Category: Poetry Prompts

Anagrams!

Have you played a game where you’re given some letters and you have to see how many words you can make out of them? For today’s poem, you can only use words that you can find in the title of the poem. You might want to spend a few minutes with your title, listing as many words as you can before you start writing.

You can come up with your own title or use one from the list below.

A Walk in the Garden
Birds Fly over My House
The Bus is Late–Again
Snow Falls in Silent Forests

Here’s my attempt:

The Last Time I Went to Town

The last time
I went to town,
the lawn was mown.
I lost a shoe,
the steam was mean.
It went to
a test to see what the mist meant.
Now was the time to stow meat low.
In the lost mantle, I settle.

The Stuff of Me

Write a poem describing where you are from, your ancestors, roots, family, and or your own personal journey. Scroll down for one shining example by and the link to #iamfromproject.
Begin with the words:
Where I’m From . . .

“Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon

I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.

I’m from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I’m from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I’m from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.

I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.

Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments—
snapped before I budded —
leaf-fall from the family tree. ”

— http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html

• Help expand the river of voices. Send your I Am From poems and other creations to: http://iamfromproject@gmail.com
• Find it on Facebook at Facebook at iamfromproject
• An interview with I Am From Project founders George Ella Lyon & Julie Landsman

 

• Where I’m From Poems from Project Hope

 

 

Contrapuntal Poems

Contrapuntal is defined as two or more independent melodic lines in music. You can write a contrapuntal poem by combining two independent poems—one line of one and then one line of another. Try it!

1) Find two poems you’ve written that are of a similar length.
2) Alternate your poems by writing one line of one and then one line of the other. If it doesn’t seem to be working, try it using the opposite one first.
3) Change what you need to change to make sense. Sometimes that’s just capital letters and punctuation, but sometimes you might need to add or delete a word.

Here’s my attempt:

I could have made dinner tonight, but instead
alone with the elements of craft,
I read a good book and cleaned under the bed.
I wonder why
I sorted my yarn and picked up the craft table
to grow this garden better.
I folded the laundry and now I’m not able
to cook any food.
Outside the window, there’s crackers and cheese
and fruit if you like.
I see my history.
I’ll have some please.

World Read Aloud Day

Let’s celebrate in style. For today’s prompt, instead of taking 7 minutes to write a poem, let’s read poems aloud. Grab a collection of poems, click over to one of the poetry links below, or if you’re feeling truly brave, flip back through your notebook and reread some of the poems you’ve written. Then, take a deep breath and read—aloud! To someone or something else. After all, poetry is best shared!

World Read Aloud Day Links:

1. LitWorld.org
2. Famous Poems & Poets
3. Poem Hunters
4. International Poetry Digest
5. The Writer’s Almanac NPR
6. Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start Reading!

(Be warned: You just might get carried away!)

*Kelly Bennett and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 1000 days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.

Lists

January is a month of lists: resolutions, goals, projects, groceries.

You can write list poems over and over with different results every time. Take any prompt and list things it makes you think of as quickly as you can. Next go through the list and pick out one or more things that stick out for you. Try making a list from the thing you picked out. What does that thing make you think of? Why did you pick it? Add detail. Use your senses. Play with rhythm or rhyme.

Here are a couple prompts you can use to start if you want:

I like…
I wish I liked…
I remember…

Noises On!

Visualize an event, a moment, an incident—either real or imagined. Now, close your eyes and listen to the sound of significant movements and/or actions happening in that moment. What sounds do you hear? Heart beats, water dripping, footsteps, maybe bells . . .
Write a poem using these sounds. Try establishing a rhythm by repeating the sound a few times in each line followed or preceded by what is making the sound. Some hugely successful songs use sounds in this way. For example, in “The Trolley Song” sung notably by Judy Garland in the movie Meet Me in St. Louis sounds are used to describe the first moment Ester meets John:

“Clang, clang, clang went the trolley
Ding, ding, ding went the bell
Zing, zing, zing went my heart strings
From the moment I saw him I fell

Chug, chug, chug went the motor
Bump, bump, bump went the brake
Thump, thump, thump went my heart strings
When he smiled I could feel the car shake”

— The Trolley Song by Hugh Martin & Ralph Blane

And in one of the all-time greatest stick-in-your-head songs “That’s Amore!” sung notably by Dean Martin, jingly sounds are what make us want to sing and dance along:

“Bells will ring ting-a-ling-a-ling, ting-a-ling-a-ling
And you’ll sing “Vita bella”
Hearts will play tippy-tippy-tay, tippy-tippy-tay
Like a gay tarantella”

— That’s Amore! written by Jack Brooks & Harry Warren

If you have your list of sounds, but you’re stuck for a way in, use one of these songs as a model for your poem (that’s what I did.)

The Sound of Silence

I’m writing this from the middle of a snowstorm. Heavy snow blankets the ground, outlines the trees, and continues to fall. Schools and businesses are closed. There’s no traffic. The world is silent.

And that got me thinking: what does silence sound like?

Write a poem that’s filled with silence. What images make you think of silence? What can you see and not hear? Try using quiet sounds—s and l and w—for your words so your poem has a quiet sound to it.

Shhh. Listen. Write.

For Old Time’s Sake

Did you sing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Eve?  The words for the song were written in 1788 by Robert Burns. “Auld Lang Syne” literally means “old long since,” and is commonly translated as “days gone by” or “old time’s sake.” The song is basically a call to share “a cup o’ kindness.” The “kindness” in Burns’ cup is believed to be firewater, but that’s not necessarily the case.

Let’s begin this spanking new year by sharing a cup of kindness in the form of a poem. Think back over the past year and recall a kindness someone gave to you. What was that kindness? How did it make you feel to receive it? With that in mind, fill a cup with a kindness of your own. To whom will you pass it?

Title your poem “Cup of Kindness”.

Are You Blue? or Green? or Purple?

Pick a color: Red? Yellow? Blue?

Look around the room. List as many things as you can see that are that color. Look again. Find one more.

Pick one or more items on your list and write about them. What is it? Where did it come from? How long have you had it? Is it useful? Do you need it? Do you want it?

When you’re finished, try to cut 10 words from your poem. Play with your word choices to add better sounds, rhythm, or rhyme.

Blank in a Box!

Imagine a mysterious box on your doorstep. What’s inside?

For today’s prompt, begin by filling in the blank: I found a ___________ box . . .

With that as the first line, compose a five-line poem of one syllable words about what’s inside that box.

Challenge yourself by creating a box-shaped concrete poem. For example, 5 lines of 5 three-letter words would look box-like, or vary the length of the words so each line is the same length.