Poetry Writing Prompts

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Often, authors encounter writers block.  I am fortunate that I rarely encounter this when writing poetry.  The reason for that is because I have some go to writing prompts to help me out.  I used to volunteer to teach poetry classes and the following prompts are what I used when I needed to come up with ideas quickly.
I would have people write about colors, things that happen in the calendar year, music, teach a specific form of poem, and use published poems and authors as inspiration.  Writing about color is a little self-explanatory, so I will only go in depth on the other prompts I have listed.

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Calendar Year

I often had my students write about things that happened in the calendar year.  Things like seasons, the weather, holidays, and the specific months.  It was easy to look outside and prompt my students to write about what the weather was doing, or to have them write about the specific season we were experiencing at the time of the class.  Writing about the month we were in was also effortless.  I always felt holidays were especially inspirational.  I wrote so many of these types of poems that I am working on making a book out of them.  I currently have 42 poems typed up, and I am not even finished!

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Music

I have written a little bit about this in previous blog posts.  In my classes, sometimes I would simply have the students write a poem about their favorite song.  Sometimes I played the same song for everyone and had them all write a poem about that song.  You might think that you would get very similar poems doing this, but actually, they came out very diverse.  I always did want to be careful with this prompt because I did not want to infringe on any copywrites.  If you are simply writing this for yourself, that doesn't matter.  Done carefully, poems written inspired by music can still be published.  I found a call for submissions for poems that are inspired by the Rolling Stones.  Sometimes I would play music on glass bottles.  You could also play your own instrument, if you have one, for inspiration.  In this case, you do not have to worry about plagiarism.  I am of the belief that music is poetry.  I've seen some lyrics of various artists printed out and they look like wonderful poetry.

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Forms of Poems

I really like to write sonnets, haikus, and acrostic poems.  I like them, therefor I teach them.  Haikus are pretty straight forward.  Write a poem with 3 lines.  The first line being 5 syllables, the second line being 7 syllables, and the third line being 5 syllables again.  I know that some people argue that Haikus should be about certain things like nature, or that it should be conveyed in a different way, but I don't think that has to be the case.  I was teaching poetry to beginners, so simply saying to write a 5-7-5 syllable poem was good enough for me.  I also love to do Acrostic Poems.  These poems are poems where the first letter of each line spells out a word.

For example:

Next

Akin

To

Amazing

She

Happily

Ascends

 

I actually made money at some craft fairs charging people to have me write out an acrostic poem of their name.  I did not charge much, and yet, a surprising amount of people wanted to have this done.

 

Sonnets are a little harder.  I must admit that I still don't understand iambic pentameter very well, so I don't bother with it.  The great thing about poetry is that you don't Have To follow the rules.  There is a lot I can say about sonnets, so I will write about them in a future blog post.

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Using Published Authors and Poems

Most of the time in my poetry class, I would choose 3 poets and their published poetry for inspiration.  I went to a poetry website, printed the author's bio, and a poem they had published.  We would read these bios and poems out loud and use them as inspiration to write our own poems.  This exercise took a little preparation, but I learned how to do it so well, it did not take much time to prepare at all.  Now when I am working on poetry, for fun, or to try to publish, I often read poetry ezines.  I have learned a lot from doing this.  For example, I knew about acrostic poetry, but I did not know there was a form of poetry where you start each line with a letter of the alphabet.  Finally, if none of these prompts work for you, you can find other prompts all over the internet.  There are many tweeted prompts every day, and Writer's Digest sends out writing prompts.  Writer's Block can be overcome!                                                                                                                                  

The Importance of the Pause

 

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In all writing, not just poetry, where the writer puts pauses into their piece is very important.  In prose, the pauses are easy to indicate with commas and periods.  Paragraph breaks are also another form of pauses.  A pause in writing allows the reader to stop and think about what they just read, and perhaps prepare for a new idea.   The pause allows the reader to have time for what they just read to sink in.

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Commas and periods can be a way to indicate a pause in poetry too.  Poetry is not exactly like prose, it has it's own set of rules.  Also unlike prose, in poetry, it is okay to break some of the rules.  Sometimes there will be no commas or periods in the piece at all.  In that case, line breaks are something that indicates a pause.  Why would you want to incorporate pauses in your poetry at all? You don't have to, but it can really help if you or someone else is reciting the poem.  Most poems are written to be read or performed, (with the exception of some visual poetry).  The spacing between words can indicate a pause as well.  In poetry, you can put as many spaces as you want between words, or even letters.

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Perhaps you don't write poetry, but only read it.  In that case, notice the pauses if there are any.  It will help with the comprehension and emotion of the poem.  Reciting a poem, whether you are the poet, or the reader, can help you get the best feel for the piece.  Next time you read a poem, notice the pauses.  It will help you better understand what the writer is trying to convey.

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Sleep, Interrupted

By Natasha McKinley

 

She,

            Sleeps,

                           Softly.

 

There is a patter of

                                    footsteps that She

dreamily hears.

 

Awaken now.

            See what disturbs your slumber.

 

She wakes.

            It is only the footsteps of her family.

 

                                    Rest easy.

What to do for Poetry Month

It is the month of April, and the month of April is poetry month.  There are many things people can do besides write poetry.  Most obviously, they can read poetry.  Of course, you can read the classics like Shakespeare or Dickon's, but you can read current day poets too, (like me).  If you read a poet's work on your kindle, they would appreciate a review or at least a star rating.  All you have to do is click a star.  I decided to read a poetry book for this April.  

This month I decided to read Misha Collins poetry book: "Some Things I Still Can't Tell You."  Misha Collins is not famous for being a poet.  He is famous for playing the character Castielle (an Angel), on the T.V. show Supernatural.  I was very excited when I found out he was into poetry.  I saw him recite some on my Instagram account, thought it was great, and asked my husband for his book for Christmas. My husband got for it me!  Misha Collins is a very good poet, and I am very glad that I have his writing in my possession.

If you are a poet, and are published with Amazon, you can give your book away for free for up to five days.  You won't get any royalties when you do this, but you might spread your work around the world a little more.  I chose to give my book away for 3 days at the beginning this month.  Four people took advantage of the offer.  I may give "Un-Clenched Emotion" more free days in following months.  It is on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have that, it is always free.  I found out that I do get royalties if someone buys my book that way.

Naturally, if you would like to, you can write your own poetry in the month of April.  There are many poetry challenges online where they ask you to write a poem a day for the whole month of April.  I have done this in years past, but did not do a poem a day this year.  I did write a few poems this month, which I plan to submit to publication.  They are speculative poems, poems that follow a fantasy or science fiction theme.  I have a title for the other poetry chapbook, (or perhaps whole book), this time, and some more of this book to put together. The theme for this book is the Seasons. I still have a long way to go to get this finished.

I challenge you to read and/or write poetry this month.  Promote what you have already written, or write a review for an author you have read.

Poetry Relating to Music and Using Music to Write Freestyle Poems

How Poetry Relates to Music

Recently I joined twitter.  Somehow, I attracted a lot of followers (I have no idea how).  Many of the followers are musicians.  I am excited about this because music and poetry go hand in hand.  All kinds of music, from songs in every genre (i.e. Pop, Rock, Country, Heavy Metal, etc.,) to the music you make yourself on instruments like flutes and guitars and things is related to poetry.  Some people might say that popular genre music lyrics are not poetry, but I vehemently disagree.  A friend of mine once gave me hand written lyrics of “Name” by Goo Goo Dolls.  I hung it on my wall in my bedroom.  When people came over they often asked if I wrote that poem.  I was constantly replying “Nope, that’s a song they play on the radio.” Poetry relates to music in other ways. Obviously, many songs rhyme just like many poems do.  There is often a chorus in a song, and that can be used in a poem with a stanza that repeats over and over.

How to Write a Poem Freestyle with Music

In a previous blog post (https://authornatashagruss.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-to-start-writing-poetry-freestyle.html) I have written about writing poetry Freestyle.  One of the ways to write a poem freestyle that I didn’t mention that you could do is to listen to music to be inspired and then write a poem about that.  I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want anyone coming up with a poem that could be said to be plagiarized.  To avoid this, refrain from copying the exact words of the song you hear in your poem.  Another sure-fire way to avoid plagiarism is to listen solely to instrumental music, or play music on an instrument yourself.  To put writing poetry freestyle in practice I did a musical exercise in my poetry class.  I took some empty glass bottles and had everyone blow over the bottles to make instrumental music and then had them write a poem about it.  It was really fun, and a lot of great poems came out of it.

Celebrate music in poetry by reading or writing a poem with a chorus in it, or by writing a poem after listening to music, either in a popular genre or instrumentally.  Who knows, you might write lyrics you can sell to a musician for use in their work.

P.S. If you want to follow me on twitter you can go to https://twitter.com/natasha_gruss or follow @natasha_gruss.

How to Start Writing Poetry Freestyle

It’s April, that means it’s poetry month.  In honor of that I have decided to write about poetry in general and how to write poetry in my blog.  I have taught poetry workshops and helped people write a poem, fresh on the spot.  When I write poetry, I can usually write it all from one sitting off the top of my head.  This is hard for many people to do.  I will proceed to tell you how I get started writing my poetry and what I tell people they should do when writing theirs.

Writing a Poem is an Act of Bravery

The first thing I like to explain to people is that people who write poetry are brave. You may feel like you don’t fit in the “brave” category yourself but just put your pencil (or pen) to the paper and start writing. (Or start typing on the computer if that’s what you prefer).  Write what you are thinking about in the moment, no matter how silly or embarrassing you think it might be.   Any ideas, subjects, words, formats, etc., are acceptable. This is called freewriting.  Some people may need prompts to do this and some may not.  (I do this with and without prompts.)   Some prompts are:  

• ·         Looking at the place you are and writing down poetic descriptions
• ·         Listening to everything you hear and writing how that makes you                                    feel
• ·         Thinking of a memory and describing that memory

If you feel you are not brave, that’s okay, simply writing things down is an act of bravery. It doesn’t matter if what you write comes out written poorly, the fact is you did it and you should be proud of that accomplishment.  You have dared to create something new.

What if Don’t Like My Poem

Often, you may not like what you wrote, but someone else will.  There are countless examples of musical artists that hated the songs they came up with.  Their songs went on to hit the top of the charts even though the musicians hated that song.  REM hated “Shiny Happy People,” but many of us know and love that song today.  Poetry is like that, you may hate it, but someone else may like it, so be brave to write anything down that comes to mind.  You don’t have to write a poem in one sitting and be done with it either.  (My poems are usually written out and complete the first time, which is unusual and if you encounter a writing teacher, they will usually tell you that you must rewrite).  If you want to, you can use your poem as a rough draft and rewrite it to something else you like more.  If you still don’t like it, which is often the case, you can use the poem you wrote as inspiration to write another poem.  A completely new one.  If you like the original, feel free to keep it!

Writing freestyle is one way to start writing a poem. If you don’t like something you have written, try and try again.  Feel good that you were brave enough to do it, no matter how you did it.  You have created.