Category: Poetry Prompts

Shakespeare!

Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in iambic pentameter. Each one was fourteen lines long with a specific rhyme pattern.

Iambic pentameter is a singsong rhythm—da DA da DA da DA da DA da DA. If you can’t quite hear it, try putting ten syllables on each line. Can you write four lines of iambic pentameter? You can rhyme each pair of lines (AABB) or every other one (ABAB), whichever you choose.

Write on any subject you want or choose one of the prompts below.

I wish I could remember…
I love the smell of…
I’m waiting for…

Got Bubbles?

Dec. 5th is a Red Letter Day on my calendar. It’s National Bathtub Party Day!
In honor of that, write a poem about a Bathtub Party which incorporates some or all of the following words:

Bub, Bubbles, Suds, Splash, Scrub, Soap, Splash, and Rubber Ducky.

Extra points if your poem rhymes.

Do you have a pile of books? I always have a stack that I want to read. Sometimes it grows so large I’m afraid it will fall on me and hurt!

For this prompt, take a look at a stack of five books or five books on a shelf. Take the first word (not A or THE) and write it down. Use these words in a poem.

Here are the words from the first five books in my stack:

cool    miracle    spell    tamed    bird

And here’s the poem I wrote in my 7 minutes:

Watching the sun go down
was a cool miracle,
a study in pink and orange and red,
a mystical spell
that tamed the world.
And like the evening bird,
we sang one last word.

Please Pass the PieCaken!

One layer of pumpkin, one spice cake, one pecan pie, frosted together with buttercream and topped with apple pie filling. Yum!

Take a moment to imagine your favorite Thanksgiving Feast. What foods are on your table? If you’re like me, that feast is going to include mashed sweet potatoes topped with melted marshmallows and PIE! Several kinds of pie. Maybe even this four-layer PieCaken my sis-in-law Valarie sent specially created for those of us who can’t decide which kind of pie to choose.

However . . .

The characters in Ethan Long’s new picture book FANGSGIVING are definitely not traditional. The “Garlic mashed potatoes get eyeballs and earwax added, the turkey gets burned to a crisp and the pumpkin pie gets maggot meatballs thrown in.”

Now it’s your turn:
In the spirit of FANGSGIVING, imagine you are some other creature. An animal for instance, or an alien . . . or maybe even a monster! What would your favorite Thanksgiving Feast be then?

For the title, fill in the blank with whatever creature you are:

________________ Thanksgiving Feast

A Puzzle

Choose a long vowel sound (sounds like its name). Now write a poem where the last word in every line ends with that sound but none of the lines can end with the same letter. Good luck! I hope you discover new things that are true!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

*Kelly Bennett and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 900 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.

Sometimes You Feel Like a Form…

Forms are like puzzles. You need to fit the right number of syllables or a pattern of rhyme or some other word trick into your poem and still come up with a subject. They are fun to play with. Today’s form is the Terza Rima which means third rhyme. This form creates three line stanzas with lines of any length where the first and third line rhyme. The second line becomes the rhyme for the next stanza. Keep writing stanzas until you’re done with your poem. The last stanza should be two lines that rhyme.

If you’re better at reading rhyme scheme, it goes like this: ABA BCB CDC DED EE

Here’s an example :

I have a hole in my left shoe
it’s growing big and wide
and now and then my toe peeks through.

It’s damp and cold when I’m outside
I cannot wear a sock
I need new shoes; these ones have died.

Rain, snow, and cold air are a shock;
they make me dance, you see.
I cannot ever take a walk.

A shopping trip with Mom would be
the best. I need a guarantee.

Your turn!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

*Kelly Bennett and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 900 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.

IN THE DEEP DARK WOODS: A BOO-OLOGISM

Pumpkins, Scarecrows, Black Cats—and things that go bump in the night . . . Halloween’s almost here! Let’s get our BOO on! Let’s create a BOO-OLOGY (a spooky poem.)

Below is the first line, a Halloween sound list, and just for grins, a joke. Combine them to create your own BOO-OLOGISM.

First Line: IN THE DEEP DARK WOODS . . .

The Joke: Why did the vampires cancel their baseball game?
They couldn’t find their bats.

Happy BOO-OLOGIZING!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

*Kelly Bennett and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 900 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.

One, Two, Three, Go!

For today’s prompt, write a poem with three words on each line. Try to write ten or more lines and see where your poem goes. If you need a starter, use: I collect…

Count those words! One, two, three, go!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

*Kelly Bennett and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 900 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.

Kid’s Stuff

To say “I’m writing poetry!” can feel pretentious or intimidating. At least it does to me. First thought is, I need to don a beret and feathered quill. Second thought: Who the heck do I think I am trying to write poems?

But after more than 900 days of trying, I’ve learned that my best poems come when I tell myself: “Nobody’s ever going to read it anyway,” and just have fun. Give it a try:

Grab the nearest picture book and turn to the last page, the last words. Use the last line of text as the first line of your poem. If you’d like, use the accompanying illustration as inspiration. Let the child in you run with it and PLAY!

If you’re at a loss, here’s one of the most famous last picture book lines of all, from Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are:

. . . and it was still hot

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

*Kelly Bennett and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 900 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.