It was called to my attention that it's been a little while since National Poetry Month (April) and we're months away from NaNoWriMo (November). Seems like August is a good time for a poem-a-day challenge. If you don't write poetry, no worries, I'm confident many of these prompts can spark ideas for fiction and cnf.
If you find these prompts helpful please share with a friend.
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Hot Haiku
5 75
757
575
Total: 53 syllables
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Write to Rebel
Write a poem in which you disagree (or play devil's advocate) with the statements made in another poem
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Title Poem
Use titles from poems or texts you love and reconstitute the words in these titles into an entirely original work
(Note: Play on Cento concept)
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Sizzling 7s
777
Total: 21 syllables
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Dictionary Poem
A poem that proves the need for a word in your language that does not currently exist
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For The Record Poem
Set the record straight about a situation that either went badly, you didn't get what you wanted, or you wish had turned out different
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Circle The Idea
In this poem, talk about what you want to address without clearly addressing the subject in any sort of narrative sense. Never state the actual underlying concept / purpose / agenda. Circle around your meaning from multiples angles.
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Meditation Poem
Write a poem that makes you feel the way you want to feel at the end of a meditation.
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Short ‘n Spicy
3 words7 words 5 words
7 words3 words 5 words
Total: 30 words
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Diagnosis Poem
Write about emotions surrounding a diagnosis (or) otherwise receiving emotionally charged information that was difficult to comprehend and required you to go through self-examination / reflection to comprehend the significance / impact of this information on your personal reality.
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Chip on your shoulder
We all have them. Reflect. What subjects do you struggle to approach in a levelheaded way without bias?
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Cold Call
Imagine you have to make a terrible phone call, a call you never want to have to make. Maybe you've already had to do so. Focus on the feelings surrounding your duty to make this call.
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Moving Day
Write about a time you moved. It's never a good time. There are always stories.
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Never Again
Address one thing you regularly have to do that you would most prefer to never have to do again.
* Fever Pitch, Ice Bath
7 words9 words11 words
5 words9 words13 words
3 words5 words7 words
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Food Trends
What foods do you get sick of? What foods can you eat every day? What do these foods mean to you? What is your personal history with these foods?
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Questions
A poem of questions that you feel you yourself cannot answer.
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Waylaid by the Interviewer
What would you most fear an Interviewer might ask you to "dig deeper" about? You don't have to write about this particular issue. Write about the context, the surrounding emotions.
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Parts Work
What runs you? Go beyond the concept of the angel and the devil on your shoulders. Reflect on how you make choices and why. How did you get to be the person you are today?
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Take It Back
Write your day in reverse. As you replay, rewrite. Make the day what it could have been (either perfection or abyss).
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Trash Panda
Write a poem about your favorite underdog creature of the natural world. Who doesn’t get enough respect?
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Eco Poem
First, don’t rant. Touch on the issue that concerns you most with grace. Play around the edges. Make us want the world to be a more harmonious place.
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Social Justice Poem
See: Eco Poem
Plus: Make it personal. Admit your complicity. What are you doing to further the cause? What are you too afraid to do? What do you wish you felt empowered to do?
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Make America X
What is this place? Why are we here? What does being an “American” in modern times mean to you? Show me pride. Show me power. Show me you’re embarrassed we’re not doing better.
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Music To Get You Through
Write about the tunes that save you, that have saved you, that continue to save you.
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Read The Comments
Write a poem using material exclusively repurposed from the comments sections of news articles (or a celebrity’s Instagram account).
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Ekphrastic Gone Wild
Write a poem in response to commercial art. Don’t write about a Monet or even a Banksy. Write about poem in response to an ad for a new type of rucksack or a perfume or a car or a just released clothing line or posts by Instagram influencers that are clearly paid product placement.
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Post-COVID
Write about activities you now never see yourself doing. Look through the lens of The Now. Of course, it’s possible that later we will somehow all feel comfortable again packed into tiny airless spaces…but I don’t see it. As Emerson says, “The field cannot be well seen from within the field.” We’re in the field.
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Dollar a Day
Let’s hope you have more than a dollar to spend on your food for each day. Given the price of food, let’s pretend you have a budget of $25 for all the food you will consume next week. Describe your meal plan and the surrounding emotions that come to mind as you reflect on this.
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Against the Nature of Streaming
Listen to an album all the way through. Write how it feels after. Consider how different it feels when you jump around, track to track, impulse to impulse, whim to instant so-called gratification.
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Full-Length
Watch a movie. Reflect on the path of a secondary character out of context. Inevitably, this character’s aspirations, hopes and dreams, were either dashed or else extraneous in the eyes of the main protagonist(s) / antagonist(s). Voice the silenced. Do you relate?
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Vices
You must have one. But why is yours less problematic than those of others? We tend to feel this is the case. Why is a vice a vice? Why a virtue a virtue?
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TMI
What is the line? Walk the line.
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Sentimental
What is the line? Walk the line. You are a trapeze walker. The floor is lava.
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Classic.
What makes something a classic? Do you agree? How do you relate to the Western Canon? How does is reflect your work? Do you see evolution?
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Supernatural
You can’t prove it doesn’t exist. You don’t have to believe in cryptozoological creatures to believe that there are elements of “the world” beyond the scope of our human faculties. Your thoughts?
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The City, The Suburbs, The Exurbs, The Country
You think you know what you prefer, don’t you?
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Utility
What would you most not want to live without? (central air, w/d, dishwasher)
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Boujee
What does this mean to you?
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Orbit
What do you owe friends?
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Relationships
Follow you down? (see: Gin Blossoms)
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Future Purchases
Without saying the things themselves, reflect on why you’re putting off purchasing the things you believe you want to buy for yourself when it seems feasible or appropriate. Is there a reason you feel you do not deserve [immediate gratification in terms of] what you wish for?
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