Poetry Prompts, Nos. 20-30

How did I come to feel obligated to provide a prompt for each day of National Poetry Month this year? I don't understand it, but I feel it and persist nonetheless.

20. Sandra Lim has some splendid titles in her first collection, Loveliest Grotesque. Use one of these as the title for your own poem: "Curious This"; "The Horse and Its Rider"; "Reasoning in a Raw Wind"; "Ballad of the Last Chance"; "Year of the Gallows Birds"; "You Could Feel That Freedom Coming on Too".

21. Find a photograph or online image of the place you live from at least fifty years ago, and describe the place as though you were there now.

22. Write an ode to your favourite vegetable. For inspiration, here's Pablo Neruda's "Ode to the Artichoke."

23. Think of something unpleasant that happened to you as a child--a bee sting, an embarrassment, a natural disaster, a car accident, an illness, etc.--and write about it in third person. Don't tell us how the child feels--show it through her actions, the description of the environment, etc., and don't be afraid to fictionalize what happened for the sake of the poem.

24. Look at a poem of yours that you never finished or don't feel is really working, and choose your favourite line. Using it as the opening line, write a poem that takes on a subject or direction different from the one in the original poem.

25. If you have a pet, show, in a poem, how its behaviour influences your own. Don't say what kind of animal it is anywhere in the work. Your description can identify it, or you may prefer greater ambiguity, such that the poem might apply to a number of different creatures. 

26. In a place where you have lived before (or where you live now), list some specific names of the flora and fauna of that environment: the names of one or two birds; other animals (squirrels, coyotes, rabbits, etc.); one or two kinds of trees, plants and wildflowers. Now place yourself, as a character, in this environment, with one particular worry on your mind. In the poem, let the details of your concern intermingle with the details of the environment, and bring in other senses in addition to sight to give a stronger impression of the place.

27. Write a poem in response to a song. Argue or identify with the song's import as you describe a particular experience, whether real or fictional. 

28. Write an anti-ode about something you don't like or an action you don't like to do. Use vivid, concrete details to make your dislike palpable without saying it.

29. Write a poem about an object that belongs/belonged to one of your parents. You might find it easier to convey the object's meaning if you describe your parent using (or whatever word's appropriate) that object in a particular moment in time.

30. Remember a song you loved as a teenager. What might you have been doing as you heard it (driving, sitting on your bed, dancing, etc.)? Describe one scene involving your younger self and the song in such a way that the reader readily discerns how the song made you feel. Again, don't be afraid to fictionalize for the sake of the poem.

That's all, folks! I'd be glad to hear whether any of these prove useful.

More poetry prompts

To my surprise and delight, some people have been using the prompts I provided as starters for their National Poetry Month poems, and as I offered nine, I thought it time I posted some more. That is, I feel the need to continue providing such sustenance through the month. I'd be pleased to hear of people's experiences with these.

10. Write a poem in second person where the you being addressed is a specific person (rather than a general/public or reader you).

11. Remember an image that has moved you and describe it (without comment, without sentimentality) in 2-5 lines. That is the end of your poem--now write toward it.

12. Think of something you do every day, and tell someone else how to do it in step-by-step imperatives that provide close descriptive detail of the actions and any objects. Some possibilities include changing a diaper, preparing butternut squash, choosing a watermelon, and styling your hair.

13. What are you feeling right now? What are the three abstract nouns that would best describe it? Right now I might say mine would be lust, ennui, and fatigue. While the narrative of events leading to those feelings would be mundane and probably uninteresting, is there another, more condensed narrative--something that could happen in, say, ten minutes--that might convey the same combination of feelings? In a prose poem, write the narrative that helps to convey those feelings, and let the title clue the reader in to that general mood. (This was my approach with my poem 'Melancholia' in This Line Is Not for Turning: An Anthology of Contemporary British Prose Poetry.)

14. Write a poem that is an actual numbered list, and let the nature of the list come not from the title but the accumulation of details. Some possibilities include: seven regrets without named parties; five historical events I wish I'd been present for and one that I had; my experiences with everyday people in different cities I've visited.

15. Write a poem in response to something in the news, but rather than falling back on your own perspective, imagine another person's. For example, how might a former miner's child respond to the news of Thatcher's death? Or, from another angle, how might one of her advisors respond? Try to make the response nuanced, a complex of multiple emotions rather than settling for the predictable, simplistic one. 

16. Write a poem that uses two or three beats/stresses per line. If unsure what to write about, take the view out of a window, starting at a distance and becoming increasingly more detailed and intimate. If you need more inspiration, dip into Basil Bunting's Briggflatts (http://carrieetter.blogspot.co.uk/2009/07/basil-buntings-complete-poems.html); it's not in two-beat lines but conveys the idea of such a poem well.

17. Consider a news item you'd like to write about, and find a good-sized article about it online, preferably in a quality newspaper or journal. Take five phrases from the article that seem to sum up different points or events involved. In your poem these will be in quotation marks or italicized, and your work is to write between them.

18. Use five of the following six words in a poem: dirt, hand(s), path, tree (or a kind of tree), sky, weight.

19. Remember someone you knew now dead, and remember one of their interests or hobbies (i.e. my father was obsessed with the weather and cycling; my mother watched medical dramas and house restoration programs and used to sew). In a poem, talk to the person about it, and end with a question. 

I hope these prove useful.

Prompts for Poems

I hadn't planned on providing a prompt a day, but I see that by starting out that way, I may have created that expectation. Here, then, for day 3, is a prompt I offered in 2011 that has led to some strong work. These 7 more, from last year, will cover me through day 10! I promise to offer more, or links to more, again by the eleventh.

Day 2: Another Prompt

My Poetry School students did so well with this exercise I invented, I thought I'd share it as a prompt for National Poetry Month. 

Thinking of one event you'd like to write about--it needn't but could be personal (or historical, etc.), write a poem consisting only of questions, maximum 20 lines. Indeed, it could just be one question extended over a number of lines. 

I know what gave me the idea for this exercise. Years ago, Donald Justice published a poem, "Twenty Questions," in Seneca Review, and I wrote a poem in response, "Twenty Answers," published later in the same magazine. The catch, if that's the right word, is that my answers were also questions. 

If you try this approach, I'd be glad to hear of your experience with it.

Some NaPoWriMo prompts

My friend Kristina Close is struggling to stay with NaPoWriMo, so I've recommended one site of prompts to her and thought I'd offer some myself.

1. Write a poem about something you collect or used to collect. Focus on the rich details that distinguish the items in the collection from one another.

2. Write a 16-20-line pantoum whose opening line (and hence ending line) contains a concrete image.

3. Write a poem that begins with seeing a person who resembles someone who's dead.

4. Write a poem composed of fragments, with the odd lines focusing on a concrete scene and the even lines focusing on a metaphysical issue. (Such a poem might work best double-spaced.)

5. Write a prose poem that begins and ends with the same image.

6. Write an angry, bitter poem to someone who has wronged you, but instead of relating the events or the wrong autobiographically, think of what could metaphorically represent that same event and write about that instead. For example, if someone stole your boyfriend, perhaps she moved into your castle.

7. Write a poem using five of the following six words: errand; body; world; dusk; snow; light.

That's good for now. I'd be glad to know people's experiences of these prompts if they try them.