Writing Exercise #104

Write a list poem (aka catalogue verse) where every line answers the question:

What was the last straw?

Writing Exercise #103

Write a creepy rhyming poem to the meter of a classic nursery rhyme. Do your best to not make the rhyming words predictable (like rhyming heart with art. BLECH!) Use slant rhymes aka "imperfect rhymes", for example: "I know I get mad easily, this universe is never pleasing me."

* this was inspired by "one, two, Freddie's coming for you..." that was in my head this morning while wiping down the kitchen counters.

Writing Exercise #102

Check out this poem by Felix Pollak:


THE DREAM

He dreamed of
an open window.
A vagina, said
his psychiatrist.
Your divorce, said
his mistress.
Suicide, said
an ominous voice within him.
It means you should close the window
or you'll catch cold, said
his mother.
His wife said
nothing.
He dared not tell her
such a
dangerous dream.



- - - - -


Write a poem "after Felix Pollak" that includes an image from a dream and its many interpretations. I like the idea of incorporating more people. Imagine what the dream of falling is to an actress as opposed to a kindergartner, or a shark to a convict as opposed to a surgeon...

Writing Exercise #101

Have I mentioned that I used word pools for 98% of the poems I have ever written? Here's one I hope you'll like. I mined these words from one of my favorite poems by Frank Stanford.


floating

man

driftwood

hooves

silent

rotten

ivory

half-blooded

dragged

fish

lights

wound

rain

moon

liquor

living

goodnights

beat

radio

lantern

marking

Writing Exercise #100

Read this spectacular poem by Megan Falley, then:

Write a poem where you plead your case about falling for someone who eventually broke the shit out of your heart. This doesn't have to be romantic love, of course. It just has to be the truth. The whole truth. And nothing but the truth. (which is a lie.)

Writing Exercise #99

Write a poem of 14 lines, each line beginning with the word "fix".

Writing Exercise #98

This poem Blood Honey by Chana Bloch is beautiful. Read it, treat this as a ghost line:


We’re still at large. We’re free


Don't know what a ghost line is? I explain it here. I woke up today feeling extremely lucky, thick with gratitude. I like the idea of writing a poem with "we're free" as the refrain. Heck, knock yourself out and write a ghazal why don't you!?!

Writing Exercise #97

Answer this question in whichever form you choose:


When where you saved?

Writing Exercise #96

My friend Beau Sia has a new book out called The Undisputed Greatest Writer of All Time, and in that book is a wonderful poem called Unloaded. It shook me up when I heard it live the other night. There are so many important lines, but the one that sank the deepest was: "let your pain be a guide and not a source."

It made me think of the nesting poem (sometimes I've called it the "begat poem") I like to build. It's a poem where you open something to reveal something else. I may have posted a prompt like this before, but this time, I am going to add some specificity.

What I suggest for you, dear writer, is that you open a phrase of pain another person has placed upon you. Then write 25 lines of openings. Write until the origins of this phrase bring you to a place of understanding or empathy. Even if it isn't real, I would love for you to create a place of forgiveness or healing. Sounds super granola, right? But I promise, it'll help you.

Here's a short example:

I opened You fat bitch and out fell his teeth.
I opened his teeth and inside was a door.
I opened the door and inside was his bed.
I opened the bed and inside was a small boy.
I opened the boy and inside was a pool of sharks.
I opened the sharks and inside was silence.
I opened the silence and inside was a window.
I opened the window and inside were a row of sleeping pills.
I opened the sleeping pills and inside was his mother.
I opened the mother and inside was a dream.

you get the picture.

Writing Exercise #95

Write a poem using one of these chapter titles from Baum's classic The Marvelous Land of Oz as the title of your poem:


The Marvelous Powder of Life

The Awakening of the Saw-horse

A Nickel-Plated Emperor

A Highly Magnified History

The Prisoners of the Queen

The Riches of Content



Of course, there are NO rules to my prompts. They are free to you and you can do whatever the heck you want with them. Remember (and I say this every year) there is no right way to answer a writing prompt.


If you need a kickstart, read Amy Gerstler's poem Advice from a Caterpillar (which is the name of a title in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll)

Advice from a Caterpillar

Chew your way into a new world.
Munch leaves. Molt. Rest. Molt
again. Self-reinvention is everything.
Spin many nests. Cultivate stinging
bristles. Don’t get sentimental
about your discarded skins. Grow
quickly. Develop a yen for nettles.
Alternate crumpling and climbing. Rely
on your antennae. Sequester poisons
in your body for use at a later date.
When threatened, emit foul odors
in self-defense. Behave cryptically
to confuse predators: change colors, spit,
or feign death. If all else fails, taste terrible.

Writing Exercise #94

Sorry I've fallen behind in posts. I was at the Mission Creek Poetry Festival for the past three days in Iowa and had not anticipated the 72 hours of debauchery coming my way.

Now that I'm back, let's have some fun, shall we?


Write a poem of twelve lines, broken into four stanzas. For each stanza, have the lines split up by:

1 - what did happen
2 - what should have happened
3 - what could have happened (in an alternate universe, of course)

If you need a push, try reading the poem that inspired this exercise, by the ever-talented Jennifer L. Knox.

Writing Exercise #93

We're going to use a ghost line today (where the first line of your poem is pulled from someone else's poem and remains unseen)

INGREDIENTS:

1. the one that got away (don't write the name, just describe them ALL THE WAY)
2. a memento from when you were small
3. an animal you love(d)
4. an animal you fear(ed)
5. the sweetest thing they ever said
6. an object that reminds you of them
7. what you do when you're nervous
8. a place to hide love

- - - -

Today's ghost line is from Anne Sexton's THE ROOM OF MY LIFE. The line is:

"Here,
in the room of my life"

continue from this line. Include everything from the Ingredients list. What would #1 be doing? Where would #5 be standing? Or would it be floating? Webbed in a corner? Huddled in a drawer? Which animal is doing #7 now?

Writing Exercise #92

Here's a new wordpool, friends. Write a poem containing every word. Let the poem be fourteen lines long, each line containing fourteen syllables.

contagious

voices

meadow

wrist

forty-seven

evidence

heat

ants

window

claw

parade

muscle

Writing Exercise #91

In honor of the late great Roger Ebert who left his cancer behind this morning, let's write a poem about your first __________ . Write it in third person. Give it a soundtrack. Give it a villain. Include stage directions. Pull back and fade to the next stanza. Make it an epic.

Writing Exercise #90

Write an acrostic poem, using this chain of words:



B
L
O
O
D

I
S

T
H
I
C
K

B
U
T

W
A
T
E
R

S
W
A
L
L
O
W
S

B
A
C
K

Writing Exercise #89

INGREDIENTS:

1. At your worst, you are what?

2. One of the most memorable punishments you received when you were young.

3. Something you got away with.

4. A punishing last line you have hurled at someone else.



- - - - -


This is going to be a poem in three stanzas. I'll help you out with your first stanza, but you'll have to fill in a few blanks for the rest.


Stanza 1:

Line 1: Your worst self.
Line 2: The punishment and what you learned.
Line 3: What you got away with and what you learned.
Line 4: The punishing last line.

Stanza 2:

Line 5 (repeat of line 2 in stanza 1)
Line 6 (new line)
Line 7 (repeat of line 4 in stanza 1)
Line 8 (new line)

Stanza 3/Last Stanza

Line 9 (line 2 of the previous stanza)
Line 10 (line 3 of the first stanza)
Line 11 (line 4 of the previous stanza)
Line 12 (line 1 of the first stanza)

By the end of it, you will have a pantoum. Exciting!


* * *

This exercise was inspired by a moment in this poem.

Writing Exercise #88

Happy National Poetry Month, ladies and gentlemen! This is one of my most favorite times of the year - when many of my peers embark on the 30 poems in 30 days challenge. I'm behind on putting up prompts, so I'm going to put up three by the end of today. Here is the first for 2013:



Let's start with a word pool:

crawler

thicket

borrow

honey

riddle

fertile

hundred

perfumed

fingers



Write a twenty-line poem, each line 8 syllables. Use every word in the pool.