The Poetry Marathon

We are almost there! Hang on. Do what you need to do to get through these next two hours.

The prompt this hour is to write a poem about a place. It should be a place you know very well because you have been there a lot, or imagined it a great deal. It should be a smaller place. Think of a house, a room, or a park, not an entire city or county.

The poem should describe the place as it relates to people, not just you, but the other people who are there regularly.  If what you are describing is one room in your apartment, say the kitchen, you would know most of the people who frequent it, and you can be more specific. But if what you are describing is a park, generalities are easier, although you can imagine specifics if that helps.

Write a poem to go with one of the following five titles.

Möbius Strip

The Night is For Sleeping

Blue Clouds

Station

At the Diner

Write a poem as if it is a letter to someone. Start with the word Dear and go from there. This poem letter could be to yourself. It could be to someone you know. It could be to a complete stranger.

Write an ekphrastic poem to go with this image. An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.

This painting is called Coalition and it is by Kevin Peterson.

Write a poem that contains one or more of the following common phrases but uses them in a different context than they are usually used. Ideally you would use more than one of the phrases, or repeatedly use the same phrase.

“Welcome home”

“Thank you”

“Excuse me”

“Have a nice day”

“Pardon me”

“How are you?”

Write a prose poem about an animal. Any animal.

Then only after you have finished the last sentence, add line and stanza breaks.

Write a poem about the first person who broke your heart.  The person who broke your heart could be obvious – it could be your first boyfriend or girlfriend, or it could be surprising. It could be a friend, a parent, a child.

Write down the first line of your poem before reading the rest of this prompt.

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Write the rest of your poem, the poem can be about any subject that you like.

Then copy and paste the first line so that it is also the last line of your poem. You can change one word of this line, but only one word.

Write a poem about the heart. But don’t focus on the heart as a metaphor, focus on it as a reality. For example the function the heart serves in the body, or heart monitors, etc.

Write a nature poem. But play with the genre. Most nature poems are about the beauty of the natural world. I want you to focus on the intersection of the natural world and the unnatural world. Think dandelions sprouting through the concrete. Think garbage on the ocean or Ivy on a house, even flowers at a wedding.