This poetry writing prompt submitted by Jeffrey McDaniel:
Read these two poems and then write a poem where something gets overheard.
Café Loop by Jillian Weise
Venus’-flytraps by Yusef Komunyakaa
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Mary Eastham:
When a movie’s soundtrack is good, it stays with us. That’s what we want from our poems. Here’s my prompt: Make a list of 10 songs from a movie you love. Now take a line from each one of those songs and start to build your poem. Think about the SOUND of the words, something poets sometimes overlook. Imagine each stanza as a scene. I can’t wait to see what you come up with!
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Ellen Sander:
They packed up their ________ and _________ (fill in the blanks for the first line)
Use strong nouns and verbs to fill in the blanks. It’s useful to go with the first things that occur to you especially if they don’t make sense initially. Then, just follow the poem as it unfolds for you. Some suggestions, in case you draw a blank at blanks. Use them linearly or mix and match.
Blank 1 Blank 2
courage flew home
ammuniton headed for the woods
sewing kits took them home to make masks
masks went to the ball
tools fled
last mule followed the tracks
instruments food for a week
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Alexandra Umlas:
Private/Public/Poetry Poem
Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does. — Allen Ginsberg
Write down 3 things you privately “really think.”
If you had to choose 3 of your favorite poems, what would they be? Make a list.
Write a poem where the title of the poem is one of the thoughts you “really think.” Use a really good word (or a line if you’d like) from each of your 3 favorite poems in your poem.
Make the last two lines of your poem a rhyming couplet.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Bill Mohr:
I recently posted an entry on my blog about one of James Wright’s best known poems, “Lying on a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.” Towards the end of the post, I suggested that readers “revise” the poem by typing out a version in which the first person pronoun is deleted from all but the final line of the poem.
To build on this exercise in tamping down any poem’s self-assertiveness, I would suggest starting with a draft of a poem in which the first person pronoun or one of its variants appears in every other line of the poem. Each couplet should focus on a particular sense (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste) and the first draft must include at least one couplet foregrounding one of the senses. Whatever you retain of the subsequent drafts should then erase the first person and revise the sentences in the poem so that only concrete nouns are in the subject position. While there are certainly advantages to featuring concrete nouns at the end of lines of poetry (the final word being the most important word in the line’s enjambment), it is all too easy to overlook the noun in the subject position of the poem’s sentence. Let it not be an invocation of your self-centeredness until you have earned it. Even in the final line, be as reticent as possible.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Peggy Dobreer:
Persona in Action Poem
What does the surfboard say to the surfer? Replace the surfboard and surfer with any tool or object of play and it’s user. Some examples are: lathe to the jeweler, baseball bat to the batter, or spoon to the eater. Let the object school the user. Let it judge how it’s being used, how could the user improve, and what is worthy of praise? The inanimate object is the speaker. Reveal its personality through its manner of speech. What is it’s attitude toward the user. Describe in detail using rhythm, language, and setting related to the activity. Decide in advance whether the rhythm of the activity works best in couplets, tercets, quatrains or free verse.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Ellaraine Lockie:
Word Branching:
This is a brief introduction for an exercise I use in a workshop I teach called “Word Branching.” It’s especially helpful for situations when you hear or read a word or phrase that mesmerizes you in some way, but you’re not sure how or why. But you think you might like to write about it in some way. The following will help you clarify what you want to say and to also give you images to use in your poem or prose piece.
This could very well be the start, or even an outline, for your next poem or other genre of writing. I often get poems from a single word, and the content sometimes doesn’t even relate to the word as I originally heard/read it. Try it, and happy writing!
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Elizabeth Iannaci:
In Plain Sight Prompt
Take a stroll around your house or apartment. Make a short list of objects that you rarely notice but serve a vital purpose: the refrigerator, coffee maker, printer, bookcase, toilet, trash can, etc. Choose one that seems the most important at this moment.
Write a short poem (no more than 14 lines) extolling its virtues. Try describing what your day would be like if it “went on holiday” or left you for someone else.
The piece can take any form, sonnet, Ode, metered or rhymed, whatever suits. Chances are, you’ll view this object with new eyes…
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Robert Wynne:
As long as I can remember, I have hated flossing my teeth. I know it’s important for proper dental hygiene, but I dread the whole process. I once opened a poem with the words “I never floss…” and then went on to describe the wonders of a dentist’s waiting room. Think of something you know you should do, but that you don’t enjoy at all, and you either don’t ever do it, or not as often as you know you should. Then write a poem confessing this, and exploring the results of your tendencies. Feel free to even imagine wild consequences which could occur. And be sure to incorporate humor.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Nancy Shiffrin:
Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Right where you are, listen. Write down the sounds you hear — the whir and white noise of electricity, the birds, the traffic, a neighbor’s drums, sirens… what color are they…what do they remind you of…what do they help you remember…what do you feel…
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Laurinda Lind:
Write a poem as your favorite song from high school– what kind of person is the song; what does it see; what does it think about?
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Frogg Corpse:
Write about a nightmare; or dream you have recently had. Spend a minimum of two paragraphs (or up to two verses of poetic form). Describing the antagonist of your nightmare. The theme to the rest of your writing should display the ability to describe the area around you visually that creates your dream space.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Judy Barrat:
Stand in front of a mirror; look deep into your own eyes and travel – perhaps back in time or into the future – note the people and places you see, the places – who you were, are, will be. Write a poem about your journey.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Francis Bede:
Find a passage in a sacred book which you think fails to resonate today, whether it be by tone or by language. For example a passage of misogyny, or where beauty is expressed in redundant words. Rewrite it in verse in any form.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Carol Williams:
While decluttering boxes of old documents and manuscripts in your parents’ attic, you find your mother’s diary and shamelessly begin to read the faded pages from her younger years.
Prompt: Write a diary entry as your mother would have recorded it–not on a birthday or natural disaster or significant occasion–just an ordinary day, morning to evening.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Taylor Mali:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by F. J. Bergmann:
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If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group.
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by LB Sedlacek:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Carrie Radna:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Angie Bell:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Alex Phuong:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Yash Seyedbagheri:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Suzanne O’Connell:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Cindy Bousquet Harris:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Tresha Haefner:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Prasanna Surakanti:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Diana Rosen:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Janet McCann:
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This poetry writing prompt submitted by Brendan Constantine:
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