1. Use a slang word or term as your title.
2. Write 27 lines.
3. Include a person’s name.

If you need another idea for a writing prompt, visit the NaPoWriMo website.

Writing Prompt

If your personal well of inspiration seems dry, never fear. I will be posting poetry prompts here from time to time. Here’s a five step prompt to help get you started, via Mary Biddinger by way of Deborah Ager:

1. Use a color as your title.
2. Write against what people associate with that color. If your color is yellow, write a sad poem. If your color is blue, write a cheery poem.
3. Invoke the name of a poet they way you’d invoke your own name in a ghazal.
4. Take a look at the Wikipedia page on poetic forms and choose a form. Write the poem in that form.
5. Use a form of water in your poem– ice, drop, drip, drizzle, mist, etc.

I’m on a high after completing a poem this past week. After a busy month full of various life events—that meant little poetry writing—I was asked to read a poem at a funeral for a person in a family I consider my second family. I’ve known this family for about thirty years and adore them all. I glanced through my book, Midnight Voices, and none of the poems said what I wanted to say at this funeral. Then, I turned to Hopkins and pondered Dylan Thomas even though I knew the request was to hear my words. As great as Thomas and Hopkins are and may be, they have not known this family for thirty years. Off I went to my studio—certain I could not and did not know how to write a poem—and out I came with a draft of something that was exactly how I want to be writing in the future. The future became the now.

Are you someone who enjoys writing prompts?

Then, the monthly Guardian poetry workshop might be the answer for you. It’s free. It’s voluntary. It’s online. It’s not a class or traditional workshop.

Anyone who wants can write a poem based on a poet’s prompt and then send it to the poet via The Guardian. If the poet likes your work, they will comment on it in an article, and the poem may be posted to the website. You could write the prompt and not send it in at all. No one has to know. It can be your little secret.

To recap, a poet invites you to write a poem every month and then that poet picks his or her favorites from the submissions and writes an article about them.

Is this not a brilliant idea? I want to kiss the very foundation of The Guardian’s office building!

What might February bring?

If you are so inclined, post the line in the comments here. Happy creating!

1. Take a pungent food and place it by your desk. Inhale the scent frequently as you compose your poem. One poet used overly ripe apples. When I read this requirement, I think of sauerkraut.
2. Remove all of your clothes and write your poem. John Ashbery’s idea.
3. Keeping your clothes on, write a poem while walking down the street.

Please include the following:
1. Use the apostrophe: Example: O, lordy lord lord.
2. Use a made-up animal name. Example: A whoozit.
3. Use a scientific word; it can be real. Example: Whoozitology.
4. Use punctuation you don’t normally use such as a ; or a — or even a …

After graduation from my MFA program and back when I used a Mac Classic — sigh — I would send emails via AOL to buddies from my writing program. One in particular found me and wanted to stay in touch. I found that a bit odd only because my two years in Florida seemed like some other life. I did not expect to stay in touch with as many of the people as I did.

Since I’ve had good friends for 20-plus years, the friends who were only a year or so old seemed too new to keep. Dumb of me? Yes.

I kept my friends. I kept in touch even when I was ashamed at how little I was writing. They did not say anything. They did not need to say anything since I excelled in being disappointed with myself for my lack of writing.

I thought — how cute! — that I was too busy. I worked. Now I can only wonder (and perhaps dream) what else did I do with all of that time?

Now that I’m a mama (a hip one, I hope), I am really busy. In theory, I have no free time. Yet how do I accomplish so much? It’s one of those things I don’t want to question too much. The smoke and mirrors may remove themselves. I only want to accept that I am doing a lot and somehow continuing.

This month, I’m writing one poem per day. If I miss a day, I’m not being too hard on myself. I’m writing one poem per day despite my new two-hour commute to a client site. I’m writing despite owning a business. I’m writing despite running a magazine, having a family and having a number of people in my life fighting some scary-as-heck sicknesses.

So, there you go. If I can do it, you sure as heck can.

PROMPT: An oldie but a goodie. I first learned from this prompt from Dana Roeser. Just recently, Aimee Nez brought it back to mind. Write a poem using an object for inspiration. Help us see this object in a new or unusual way.

As always, life takes us in unexpected directions. A few of my friends have been dealing with sad — possibly life-and-death — news, and my thoughts are with them. These past few months taught me, more than I ever knew before, that I have to filter out some of what’s going on when there are too many things going on for one person to handle at one time.

I take them one by one and continue to write. By the way, even the good news can be distracting at times.

—-

A prompt for you. This is based loosely on a prompt someone gave in our poem-a-day group.

The Anagram Poem
1. Think up a title long enough to give you many other words. In my example, I wrote a poem called marriage. Words you can make from marriage include: gear, ream, rage.

2. Using the anagram software below, figure out what words exist in your title word(s). Try to make them at least four letters (not including ‘s’). Get at least 6 words from your title word(s).

3. Write a 14-line poem using the 6 words anywhere in your poem.

Reference: Anagram Software

A few of the stereotypical “poetry words” include: dark, darkness, moon, love, dawn, dusk, and words that mean various shades of red.

My own forbidden words include: light, sky and, yes, dark.

I’m curious why I want to write about light and the sky so often. At times, I allow those words to creep into drafts and edit them out.

Writing Prompt: If you’re here looking for a creative writing prompt, try this exercise. Write down 6 of your forbidden words. Write down 6 words you’ve never used in a poem before and that don’t often come up in your daily reading or conversation. Write a poem with the 6 “new” words and see where it takes you.

What are your forbidden words? Please share them with us in the comments below.

2. Include a strange place name such as Hell, MI or Tombstone, AZ.

I’d be delighted if you posted your efforts (or links to your efforts) in the comments.

If you like this prompt, please bookmark it in delicious or click the digg button to the upper left of this post.