Falling and Other Aspirations—Prompts Inspired by Jordan Sanderson

When I first began writing poems again, my early ones often had the feeling of falling when I wrote them. I miss that early response. I was able to regain it from “Falling Man” in Jordan Sanderson’s Abattoir, which a friend lent me.

The first prompt is from the cover: write about the objects, useful or otherwise, that someone would find in your purse or backpack, nightstand, the kitchen drawer or other so-called junk drawer. Weave a story or essay around those objects.

The first prompt from the poem is to write about waiting below the Earth’s edge. What would you catch?

The second is to use “He envied the water at Niagara, how it never had to stop falling” as a ghostline, remembering to erase the line after you’ve finished the story or poem and crediting the poet for your inspiration.

For the third, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “rung,” “balcony,” “intentions,” ”Niagara,” “fog,” “guzzled,” “tumble,” “railing,” “sprout” and “waiting.”

The last prompt is to use the format of the statement “He tried carelessness, but he was careful in his carelessness,” substituting carelessness and careful with your own antonyms and building a poem from it.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this image of a waterfall in Idaho inspires.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Halloween—Prompts Inspired by Stacy Gnall

Finally getting over a cold, I am posting this Halloween prompt at the last moment. I am once again returning to an early favorite poetry collection: Stacy Gnall’s Heart First into the Forest.

As a former and always Midwesterner, I love this poem, its envy and awe, its challenge.

For the first prompt, begin writing about water and night and end the story or poem on a challenge.

The second prompt is to use “I’ll dress as a hand-held mirror for you” for a title and reflect images of a lover in yourself or surroundings. Remember to credit the poet in an after statement, as part of the title or through some other indicator.

For the third, write an essay, poem or story about what water is for you and your home, its heavy presence in the throat and across the nape or perhaps its aching absence in chapped lips and dusty roads.

The next prompt is to write a poem or story from the following words: “applause,” “narcissistic” “scrawled,” “hand-held,” “x-ray,” “costume,” “sheet,” “séance,” “seaweed” and “bully.”

The final prompt is to start a poem or story with the line “and this thought raises my soul as by séance” as a ghostline. Remember to erase the line and credit the poet for your inspiration.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo of Brunswick Lake Peninsula in Ohio inspires.

Final bonus prompt: write about waking to see this shadow below you.

Good luck writing! Have fun tonight!

Claw—Prompts Inspired by Ankh Spice

Tonight let’s tell stories in whatever form you want: verse or prose or hybrid forms, anything that will immediately pull a reader in as Ankh Spice’s poem did me.

For the first prompt, tell a story about an arcade or childhood game in which you change all the rules.

The second prompt is to imagine how you were chosen for your current life, by whom or what, or perhaps the life you live pulls you on like a favorite pair of jeans, folds around you like an origami bird or plucked you randomly from a hat.

For the third prompt, make a story or poem using the following list of words: “unearthed,” “marrow,” “tenderfoot,” “clotted,” “chosen,” “sifting,” “fortune,” “growl,” “rounding” and “claw.”

The last prompt is to write about childhood treasures and the process of and uncovering and sifting in an essay, poem or story.

This post seems to fit well with the previous prompts. I particularly like the description in the Alt text:

Here is something I found in my parents’ yard on a visit, and it weirdly seems to have a similar shape to the stuffed animal the dog hid.

Bonus prompt: write anything that the photos above inspired or write about anything you have uncovered and why it was hidden.

Extra bonus prompt: write about a zombie attack or whatever this doll planning to do to the green bear (the pumpkin seems to know something is up).

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Relativity—Prompts Inspired by Susan L. Leary

Words have so many meanings, layered and even obscuring or contradicting one another; some meanings are recorded definitions but others private associations. For me, “contentment” contains satisfaction, yes, but also peace and a quiet joy, not limitation nor smug self-satisfaction; it is entirely positive. Susan Leary’s poem “Clean” first uses “clean” with laundry and then to less simple meanings, building a poem around its connotations and associations for her and her relationship to her brother. It is beautiful and generous.

For the first prompt, choose a common word that has deep significance for you, using the word as the title and layering images to invoke its multiple meanings and finally ending on the word. This prompt can work for a poem, essay or even a short story.

The second prompt is to begin a poem or story with a call, not necessarily about a death or an emergency, but one that galvanizes the subsequent actions or reflections.

The third is to write a story or poem using the following list of words: “call,” “house,” “standing,” “couch,” “fatigue,” “stretched,” “shovels,” “summery,” “ocean” and “clean.” Try to switch the usage from noun to verb or vice versa.

Another prompt is to use the phrase “while it seems so symbolic, it’s all rather simple” as a ghostline, remembering to erase the line after you’ve finished the poem and to give credit to the poet.

For the final prompt, write a series of explanations as a Rube Goldberg machine of cause and effect. If you want musical accompaniment or just want to watch a fun Rube Goldberg Machine, here is Okay Go’s “This Too Shall Pass”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w.

For a bonus prompt, use the following Venn diagram to inspire a poem or story. Or find another or, please, create your own and share:

Final bonus prompt: write whatever this photo of the beach at San Clemente inspires.

Good luck writing and have fun reading.

Explicit—Prompts Inspired by Paul Celan

I am amazed by poets who can do so much with so few words (and of course by Paul Celan in general). I am sad that this poem is so relevant today in the US.

Btw, National Poetry Day is celebrated in UK on the first Thursday in October.

For the first prompt, begin with an image for the title that serves as a metaphor for which the essay, story or poem will expand upon.

The second prompt is to use the first line “What times are these” as a ghostline, erasing the line after the poem is complete and crediting the poet for your inspiration, or use the line as your title but still giving credit to Celan

The third poem is to write about what actions are now deemed crimes (in spite of established laws and previous norms) and what crimes by the state are now allowed. Make explicit what has happened here and elsewhere. Be as blunt as you need in a first draft after which you can decide—perhaps a few days later or weeks—what to cut. I believe there is a place for rage and stark protest as well as more oblique resistance to fascism and authoritarianism.

For the fourth, write about the transition from dog whistle to bullhorn, making the objects themselves shift and adapt.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo inspires.

Second bonus prompt (also from Kōke’e State Park): translate the shape of this lichen as if it were a word or message from one of its component organisms to another or from this symbiotic colony to us humans.

Good luck writing.

Anaphora and Epiphora with Pedro Iniguez

Social media is rotting our brains, but it does give us a way to discover and share great writing. At least we will be lyrical in the looming apocalypse.

I love how this poems uses anaphora and epiphora (or epistrophe) to build depth and power from modern, everyday language. This repetition along with assonance, consonance, and actual rhymes throughout provide rhythm and momentum.

For the first prompt, let’s borrow the poet’s structure: build a poem of eight lines in which the first four lines share the same beginning phrase (anaphora), a fifth line that provides the shift into epiphora. Note that the poem alternates words in the repeated phrases. These slight changes can function to deepen meaning: the “we” and the “they” of their bodies. I take the last line to mean that the Mexican people nourish the Earth while alive and after death, connecting back to the title. What may work best is to structure the first half as a problem or question and the second half as the solution, answer or a rebuttal.

The second prompt is to build a poem or story using binary oppositions (life/death, mind/body, Earth/space or others such as light/dark, male/female, young/old, spring/fall, temporary/eternal, etc.) only to blur those categories. You can break down those categories in the very title as the poet did or gradually complicate their boundary. This focus on binary oppositions could seem outdated, so maybe pair the structure with modern and conversational language and syntax.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of words: “afford,” “corpses,” “scrape,” “age,” “minds,” “clear,” “repair,” “bones,”“corrode” and “nourish.”

The last prompt is to write an essay, poem or story on the looming, or perhaps existing, “digital hell.”

Bonus prompt from Todd Dillard:

And a final bonus prompt since it seems like cheating to use someone else’s prompt: find beauty in the breakdown or write whatever this photo inspires.

Good luck writing. Find joy where you can.

Building to a Fall—Prompts Inspired by Emma Bolden

I admit I fangirl Emma Bolden’s writing, so it will be no surprise I am sharing another poem of hers. I love the imagery and precise control of sound, the depth within the often conversational tone, the unexpected turns, the ending.

If you would like to read the recent issue of Whale Road Review, a fabulous journal, here is the link: https://www.whaleroadreview.com/issue-40-fall-2025/

For the first prompt, write a list poem of the lies your body tells, or write a story or essay if you prefer.

The second prompt is to replace the last word with your own and build a story, poem or essay around the line “I’ve never/known a verb more terrible, more gorgeous than to,” remembering to erase that line afterwards and credit the poet in your title or with “After Emma Bolden.”

The third is to use the language and imagery of structures—buildings, bridges, cities, institutions, family relationships, etc.—and then show them breaking.

The next is a writing exercise: rewrite the poem replacing all the nouns and verbs with your own. If you find a line you like, use that for a starting point for a poem or story.

For the last, write a story or poem using the following word list: “centered,” “clot,” “sharpen,” “eye,” “translation,” “shelter,” “blank,” “shutter,” “bud” and “smooth.”

Bonus prompt: write about whatever this photo of a fake medieval castle built in the 1920s inspires, or if you need something more direct, write about the ocean looking in onto this courtyard and what it thinks about the invention of time.

Good luck writing and living during this fall.

Layers—Prompts Inspired by Melissa Eleftherion

I love the complexity described here—how tactile the lifeforms, the fossilized remains and rocks—all exposed by the fog and by the waves’ ceaseless movements.

For the first prompt, begin with an uncovering of a scene. You could perhaps describe a crowd appearing as a train moves past, or a narrator’s view around the curve of a path or river bend or looking down from a balcony upon a parade. How do humans, wildlife, and the environment interact. Try to move the focus as you would a camera.

The second prompt is to build a poem, story or essay around indehiscent fruits that do not split open to release seeds, about the waiting potential and possibility.

For the third, is to use the last line, “what emerges from such care,” as the ghostline for your own story or poem, remembering to erase the line and credit the poet in an after statement or the title.

For the next prompt, write a story or poem using the following list of words: “cling,” “retreats,” “scars,” “rigor,” “nacreous” “fissure,” “tidal,” “index,” “coax,” “decay,” “tether” and “emerges.”

Bonus prompt: Write about the layering and interaction of the wishes from these pennies in their watery environment.

Good luck writing.

Physics Puzzles—Prompts inspired by Sharon Olds

I love this poem by Sharon Olds: how it progresses from a young child’s simple puzzle to a complex physics problem as the child herself progressed and how it connects the physics example to the mother-daughter role and then upends the expectation.

For the first prompt, open by describing the physical action of a game or child’s activity, connecting it to a specific memory either from your own childhood or from parenthood. See where it takes you in a poem, story or essay.

The second prompt is to use a scientific theory or concept as a metaphor for a human relationship or interaction.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of words: “pieces,” “flush,” “frames,” “wooden,” “groan,” “scarlet,” “gaps,” “rung,” “hum” and “grown.”

For the next prompt, use the line “I have not grown up yet, I have lived” as a jumping off point, finishing however you would. After deleting the line (or kept in with italics or quotation marks), give the poet credit for inspiration.

The last prompt is either begin or end with the line “I have not been born yet” in a poem or story, again remembering the poet.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo of butterflies crowding around a wasp trap for a drink.

Good luck writing! Have fun!

Sealey Challenge—Prompts Inspired by Yusuf Komunyakaa

For the last day of the Sealey Challenge, I am ending on a poem from the great poet Yusuf Komunyakaa. He visited my college, and I have never forgotten the beauty of his poetry or kindness towards students, including my awkward not-yet-a-writer self. I have kept that sense of awe and gratitude all these years.

As you can see, I borrowed this book from the library. While I want more books of his for my own home, I want to keep poetry valued in library systems. I would like to see more poetry collections there and in bookstores and more poetry readers and writers everywhere.

For the first prompt, write about a material good or product, referencing its origin (whether by plant or creature or both) and connecting it to the narrator or yourself in an essay, story or poem.

The second prompt is to use “Humans crave immortality, but oh,” as your starting point for a story or poem. You can erase the line as you would for a ghostline or indicate through punctuation or italics that the line isn’t your own; either way, remember to give credit to the poet.

For the third, write a poem or story using the following list of words: “perfume,” “iron,” “pagoda,” “trails,” “radiance,” “flounce,” “crave, “leaves,” “wove” and “world.”

Bonus prompt, write whatever this image inspires, although I wish the photo could convey the sweetness of its scent.

Good luck writing and have fun reading!

Sealey Challenge—Prompts Inspired by Shira Dentz

I was fortunate to get to hear Shira Dentz read at the New Orleans Poetry Festival. I had seen her poems online but hearing her read and the discussion about her poems afterward was a treat. Despite the stacks of books I’ve yet to read, I bought her Sisyphusina, and it is opening up new directions for me. It is a book that I will need to read slowly and repeatedly access all of its layers.

For the first prompt, write a poem in four stanzas with each preceding stanza setting up the next—the loaded in the first becoming the loaded gun in the second.

The second prompt is to describe in a story or poem or essay what this “new season” of wind would be: where and when does it reside?

For the third prompt, write a story or poem using the following word list: “sand,” “loaded,” “vista,” “static,“ “wind,” “fall,” “crawls,” “iron,” “tool” “branches,” and “marrow.”

The last prompt is to write a poem that is in conversation with another poem as this one is with Emily Dickinson’s “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” (https://americanliterature.com/author/emily-dickinson/poem/my-life-had-stood-a-loaded-gun).

Bonus prompt: Write from the perspective of predator or prey and then switch midway.

Good luck writing! Have fun reading!

Sealey Challenge—Prompts Inspired by Clint Smith

While the challenge is usually to read new books for August, it is also good to go back and reread great books, such as this one by the great writer Clint Smith. I find more to learn and to admire in each reading. If you want to read his essays and buy his books, please check out his website, https://www.clintsmithiii.com.

For the first prompt, write about your own playground experiences and connect them to your life now in a poem or essay.

The second prompt is to write an elegy for your childhood innocence or a parent’s regret.

For the third, write about a world in which raised hands lead to answers, to another hand pulling them to safety, to life for all hands.

The last prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of words from “Playground Elegy”: “slide,” “hold,” “gravity,” “weight,” “ripple,” “defiance,” “answer,” “growing,” “raised” and “live.”

Bonus prompt: write about flight and safe landing.

Good luck. Have fun reading and writing this month!

I forgot August is the Sealey Challenge—Prompts Inspired by Han VanderHart

Time once again has raced past me, and I forgot to post about the Sealey Challenge. Wonderful poet Nicole Sealey created the challenge to read thirty poetry collections or chapbooks this month. It is a great time to get book recommendations and share your favorite books with other readers. You can find more information and ways to participate on the website, https://www.thesealeychallenge.com/. You can also get great recommendations on the site: https://www.thesealeychallenge.com/start-here

My recommendation is Han VanderHart’s What Pecan Light. I’ve just begun and so far love it (not surprising since I have loved everything I’ve seen online).

For the first prompt, fill in the line “What are we for but to make a terrible” with your own noun and answer it yourself. Make sure to credit the poet and indicate the direct quotation.

The second is to write about the sounds of wildlife around your childhood home in a poem, story or essay. What sounds bring you back no matter how far away you’ve traveled?

The third is to write a poem or story using the following word list: “locusts,” “cadence,” “whirr,” “crept,” “retreated,” “notes,” “angles,” “pines,” “beats” and “silence.”

For another prompt, try to describe silence without using that word or its adjective or adverb forms.

The last prompt is to choose a poetry collections or chapbook and write a poem, story, or essay in response.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this image brings to mind (and yes, I know I shouldn’t have centered the flower but I like the photo as is).

Have fun writing and reading. Good luck.

“when the bread was gone”—Prompts Inspired by Nour Abdel Latif

I do not understand what finally caused the recent acknowledgment of the genocide in Palestine by journalists, pundits and politicians, but perhaps those in power will finally act. I will never forgive those who enabled these horrors. It is too late to save so many lives already lost, but we need to save as many as we can by keeping the spotlight on what’s happening. I also want to honor those who have suffered. Here is a powerful poem by Nour Abdel Latif. I hope to read more of her poetry.

For the first prompt, write about hope and remembrance.

The second prompt is to write about a better world, one without genocide or starvation, where each child is loved by the whole world, cradled in gentle hands and fed all the food and love a child needs.

The last is not a writing prompt but a mission: find poems and stories by Palestinian writers and share them so that their voices will carry to all shores.

Good luck writing.

Survival—Prompts Inspired by Andrea Gibson

It was (and is) a sad day for the poetry community to lose such a power as Andrea Gibson, although I believe they, like all those we love, remain within us. Here is the link to the poem: https://poets.org/poem/chemo-room-i-wear-mittens-made-ice-so-i-dont-lose-my-fingernails-i-took-risk-today-write-down. If you want more of their poetry, especially of them performing, here is a link to their website: https://andreagibson.org/best-poems.

I admit it was hard to choose just one poem, and I know I will post others of theirs later, but this one I needed today.

For the first prompt, write a poem, story or perhaps an instructional essay on how to build a survival shelter or what materials you use.

The second prompt is to write what you take and what you give to the world. Let it be a small thing that brings you joy in the hope that another will also experience that gift.

For the third, or perhaps just as a writing exercise, describe everything beautiful and hopeful that you can in right now.

The next prompt is to write a story or poem using the following list of words: “arena,” “answered,” “shelter,” “branches,” “infinity,”“wrinkle,” “mirror,” “heirloom,” “rosewater,” “spinning,” and “afterlife.”

For the last, write how you would measure life, by what metrics or moments.

Bonus prompt: write about whatever this photo taken using an old app, PaperCamera inspires.

Good luck writing and living. May you love widely and deeply.

The Beauty Before—Prompts Inspired by Molly Brodak

After last week’s trip where I listened to a relative deny fascism and concentration camps, her own racism dripping from her mouth and her telling me to leave the country, I need a little hopefulness, a reminder that joy remains in spite of the horror and rot. I won’t keep silent to what is happening; I love people more than any country or any other lie. I just need to see some goodness and beauty before facing the present and its history.

The first prompt is the poem’s title itself: write a list poem, or perhaps a narrative poem, an essay or story about all the beauty you see early in the day, before its disappointments and griefs come home. Remember to credit the poet for your inspiration.

For the second prompt, write a poem or story about the panoramic view before a fall. Describe what Wile E. Coyote sees before he and as he looks down, those moments before gravity pulls him from the cliff’s height, but indicate to your reader that no matter how hard the landing, you (or your character) will rise again.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following list of words: “open,” “upright,” “spokes,” “fragrant,” “mist,” “luck,” “morning,” “riot,” “minutes” and “comes.”

For the last prompt, look up the migration of a particular species of bird and butterfly and describe how it travels and what it calls home, interspersed with your own travels and homecomings.

Bonus prompt: describe this scene and however it affects you, letting the description of the setting convey the emotional response.

Good luck. Have fun writing and sharing.

A Different Kind of Life—Prompts Inspired by Naomi Shihab Nye

Although I am at a family reunion and happy to see loved ones, I cannot celebrate the 4th and its festivities while people are being kidnapped by ICE and deported to prison camps, the government is under the control of fascists and the US continues to enable genocide. I have little patriotism left, only a fear for the future and fury at what is being done to innocent people here and abroad, but perhaps that makes me the best patriot, someone who wants my country to do better.

For the first prompt, write poem, story or essay about current events and this holiday.

The second prompt is to write a poem about fireworks that blossom across the sky in hushed tones, without causing fear or anxiety in animals or those who have endured bombing and war.

The third prompt is write about someone or something that brings you hope or about someone you admire for their bravery, honesty and kindness or what future you want for this country and its role in the world.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this image inspires.

Good luck writing. I hope you have a chance to be with your loved ones.

Calling—Prompts Inspired by Sandra Beasley

This poem is perfect for job hunting, although I must admit I believe my skills—my speed in growing hair and flailing in shallow water and conversation—are hardly marketable so far. Perhaps I just haven’t found the right cubicle or puddle. As a child I visited Union Station in St. Louis and wanted to be bartender just to serve drinks surrounded by all that arched green tile and dark wood.

The first prompt for a poem, story or essay is to fill in the gaps in your résumé with the best vacations and lazy Saturdays you’ve had or to add the skills you feel give you the most joy, whether it is finding faces in tree bark and clouds or spotting mushrooms in undergrowth or remembering song lyrics.

For the second prompt, use the line “I’ll do whatever you want, as long as I can do it” for a ghostline. Remember to erase the line after you’ve finished the poem or story and credit the poet with an after statement or in the title.

The third prompt is to write a poem or story using the following words: “casino,” “dioramas,” “Latin,” “balance,” “falls,” “veranda,” “strangers,” “calls,” “broker” and “morning.”

The next is to write makes you “get up in the morning” in a poem, story or essay.

For the last, write about your calling and what or who is answering.

Bonus prompt: write whatever this photo and/or its accompanying text inspires (photo not mine).

Good luck. Have fun writing.

“Someone has to”—Prompts Inspired by Wislawa Szymborska

So here we are in another bullshit war that will kill civilians, further destabilize an entire region, create refugees to be denied entry and their humanity, waste billions of money and justify the loss of more rights here and abroad, all cheered on by the same liars and racists but now with the bonus of genocide.

So here is a powerful poem about war, the slow rebuilding after loss and destruction and whatever lessons learned are forgotten. Yes, it is beautifully written—skillful use of sound and imagery—but the ones who need to read it won’t, so let’s write a poem to shout at the worthless fuckers.

For the first prompt, make a list of cleaning tasks or repairs. Now take that list and expand those tasks to a city or countryside awaiting destruction, reversing the order. End your poem or story with the first bomb dropped, bullet fired, a cloud spinning into a funnel, or the start of rain.

The second prompt is to look at the headlines advocating for this war and find out what the author did during the last war in Iraq. Take a previous op ed or article from that journalist or politician back then and collect the statements that apply to both wars for a list poem. Or make an erasure poem of either article.

For the third, write a story or poem using the following list of words: “tidy,” “rubble,” “sludge,” “shards,” “glaze,” “shirtsleeves,” “shreds,” “rusted,” “cornstalk” and “clouds.”

The next prompt is to write an essay or story about cleaning and rebuilding the exterior/physical that illustrates an emotional/interior healing or recovery.

Another prompt is to write a poem about starting a war or causing a disaster that repeats the phrase “someone has to.”

For the last, write an essay, poem or story to stop a tragedy. “Someone has to.”

Bonus prompt: write about this stand of pine trees lost to the waves from the perspective of the one tree that remains on the beach. Or write whatever this photo inspires.

Good luck.

Humanitarian—Prompts Inspired by Dr. Khawla Badwan

This is a powerful poem about the genocide occurring in Gaza. It is hard not to write of the horrors but is difficult to do so in a way without speaking over the people who need to be heard. So while it is not my story to tell, it is important to share the stories of the people living through these horrors.

For the first prompt, reflect on how the terms “humanitarian” and “aid” are used in an imposed famine. What other terms have likewise been inverted to the point of absurdity or were created to obscure facts? Even syntax deliberately misleads, such as the ridiculous passive voice used bombing or in the US for police officers attacking and murdering civilians and ICE kidnapping and trafficking residents. Newspaper headlines should provide solid examples of propaganda and Orwell’s “newspeak” for a poem or story especially as the U.S. slides further into fascism.

For the second prompt, choose a newspaper article about a targeted group in the U.S. or one abroad for an erasure poem. Cross out any phrases or sentences that originate from the perspective of a more powerful group. What words are left? Or, conversely, cross out statements, words, or even letters—remembering to not add anything—to show the missing viewpoint if you are part of that targeted group or can do so carefully if you are not. It is easy to cause harm even with the best of intentions.

The next prompt is write a story, poem, or essay about a specific event in your life or from your family history that has been either suppressed or distorted. A variation on this prompt is to structure the narrative by filling in the gaps or replacing the euphemisms in an obituary.

Good luck.