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!

This Month is the Sealey Challenge

Hi all, I am in such a weird headspace that weeks passed before I remembered that August is the Sealey Challenge. Usually I do not complete the challenge but do push myself to read more poetry books than usual.

While it may be too late to catch up to earn the prize, August is a great month to get reading recommendations for later and to promote your favorite books and poets on social media. Don’t forget to check out the Sealey Challenge website and check out the books of the challenger’s founder—Nicole Sealey. I loved ordinary beast and The Animal After Whom Other Animals Were Named. I haven’t read her latest, The Ferguson Report: An Erasure but plan to.

It is inspiring to know that so many great poets are out there writing and eager to share their favorite collections. Promoting your favorites is a great way to give back to the community. Here is a poet who always promotes and encourages others. To read more of his review, click here and check out Adrian’s own books and events on his site.

Have fun reading!

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!

Tomorrow morning (8am Pacific) is World of Poetry reading!

I am grateful to be invited to participate again! I hope you can you join me in the live reading, but if not I will post a link to the YouTube reading later.

As the program host and eminent poet Toufiq Zohar notes, the world of poetry is all under one sky.

Hope you can make it!

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!!!

International World of Poetry Reading!

I was so grateful to be asked to join in the World of Poetry reading last week with such eminent poets! The program was televised in 42 countries, and I managed to sneak in. Check out the YouTube recording if you are interested.

Thanks!

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!

Mother’s Day—Prompts Inspired by Diane Seuss

Happy Mother’s Day if you celebrate it. If not, there’s always Mothra.

I love how unsentimental this Diane Seuss poem is, all without losing tenderness, and the opening lines are so, so good.

For the first prompt, make a list of all the places in which you had called out for your mother or wished for safety and see where that takes you, in either a story or poem.

The second prompt is to find a way to incorporate diarrhea or other messy biological function within a serious poem because I was so amazed by Chen Chen incorporating shitting into a love poem. And this poem certainly does that, and also so effectively connects a cesarean with peeling peaches.

For a third prompt, use the last line “Do you see how I persist in telling you about the flowers when I mean to describe the rain” for a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and give credit to the poet.

This last prompt is to write a poem or story using the following words: “pool,” “knife,” “flesh,” “caves,” “ground,” “underbelly,” “train,” “layer,” “solitude,” “dresses” and “rain.” Try to use the nouns as verbs and vice versa.

Bonus prompt: Write a “Happy Mothra Day” poem.

Good luck! Have fun writing!

World of Poetry Reading video

Here is the link to the recording of the World of Poetry reading. I hope you enjoy it! Thanks!

Let’s Start Editing Those 30/30 poems!

So you’ve written 30 new poems or five or none or you have a backlog of poems you’ve set aside. Great! It’s good to let them sit for a while and look at them again with fresh eyes.

There are all sorts of “rules” to writing and editing. But rules are often annoying and unnecessarily restrictive. Look at what others recommend and find what strategies work best for you.

This shirt sums up my attitude towards prescriptive guides, but I thought these recommendations were good guidelines to consider as well as Carmen Giménez Smith’s suggestions. Honestly, I love learning about the processes amazing writers use.

For me, reading poems aloud, particularly to other people (sorry, Don and friends!), helps me find the rough spots—the convoluted wording, problematic line breaks, missing words and confusing grammar/syntax. Even better is to have someone else read your poem aloud—that will really show whether the line breaks and structure work on the page for a reader.

Perhaps the admin for the UN’s account should have had someone read over the hashtags. Oops!

Btw, I once used IUD instead of IED in a poem—not the kind of imagery I’d intended—so I can sympathize.

For line breaks (my weakest area for years), try to end on a strong verb or image. If you are rhyming in your poem don’t let the end rhyme dictate the entire line, or you may lose the necessary surprise. With all the focus on the end words, it’s easy to let articles and prepositions build up for the first word of your lines. See what you can rearrange or cut.

Titles, oof. Remember that they need to hook readers. Ask yourself if you would choose to read this poem if its title were listed on a table of contents with other poems. Try to use the title to give additional context to the poem without giving spoilers. Yes, this can be difficult to balance. It’s all practice and developing your own voice/style and strategies. Some poets use the title as the first line of the poem, which can be fun. It can be helpful to look to the center or maybe three or four lines from the bottom of a poem to find its “heart” (I am unsure who recommended this, perhaps Alexis Rhone Fancher, but I heard it in Eric Morago’s workshop).

Also remember that your first lines will determine whether someone will continue reading. It’s often hard to really get a poem started, and I often need an on-ramp to the “real” poem. If this is the same for you, see what you can cut. And try not to include too much in one poem.

While you need to pull a reader in, don’t forget that the last lines are the lens through which the entire poem will be remembered (this is I heard in Brendan Constantine’s workshop).

Back to cutting, you will often hear the phrase “kill your darlings.” It may ease the pain if you keep a document of cut lines to use later.

Make sure the form fits your message. If you are using a single column, perhaps try couplets or quatrains. Experiment to see what works best for you.

Most of all, keep reading and find what you like. Try to expand beyond just a few poets or one style of writing and borrow techniques from many writers so that you develop a unique voice. And listen to yourself. In a recent workshop, I received conflicting advice on what lines to cut for an editing exercise (cutting from a 40-line poem to a 20-line poem to just 10 lines). I listened and appreciated the suggestions, but I was the one who decided. At other times, I just hand a poem over. I learn a lot that way too.

Ultimately, you need to listen to yourself. Some of the advice I’ve received was counterproductive because the readers/listeners didn’t understand my intent. As I’ve developed as a writer, I’ve found that unhelpful advice is often a sign that I hadn’t succeeded and need to rework a section. Sometimes people just like different kinds of poetry, and that is the beauty of writing and reading: there is something out there for everyone.

If a poem or story still isn’t working for you, remember everyone has had that same experience at least once—this blog post for example.

For today’s exercise, create your own cheat sheet for editing. Knowing your own strengths and weaknesses, make a list of what you should consider first for a deep revision and then a final check for grammar and minor issues. Take that list and use it to revise a particularly rough poem that you wrote at least a week ago.

As with refilling a beanbag chair, things can go all over the place. Good luck with pulling it all together.

Have fun editing!