The Color Prompt
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So, the world is filled with quirky, interesting colors. All of these colors have an equally charming name…
The car we just bought, for instance, is called Ragatta Blue. Ragatta is a kind of sail-boat race or racing…so by naming the type of blue Ragatta, the car marketing gu-ru’s have thought up a way to connect their car with a relaxing, leisurely lifestyle. And if that’s what happens…who wouldn’t want a car that was Ragatta Blue!
Try it yourself, go to a well-known car manufacturer’s website and check out the names of the colors. Make that color your poem’s title. Begin by describing the way the color tastes or smells like…HINT: Don’t use the name the color except for in the title.
Spice it up! About half way through the poem introduce a new character or event into the poem that shifts the focus away from the color and towards the complexities of aesthetics/aesthetic notions.
If colors don’t suit you try perfumes or fragrances, how is the fragrance described? Break that description down into one or two words and use that as your poem’s title.
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Begin With a Body Part
Excellent poetry goes somewhere. Your readers should always be filled with awe when finished reading your poetry. They should be surprised to find themselves were you have deftly led them – but the catch is: they should never begrudge the journey.
Though the reader may be surprised at where they end up, this “ending place” should feel natural in a deep & compelling way. The ending image should resonate with the beginning of the poem. By resonate I do not mean repeat or reiterate, but rather, illuminate.
Pick a common body part like the neck, arm, head or eye & start with that image. Now, add a twist. Don’t let the body part fall into a cliché (like kissing if you use lips, or “smart” if you use head). Rather, begin with how odd or bizarre this body part really is. If you need to – begin with a classic cluster/brainstorm. Start with the body part in the middle. Write down each association, each loosely related idea that pops into your head & see were it takes you!
More about Teeth
The filling felt odd
like an immortal piece
inside my body,
and I dreamed again
of teeth
falling out.
One by one
they crumple
in my mouth
like little accordions
only no dissonant notes
no melodies
no Germans
dancing– or spry old men
in suspenders & bowties
bending their knees
smiling thickly
as they Polka
just like they had
forty years ago
with their only bride
plump & wonderful
delight & delight
over & over
they don’t stop
until
their graves.
Deluge
Such was last night....
The rain was in my dream. I was actually in the rain but not wet. I was floating down the street, buoyant on a stream of water which rushed through the gutters. There was lightening, and of course, thunder, and a vague notion that though I wasn’t wet, the world around me was more then wet. At some point, I was no longer floating down the street but was in a warm, soft bed, witnessing the curtains blowing like wild flames, the sky lit with electricity, and of course wet window sill, and a sopping wet floor.
Water is intrinsic. It lurks around us, and is even part of is – 78% to be precise. Despite my land-loving habits and relatively little experience with “big water,” I do hold a certain fascination for the way water creates life. The symbol of water as life, new life, and creation reaches from Christian Baptism to the ancient rain-dancing ceremonies of Native Peoples. It encompasses a vast array of spiritual concepts all over the world.
Pick one word in each word group & include at least 5 of these words in a new poem about water. Consider writing from Water’s perspective.
Flood / Deluge
Glitter / Gleam
Stone / Sand
Street / Hall
Seed / Pearl
Strange / Weird
Lost / Least of Us
Plant / Reap
Desert / Cracking Earth
Shallow / Unyielding
Carriage / Car
Twenty Little Poetry Projects
By Jim Simmerman
1. Begun the poem with a metaphor
2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous
3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem
4. Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses)
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem
7.Change direction or digress from the last thing you said
8. Use a word (slang?) you've never seen in a poem
9. Use a piece of "talk" you've actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don't understand)
10. Use an example of false cause-effect logic
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: "The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun)..."
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associate qualities
13. Make the personal or character in the poem do something he/she could do in "real life"
14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person
15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense
18. Use a phrase from language other than English
19. Make a nonhuman object say or do something human (personification)
20. Close the poem with a vivid image from earlier in the poem
"Open the poem with the first project and close it with the last. Otherwise use the projects in whatever order you like, giving each project at least one line. Try to use all twenty projects. Feel free to repeat those you like. Fool around. Enjoy.
Initially, I created this exercise for my beginning poetry writing students who - as best I now recall- seemed to me to be overly concerned with transparently logical structures, themes, and modes of development at the expense of free-for-all wackiness, inventive play, and the sheer oddities of language itself."