Prompts to Get You Going...
There are many hyperlinks throughout the list of prompts. When a specific poetic genre or form is mentioned, there is likely a hyperlink to more information about that poetic genre or form. If there is a title of a poem mentioned, the title of the poem is likely a hyperlink to the full poem. There are also hyperlinks to concepts and ideas readers may not be familiar with.
Click on the hyperlinks to learn more about those concepts and ideas as well as the genres, forms, and poems linked in this list.
Click on the hyperlinks to learn more about those concepts and ideas as well as the genres, forms, and poems linked in this list.
Poetry Genre & Forms Prompts
- Write a haiku (a three line poem where the first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables, and the third line has 5 syllables) to help you start a poem.
- Write a sonnet that documents an event, person, etc. Example: “Sonnet in Primary Colors” by Rita Dove,
- Write a villanelle that incorporates a metaphor. Metaphor examples:
- "The rain came down in long knitting needles.” --Enid Bagnold, from National Velvet
- “The fog comes / on little cat feet” --Carl Sandburg, “Fog”
- “Life is a broken-winged bird / That cannot fly” --Langston Hughes, “Dreams”
- Write a brag triolet. Sharon Olds' "The Language of the Brag" is a perfect example of a "brag" poem BUT it's NOT a triolet.
- Write a villanelle that invokes proprioception as the driving force/sensory detail in the villanelle.
- Write a triolet that involves an animal. Do NOT to mention the kind of animal you're writing about.
- Write a sonnet about being in a liminal (in betweenness) space and/or inhabiting liminal identities.
- Write a Dada poem. Click HERE for instructions.
- Write a celebratory poem (an ode) celebrating anything you wish.
- Create a blackout poem. Click HERE for instructions.
- Write a replacement poem. Click HERE for instructions.
Free-Verse Prompts That Can Be Used for Other Poetic Genres & Forms
- Write a poem that is a spell for catching a fish, for going to sleep, for cooking a meal, for changing a tire, for writing a poem, for dancing alone to your favorite music, for writing a short story, for working with your community partner, or having a social media debate. Try using repetitions at the beginnings or ends of lines.
- Write a blank verse poem.
- Using the third person POV, write a poem about a memory in the future tense.
- Write a list poem. List in details of the places you've lived. Recall if you were happy or unhappy in those places. Remember the smells of the place, the sounds, the relationships between rooms, the relationship you had with the rooms and in the rooms.
- Write a poem about the quality of the light coming in through your window. Avoid light/dark and other clichés connected to describing light through a window. Work on developing fresh-usual descriptions.
- Write in a poem about writing different places—in the Laundromat, at the bus stop, in a restaurant, at the Jiffy Lube. Write about what is going on around you--the sounds, smells, tastes, textures, etc.
- Find and read a poetry collection by a poet you appreciate, open to any page, grab a line, write it down, and continue your own poem from there.
- Write a poem about about what a place will look like in a hundred years, or what it looked like a century ago. Don't assume an apocalypse or nothingness, and don't use science fiction metaphors.
- Look at something for a long time, longer than you think necessary. An animal, a scene, a picture, a person, the night sky, a field. Then, in a poem, describe what's invisible but nevertheless there. Make what you don't see as real as what you see.
- Write a poem with a surprise or with the word “surprise.”
- Write a poem about betrayal that never uses the word "betrayal."
- Write a poem about an item, any item that induces emotion and an image--avoid naming the item.
- Write a poem with strong imagery about a place and/or time. Don't mention the name of the place or the time period. Your imagery should clearly and poetically show readers the place and/or time.
- Write a poem that involves an animal. Try not to mention the kind of animal you're writing about.
- Write a poem about rain, snow, hail, mud, ice, or waves.Write a poem about masks. How has wearing a mask in public made you feel? Are physical masks anything like the invisible masks people tend to wear?Write about (a) sibling(s). How have they affected your life? If you don’t have any siblings, explore whether or not you wish you had (a) sibling(s). Why or why not?
Poetry of Witness & Documentary Poetics Prompts
- Conduct some research (or more research) on historical and/or sociopolitical issues that you care about. Relying on your notes, observations, and experiences with the issues you care about, write a documentary poem that combines what you learned from your research, with your experiences with the issues.
- Write a "poem of witness" about a contemporary sociopolitical event or personal event that seems to invite poetic documentation.
- Write a prose poem about your most intriguing service learning experience OR your most dull.
- Write a prose poem that makes concrete an abstract idea/memory about your service learning work.
- Write a documentary poem about a place, person, or event that is important to an historical moment; however, not much is known about this place, person, or event.
- Write a documentary poem that characterizes at least 6 different relevant POVs on an event that matters to you.
- Write an elegy for a place that no longer exists due to war or environmental degradation.