happening, where the borders drawn to create districts become red, and with areas distinguished and excluded from other areas.

The choice for having this piece painted on the hands is inspired by the photos of and the act of receiving henna. Henna is usually given on holidays and weddings in South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. It was historically a Lebanese tradition for weddings, but with the impact of colonialism and a culturally-imbedded desire to adopt more Western wedding traditions, the tradition of utilizing henna appears to be observed less and less frequently. 

This results in an opportunity to create art that juxtaposes two phenomenons to show their relatability, with the intention to comment on our developing cities and the way in which immigrants can also become subject to redlining. 

Concept, art and model: Nadia the Llama @nadiaathellama   nadiathellama.com

Photography: Kelsey Bryan-Zwick @bindyourownbooks   

Individual Titles 

I: The Lines

II: The Cities 

III: Redlining 

IV: It Never Really Washes Away 

Write an ekphrastic poem from either image, or write a poem or story honoring a family or cultural tradition.

Using the artist’s statement and the images, write a poem or story from the persona of one city or town to another.

The next prompt is to write a story in which the actions of a one town’s residents ripple outward to another region. Try to emphasize echoes and repetition to create a sense of outward flowing.

For another poetry prompt, describe the cities and borders mapped on your body. Who drew those boundaries? What still separates them, or are the lines fading?

The last prompt is to reconcile all the places and selves you have been in a poem or short story or life. Where do you belong? I am still working on that even as I move once again.

Good luck, and please wish me the same!

Magic Boxes, Gifts, and Borrowed Prompts—Prompts Inspired by Kit Wright

Annelyse Gelman—a wonderful poet—started a thread of writing prompts for students, and Joanna Monk offered a lovely one, inspired by Kit Wright. This is a fun prompt for anyone, especially if you are feeling stuck.

For the first prompt, describe what you would put in your magic box and the box itself.

The second prompt is a variation on the first: for this prompt, describe what you would lock away in a box and how you would secure it. What are you afraid will escape if it opens, and/or who will be harmed?

The next prompt is to write a poem about yourself as a box and what you hold in a prose poem so that form embodies the content.

The last prompt is to write a story about finding a locked door—or box—in the basement of an old house you are renting. What happens next?

Have fun writing! Good luck!

Family and Trees—Prompts Inspired by Sofia Fey

Back to the previous stream-of-consciousness prompt, I feel that this poem by Sofia Fey has that feel and is breathtaking.

For the first prompt, write a prose poem connected by repeating statements of what you know and what you don’t.

The second prompt is to experiment writing a poem without punctuation. Build intensity as you go.

For a third prompt—either poetry or fiction—write about an event that may or may not have happen. Give the flickering of memory an atmosphere, a light that illuminates outlines and highlights the shadows time leaves when you cannot bear to look straight on.

The last prompt is to use the last line as a ghostline (erasing it but still crediting the poet) or as a title (and still crediting the poet for your inspiration): “did you get hurt when you were little yes.”

Good luck writing! Have fun!

OPP—Other People’s Prompts

Sorry for the delay—I’ve been traveling. I will try to have another post up later in the week. Until then, here is a prompt from poet Kristal Phillips.

I’ve included the links for Frank O’Hara’s “Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul” and Charles Simic’s “Wherein Obscurely.”

The second prompt is from the amazing Rachel McKibbens. Check out her blog for more great prompts and buy her books! :-)

Bonus prompt: write a poem or story about what is waiting for you at then end of the hall. Not blood, but blue.

(Btw, OPP is my callout to Brendan Constantine’s Down with OPP (Other People’s Poetry) features at the Ugly Mug.)

Good luck! Have fun!

It’s My Birthday!—Prompt Inspired by Safia Elhillo

For my birthday, your prompt is to write your origin story. Did you sprout from your father’s elbow, hatch from your mother’s spleen, crawl from an abandoned well? How did you enter this world and what are your plans for it? Where are you now?

For inspiration, here is a beautiful poem by Safia Elhillo.

Bonus prompt: create a poem using the refrain “I was born” followed by a place, a time, or image. Be sure to credit the poet for the inspiration.

Good luck writing! Have a wonderful origin!!!

Fill-in-the-Blank Time! Prompt by Joseph Fasano

Some days ideas and inspiration flow all around us as if we were a rock centered in a river, but other days it might be good to have a fill-in-the-blank kind or Mad Libs kind of prompt to get the day started. I appreciate prompts that feel like plugging in an image because they can so often inspire me to write during the dry spells. If you like this prompt, check out Joseph Fasano’s website for his books and individual poems.

Btw, I enjoy following him on Twitter: he creates threads of poems under a theme and invites others to share their favorites, and he often provides encouragement to new writers. You may too (for as long as Twitter is around of course).

The first prompt is to follow his prompt as is.

For the second prompt, take the poem you’ve written following the prompt and choose your strongest line or image. Begin your poem there.

The third prompt reverses the meaning: instead of loneliness or solitude, focus on togetherness. Follow the prompts instructions but change the repeated line to “Everyone knows where we are” (or something similar) and use “we” instead of “I” for the speaker. See what happens.

The last prompt is to take the poem’s repeated line “No one knows where I am” as a ghostline for a jumping off point. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet for your inspiration.

Bonus story (or poetry) prompt: write a conversation between the rocks and the water as it rushes past but give the trees the final say.

Good luck! Have fun!

Prompts Inspired by Robert Hass

Short post tonight because it has been a long week. I love the space between the title and the poem and how the connection leads to new directions.

These prompts are for either poems or fiction.

For the first, take a legend or myth and make one change. Phelps Narcissus never wasted away in yearning for a reflection of himself; the husband only pretended to not know his crane wife was plucking her own feathers; La Llorona’s children all swam safely to the riverbank while playing, and she is the one who drowned searching for them.

The second prompt is to use the poem’s title as a ghostline. See what happens. Make sure to erase the line and credit the poet for the inspiration.

For the third prompt, describe the folklore or rumor that spawns a creature.

The third prompt is to write the lyrics of the song he imagined they would sing. Or to describe what would you sing to call a sailor to drown and what would you gain from that death.

Good luck! Have fun!

Memorial Day—Prompts Inspired by Amorak Huey

I hope you are having a good Memorial Day. Let’s celebrate with this poem by Amorak Huey. Ah, that ending is so fulfilling.

For the first prompt, reference a famous character from classical literature or pop culture in the title but do not refer to it again until near the end of the poem. Let the ending explain the connection between the original and your/narrator’s modern life.

The second prompt is to use the lines “We all want the same thing / from this world” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet for the inspiration.

For the next prompt, describe an event you witnessed and create a metaphor for what that memory has become for you. Is it “wound, souvenir, / backstory” or something else? Is it the cracked window you see the world through, echo of your footsteps when you are alone in your house, the festering splinter you cannot seem to pull out?

And for the last prompt, write about someone you lost but can never let go.

Good luck writing!

Prompts Inspired by and Publishing Resources from Jason B. Crawford

Hi all, I’ve started a blog post with prompts but wanted to include a friend’s artwork. My photos of the pictures didn’t turn out, so she will send me the original photos and I will have another blog post coming soon.

So instead I wanted to share a spreadsheet of contests and submission deadlines that Jason B. Crawford kindly posted.

I so appreciate their generosity. Check out their website if you would like to read their poetry, which I cannot recommend enough. My God, “Ode to the Soil” is amazing.

For the first prompt, write an ode to something normally considered mundane or unlovely. Surprise yourself (and your readers) by viewing the subject with a new lens.

The next prompt is to use “But you, you greet every body like a new / meal” as a ghostline, but have the “you” be something other than the soil or a grave or anything associated with death. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet.

For the third prompt, describe in a poem or story what you (or a character) would make if you/the character pushed out all the sorrow from within.

The final prompt is address a poem to a historical figure beginning or ending with the line “All this to say, I am jealous of your lack of / remorse.” Remember to use quotation marks around or italicize the line and give credit to the poet.

Good luck submitting! Have fun writing!