30 Writing Prompts for National Poetry Month
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1. Grab the closest book. Go to page 29. Write down 10 words that catch your eye. Use 7 of words
in a poem. For extra credit, have 4 of them appear at the end of a line.
2. Write about a poem about a superhero coming to your house and confronting you about
something. Somewhere in the poem, you have to state what your superpower is.
3. Write a poem that is really a love letter to an old flame. To make sure it’s doesn’t slip into sappy,
make sure one or more of these words are in the poem: dung beetle, politician, nuclear, exoskeleton,
oceanography, pompadour, toilet.
4. Make a list of seven words that have the same vowel sounds (like bee, treat, pepperoni, eagle) and use
them in a repetitive way throughout a poem.
5. Write a poem about a weird fact or several odd facts that you know.
6. Write a poem in two sections about two completely different things. Have the title link both items
today in a surprising way.
7. Find a favorite recipe. Now write a poem inspired or in the style of that recipe about a family
secret—yours or someone else’s.
8. Turn your paper so that it’s in the landscape position. Write a poem about God or the universe or
the horizon of the ocean with longer lines and see what happens.
9. Write a poem to your favorite letter of the alphabet.
10. Write a seven-line poem about one of the 7 Sins that only contains seven words in each of the lines.
11. Write a poem that begins with the last thing you can remember someone saying to you today or
yesterday. See if you can use that line two or three times.
12. Turn on the radio to any channel. Write a poem inspired by the first thing you hear (lyrics to a
song, a commercial, etc.)
13. Run around your house and grab 5 items that all begin with the same letter. Write a poem as an
ode to one of these items or that includes these items.
14. Think of the nicest thing someone ever said to you. Write a poem about a rainy day and something
flooding. End the poem with the good thing someone said.
15. Write a poem that describes the wallpaper on your computer or the image on the last postcard you
received.
Writing Prompts by Kelli Russell Agodon – www.agodon.com
16. Make a list of ten images of things you have seen in the last 24 hours. Use all of them in a poem.
17. Write a poem that includes these words: bamboozled, bloodlust, bibliography. Have the title include one
of these words: contradiction, constellation, cranberry.
18. Write a poem about something small that is only 5 lines long.
19. Close your eyes and listen to the sounds around you. If the sounds are peaceful, write a poem with
a violent word as the title. If the sounds are loud, write a poem with a kind word as the title.
20. Remove your shoes. Write a poem that celebrates your feet.
21. Write a poem with the opposite hand that you write with or if you type your poems on the
computer, use only one hand to type.
22. Write a poem that only had five syllables in each line. Give the poem a long title.
23. Write a poem where the last word of the first line begins with the first letter of your name, and the
last word of the second line begins with the second letter of your name until you have spelled out
your first and/or your last name.
24. Write a poem that has the word “love” hidden in it somewhere. You cannot use the word “love” by
itself, it must be hidden (such as in the word “glove” or in two words like “halo venom”).
25. Write a poem where a literary figure shows up and tells you something and/or gives you
something.
26. Write a poem to your future self, but do not say it is to your future self, address the poem to a
president or rockstar.
27. Write a poem made of ten metaphors.
28. Make a list of your favorite words today. Write a poem that uses 90% of the words you wrote
down.
29. Write a poem about a skyscraper. Now, rewrite the poem with the last line being your first.
30. Write a poem giving thanks to a poet or to writing a poem a day. Use a line from one of the poems
you wrote this month to either begin or end it.
A POEM A DAY BY DAISY FRIED
1. Write a ten-line poem in which each line is a lie.
2. Write a poem that tells a story in 18 lines or less, and includes at least four proper nouns.
3. Write a poem that uses any of the senses EXCEPT SIGHT as its predominant imagery.
4. Write a poem inspired by a newspaper article you read this week.
5. Write a poem without adjectives.
6. Ask your roommate/neighbor/lover/friend/mother/anyone for a subject (as wild as they want to make it) for a ten-minute poem. Now write a poem about that subject in ten minutes; make it have a beginning, a middle and an end.
7. Write the worst poem you possibly can. Now edit it and make it even worse.
8. Poem subject: A wind blows something down. Or else it doesn’t. Write it in ten minutes.
9. Write a poem with each line, or at least many of the lines, filling in the blanks of “I used to________, but now I_________.”
11. Write a poem consisting entirely of things you’d like to say, but never would, to a parent, lover, sibling, child, teacher, roommate, best
friend, mayor, president, corporate CEO, etc.
12. Write a poem that uses as a starting point a conversation you overheard.
13. First line of today’s poem: “This is not a poem, but…”
14. Write a poem in the form of either a letter or a speech which uses at least six of the following words: horses, “no, duh,” adolescent, autumn
leaves, necklace, lamb chop, Tikrit, country rock, mother, scamper, zap, bankrupt. Take no more than 13 minutes to write it.
15. Write a poem which includes a list or lists-shopping list, things to do, lists of flowers or rocks, lists of colors, inventory lists,
lists of events, lists of names…
16. Poem subject: A person runs where no running is allowed. Write it in ten minutes.
17. Write a poem in the form of a personal ad.
18. Write a poem made up entirely of questions. Or write a poem made up entirely of directions.
19. Write a poem about the first time you did something.
20. Write a poem about falling out of love.
21. Make up a secret. Then write a poem about it. Or ask someone to give you a made-up or real secret, and write a poem about it.
22. Write a poem about a bird you don’t know the name of.
23. Write a hate poem.
24. Free-write for, say, 15 minutes, but start with the phrase “In the kitchen” and every time you get stuck, repeat the phrase “In the
kitchen.” Alternatively, use any part of a house you have lots of associations with-”In the garage,” “In the basement,” “In the bathroom,” “In the yard.”
25. Write down 5-10 words that sound ugly to you. Use them in a poem.
26. Write a poem in which a motorcycle and a ballerina appear.
27. Write a poem out of the worst part of your character.
28. Write a poem that involves modern technology-voice mail, or instant messaging, or video games, or… 29. Write a seduction poem in which somebody seduces you.
30. Radically revise a poem you wrote earlier this month.
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