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

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!

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

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!

Prompts and Encouragement Inspired by Adedayo Agarau and Publication Resources

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!

Mad Hatterpillers—Prompts for Molting and New Growth

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!

Sonia Greenfield’s Recommended Reading List and Inspired Prompts

Had a migraine, so I am definitely not with it today. I do want to share the list of poems that Sonia Greenfield shared on Facebook though. I hope you enjoy the poems as much as I have. You can read her own poems on her website. Btw, Sonia’s book All Possible Histories is amazing, and she has a new book out, Helen of Troy is High AF, which sounds awesome. Links to purchase the books on also found on her website.

Your first prompt is to write a response to one of these poems. You can do so however you wish: use a line from one of them for an epigraph or a golden shovel, create a conversation to a poem, or take lines from several and write a cento.

Your second prompt, inspired by Sonia’s new book, is to write a short story or poem from the personal historical or mythological figure(s) who is “high AF”: what kinds of snacks do they reach for, what ex do they want to text or send an animal messenger to, what obsesses them at that moment (the play of light on a stream, flickering torch, the laces on their shoes)?

Bonus prompt: what the hell is my new kitty thinking? Trick question: nothing! Write from the perspective of the void (or of Onyx, aka Goofball).

Have fun!

Surgeries and Separations—A Rant with Prompts and Taxidermy (NSFW)

I am still working on the prompt I’d started, but I wanted to get something out for a prompt or at least start a discussion. You have probably often heard that we should “separate the artist from the art” by people who want to continue promoting the writing or other artwork by a racist shithead or a rapist or abuser of some kind.

My opinion: fuck that. Our lives inform the art we make, and art comes from more than just an individual but from a surrounding community. If someone abused/abuses other artists within a community, that person doesn’t deserve to be uplifted by that same community (or a larger one).

Obviously, this is a decision every person has to make individually, and each situation (and its context) differs. For me, I have less of a problem of sharing, teaching, and promoting the work of a dead writer who no longer materially benefits, but I also want to focus more on living artists. Of course, there are writers who do or have done terrible things to others that I am unaware of; I am not a part of elite literary circles and am generally an outsider for even the larger Southern California writing community. Promoting and buying the work of generous and supportive writers is my goal. I appreciate all the guidance and encouragement I have received.

So, yes, I am a judgmental ass, but you probably already figured that out. And, sorry, Dad, I know I promised to work on using the f-word and other profanity less often. One resolution already down.

Now on to the prompts!

For the first prompt, write a poem on how to remove yourself from your writing, a kind of reverse ars poetica if you will. How would you erase your perspective or voice? What particular techniques or style is your writing known for? Self-deprecation is welcome. Or have fun with boasting. Either way, enjoy yourself!

For the next prompt, describe a surgery on removing your writing from yourself. Is a particular poem in a section of your liver? Your gallbladder? Why does it need to be removed? Are all those embarrassing poems about your ex housed in your appendix and need to be cut out? Do you have sestinas in your tonsils? (I admire people who can write sestinas; mine suck, seriously.) Do all your unfinished drafts ache like an abscessed tooth?

So you may have heard of “poet voice.” How a poet reads their poems can annoy (or infuriate) others, and there are as many opinions on the right way to perform a poem or read poetry aloud as there are poets. If someone reading aloud differently than speaking conversationally annoys you, describe how “poet voice“ should be excised. Since my speaking voice sounds like a hyperactive chipmunk, I have tried (and mostly failed) to develop a deeper voice that can carry a room, so I am guilty of “poet voice.”

What voice or voices (or personas, if you prefer) do you carry within you? Are they past selves? Or do you carry a chorus of mentors/critics within you? Would you remove it/them if you could? If so, how could you remove them? Amputation? Lancing? Antibiotics or antifungals? Maggots to eat the rotting flesh? Describe the voice(s)/persona(s) and their removal in a poem or flash fiction.

Graphic photo below!

Over the weekend I went to the Oddities and Curiosities Expo: so much taxidermy and dead butterflies.

Would the removed poems/artistic inspiration/narrative voice(s) be stored wet?

In conjunction with the previous prompts, write an ekphrastic using the following (graphic) photo.

And for the final (weird) prompt: describe the diorama the surgeons would find if they searched inside you for your muses.

And, if you are wondering, why yes, I DO believe I have ADHD.

I hope this post hasn’t been too graphic or disturbing and that you have fun!

Celebrate Endings and Beginnings—Prompts Inspired by Lucille Clifton and Barbara Crooker

I’ve been traveling, so I haven’t written prompts for a while, but tomorrow begins a new year, and somewhere there is a new leaf fluttering in the wind, hope leaks like an old faucet and all that.

I believe I’ve used Lucille Clifton’s poem, but I love it.

For the first prompt, write an apology to your former selves for all the terrible things you’ve said about them. Or write a poem from the perspective of a former self—your 17-year-old self or your 30 year-old self or yourself at any age or period of your life—and forgive your current self for leaving you and your hopes and beliefs behind. Be kind.

For the next prompt, make a list poem of all that you plan to let go in the coming year.

For the last prompt from this poem, use the repeated line, “I am running into a new year,” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and give credit to Lucille Clifton.

These next prompts are from Barbara Crooker’s “The New Year.”

For the first prompt from “The New Year,” begin with a list of failures, mistakes, rejections, and/or losses but end on an image of perseverance as the poet did.

For the last Crooker-inspired prompt, use the line “Nobody wants another poem” as a ghostline or as your title. Prove the bastards wrong.

And finally the last prompt of the year is an ekphrastic using the photos below.

I hope the new year is full of sparkly wonder. Best of luck writing and editing!!! <3

How to Say Goodbye—Prompts Inspired by InSight, the Mars Rover

With the holidays, I will likely be even more behind on prompts than usual. I will try to make this prompt the last sad one for the year. Try!

InSight, NASA’s Mars lander will soon lose power and go offline. Its last message is strangely heartbreaking. Here is the Guardian’s article on InSight and its mission on Mars.

For the first prompt, write your final goodbye in a poem.

For the next prompt, write a poem or short story from the perspective of a mission team member receiving Insight’s message or from one of its programmers.

Your next prompt is to write the final message from your coffeemaker, laptop, or appliance, or even your favorite sweater or chair. What kind of “life” did it have? Will it miss you?

For a final prompt, write your last moments from the perspective your household appliances, furniture, and decor.

Other People’s Prompts

Not feeling great tonight, so I am posting some prompts I saw on Twitter. I hope you all have a great night!

I tried to find the inspiration poem but could not. Larry Fagin (1937-2017) published twelve books. I am especially interested in his The List Poem: A Guide to Teaching & Writing Catalog Verse. And now I am contemplating my own mortality and lack of published books.

Anyhoo, here is another prompt that could work for a fiction or poetry.

Here is the article “The Mystery of the Blue Whale Songs” by Kristen French if you would like to read more. I found it fascinating as well as the sonic pollution hypotheses not found in French’s article but in a Twitter thread. I am going to miss Twitter.

And a bonus ekphrastic prompt:

(Be assured that we dumped this jar found in the back of the fridge out and refilled the hummingbird feeders with fresh sugar water).

Gotta love some colorful contamination!

Good luck writing!

International Poetry Event on December 11th

Yes, I meant to have a prompt up on Tuesday, but this week has just slipped by me…

I am so excited to announce I have an event coming up! On Sunday I will be part of a televised international poetry reading. It will be 8am Pacific time on. Here is the link to attend: https://www.facebook.com/UddanTV

I have attended two previous World of Poetry readings but am bad at promoting my events and wanted to make sure I did for this one. I misunderstood Toufiq for the first event—I believed he was inviting me to listen until he asked me for a bio and an author photo. Somehow I managed to sneak in despite the fact that the other poets are all acclaimed writers and respected scholars.

I am so happy to have been invited back. The other poets are truly amazing, and I am grateful to be included. I hope you can attend or watch the recording.

Let’s Say—Prompts Inspired by Derrick Austin

Sorry for the delay this week. I will try to have another prompt tomorrow or if not, then by Tuesday. Tonight’s prompts are inspired by Derrick Austin’s “Little Epic.” I love the conversational tone paired with allusion and the grounding of abstractions.

For the first prompt, tell a summary of a well-known myth or fairy tale or TV series or even a horror franchise. Play with the story’s tropes and archetypes and use a similar conversational tone as “Little Epic.”

For the second prompt, use “Moonlight, stars, a good wind” as a ghostline. See where it takes you. Remember to delete the line and give credit to the poet.

The next prompt is more of a writing exercise. Create a series of lines in this format: “Who said [abstract noun] was a [sensory description of a place] / Who said it wasn’t a [different location/kind of place]. How many can you write? Do any of them spark a story?

For another exercise, begin with line of about destruction of a city or home or even a car or ship that has already occurred, place the survivor at that beginning of a journey but stop midway before safety is reached. Now switch from 3rd person to first person. What works for you?

Bonus prompt: Begin your journey here. What do you find around the bend?

What We Need—Prompts Inspired by Kym Deyn.

I love this poem—its generosity and perseverance, its imagery and world building. Perhaps this is what I need to say and to hear right now. If you want more poems by Kim Deyn, check out their website.

For the first prompt, build the poem’s opening as descriptions of your friends or family members or lovers. Notice the strong first image with subsequent layering of similes. Choose whomever you would save if you could and would ask they do the same for you. Be careful not to copy the original’s syntax and imagery too closely, and credit the poet for your inspiration.

For the second prompt, use the line “Who am I to fling open the curtains?” for a ghostline, using it as the starting point and then erasing it. Again, give credit to the poet or perhaps include “ghostline from Kym Deyn” in your title.

For a third prompt, reverse the original poem’s order, beginning with an image of the rescue—from a burning building, a flood, some disaster, or mythological horror—and adding one person or group of people you would save. How many can you bring with you into light and safety?

The next prompt is another ghostline, this time using “What use am I against your own sadnesses” to jump off from. For this poem, play around with who the “I” and the “you” are.

Bonus prompt: write an ekphrastic using this mural from Twin Falls, Idaho. Where does the woman here lead you?

Copy Your Heroes—Prompts for Writing Practice and Parody

The process and practice of writing are more important than creating a poem to publish. If you are blocked and just need to practice, choose a poem you love and write your own version of it. This can be a serious attempt or a parody version. Either way what you create is likely too similar to the original to publish.

I know I have done this prompt before (with “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams), but this next one is based on Laura Gilpin’s “The Two-Headed Calf” from her collection The Hocus-Pocus of the Universe.

I love Todd Dillard’s take on Gilpin’s poem.

For your first prompt, take the structure of Gilpin’s poem and replace the calf with another animal. Who would find the creature and where? How would the world appear to this creature, and how would the world respond to it?

For the next prompt, choose a poem that resonates with you. Adapt it to your perspective. How does your poem differ from the original? What can you characterize about your own “voice” or style?

Bonus prompt: write a poem that for the model and its data or simply an ode to the creature.

Yikes, 6 Days into NaNoWriMo!

Hi all, I completely forgot about NaNoWriMo this year. Every November writers are challenged to write 50,000 words of a novel in any genre, and the NaNoWriMo organization provides events and platform to build a community and offer support.

Here is the faq to get you started.

I won’t be participating this year: I am focusing on poetry. I have managed the challenge in the past, and I’ll happily cheer you on.

Remember even if you are behind, you can try to catch up or just finish late. The goal is to create a daily writing habit and not let your internal editor stifle you. Good luck!

Image Courtesy of NaNoWri: Viking helm above a crest divided into quadrants (image of coffee cup in upper left, laptop in upper right, stack of pages in lower right, and crossed pens in lower left)

Escape Artist—Prompts

Here are more short horror prompts brought to you by doomscrolling on Twitter.

The first prompt is to write a text conversation between someone trying escape the forest and another trying to escape the maze.

The second prompt is to write an instructional poem on getting yourself out of a haunted forest or twisted maze but indicate in the title that this set of instructions is how to escape a bad marriage or relationship.

For an unrelated prompt, write a poem using the same prompt I was given years ago: lab rat, the apocalypse, and disrupted gas lines (thanks, Steve Ramirez). I was happy with the poem I got with this prompt.

Feed Your Skeletons, Vampires, and Ghouls—Prompts

For your first prompt, write a poem about feeding a monster (or monsters). Be as conscientious as @mctreeleth is by providing skeletons with calcium and avoiding curses from pottery shards. Or if you are feeding a vampire, be thorough: does your vampire need a particular blood type or prefer to use a Capri straw to drink?

For a second prompt, write a list of five innocent hobbies, such as birdwatching or coin collecting, and make a second list of monsters and mythical creatures. Look at the two lists and see what connects for you. Write a poem using one item from each list.

For the last prompt, write a poem using the photo below to describe what happens next.

Good luck writing! Have fun with your monsters!

Spooky Prompts for Lovers

Let the season of ghouls and ghosts bring light to your carved pumpkin heart.

For your first prompt make a list of monsters, mythological creatures, and horror villains on a sheet of paper. Write down at least five but the more the merrier! Now cut each of those items into separate strip of paper. Fold each strip and place into a hat or trick-or-treat basket. Choose two and write a love poem about these two. If those don’t spark any inspiration, choose again.

For your second prompt, take two common enemies—perhaps a comic book hero and nemesis—and ship them. Make their story arc from jilted longing and resentment to white picket fence or at least a fabulous one night.

The inspiration for your next prompt is this movie poster (from an exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA)

Your final prompt is to write an ekphrastic using the following movie poster from the Peabody Essex.

Have fun!

More October—Spooky Season—Prompts

More weeks of poor productivity—hence the delay—but let’s have some fun. It is a month of spookiness!

For your first prompt, release some long-held resentment and throw a curse. Name your target and make your curse personal and specific. Be cruel if necessary: “may your chapstick melt in your purse and all toothpaste taste of rotting fish.”

For your next prompt, write a poem as if it were a spell to bring you back from death. What would draw you from eternal peace? What scents and tastes or textures attract you? Or include what you believe represents your sense of self.

Your third prompt is to write from the pissed-off persona of this tree. Or at least that’s what I thought as it seemed to stare back at me. I may have been dehydrated at the time though.

For your fourth prompt, write about one of your fears. It doesn’t have to be a poem, but it does need to be detailed description or event, more than just a few lines. (And more than just “spiders” as I might say.) Then make an erasure from what you’ve written. What do you choose to mark out or erase? What do you make out of a fear that you—on paper at least—have lost or marked off?

And for your final prompt, write a poem using a common horror trope, such as writing from the persona of a slasher film’s final girl. If that shorter list didn’t help you, check out the site for tropes and be sucked in. Muhahahahahahahaha!

Good luck! Have fun!

It’s Spooky Season Again!—Prompts

Tonight will be short prompts inspired by a neighbor’s yard: look at the following pictures and write a story or narrative poem describing what is happening here.

For the next prompt, write a persona poem for the vomiting skeleton.

Your final prompt is write a buddy story or a poem about friendship inspired by these two:

Good luck! Muahahahaha!

Autumn Gathering—No sad prompts, I promise

So let’s celebrate the season for its gathering, rather than its ending of summer. Let’s write how beautiful the crisp air is—the evening bite of wind into apple cheeks—the blaze of reds and golds that can warm the day as cupping a mug hot cider will for chilled hands, how wheat glints in the fields, ready for its transformation into bread and communion.

I am grateful for Tom Snarky for sharing this poem by Linda Pastan (and to Todd Dillard for his thread on celebrating poets of autumn). Gorgeous!

For the first prompt, begin with the image that immediately comes to mind with autumn. What do you picture? Is it the omnipresent pumpkin, the bizarrely twisted and bumpy gourd, pumpkin spice lattes and maple bars? Is it a maple tree in full blaze? Is it heavy-headed mums teaching other flowers what real voluptuousness can bring to the yard? Is it pumpkin pie with nutmeg and cinnamon tingling on your tongue? Celebrate the season.

If it helps, start with the lines “I want to celebrate / color” for a ghostline. Be sure to erase the line and credit the poet for your inspiration.

The middle of the poem declares, “Look at the pumpkins, / it’s finally autumn!” Follow that instruction and look and describe the multitude of shapes and colors, the cornucopia of richness in pumpkins and gourds, apples and pomegranates, cranberries and carrots. Make a poem obscene in its autumn sweetness.

For the last prompt, write a list poem of all the joys and celebrations the year has brought you. Be specific. Let us hear your cat’s purring, feel a child’s small hand taking yours as you cross a street, curl into a flannel on chilly night while a campfire crackles and hisses.