Prompts for poems

Prompts for poems

can come from anywhere.

An unexpected letter from a college friend

that triggers a memory.

A slant of light that rekindles

another time and place.

The taste of chocolate (I'm remembering the taste

of chocolate icing on my grandfather's cupcakes).

The smell of the sea, 

of saltwater.

The memory of summer vacations at the shore,

the sound of a seagull's laughter.

Poems are like the air--

invisible but everywhere.

You can inhale them

with each breath.

You can taste them before 

the words form on your tongue.

You can see them

if you open your eyes.

Don't panic!

Not writing?

Take a breath.

Then take another.

This moment will pass and words will return the same way your breath returns.

The page in front of you may appear blank at the moment, but it won't stay empty forever.

You have choices, decisions to make, even when it feels as if you have none and can do nothing more than wallow in self-pity and despair, fearing you've lost your gift, and you'll never write again.

But what if the situation isn't as bleak or as dire as you fear?

What if you take these moments of not writing and, instead of panicking, lift your finger off the panic button and open your eyes to whatever is happening around you in this moment.

What do you see? A messy desk covered with papers?  A shelf filled with books? Clouds floating by?

What do you hear? A bird singing outside your window? The sound of a neighbor playing the violin?

What about your breath? Can you take a long slow inhale and feel your lungs filling up? Can you let the air out slowly through your nose?

What if you start with this moment?

What if you take a pen and open your journal to a blank page and try again.

What if you start by making a simple line.

Or a row of dots.

Or a silly doodle.

Just make a mark. Let your pen touch the paper simply to prove to yourself that you can still make a mark.

Then take another deep breath, close your eyes, and ask yourself what you feel now.

Open your eyes and ask yourself what you see.

Record what you're feeling (or seeing) in the moment.

Let your hand relax.

Tell yourself you can write for a minute. 

Or two. 

Or maybe five.

Watch how you slip out of yourself onto the page.

And how words appear out of nowhere. 

Filling the empty page again.

Where are you going

Where are you going

and how do you know

you're on the right path?

What are the signposts 

you look for?

How can you see a turn

coming in the fog?

Who is walking with you?

Why are you making this

journey anyway?

Whose voice do you hear

encouraging you to keep

going?

Whose voice do you hear

telling you to stop

before you hurt

yourself?

What is worth the risk

of venturing into the unknown?

How do you protect yourself?

How do you reach further

than your ever thought

you could reach? 

Where does the path end?

(And where does it begin?)

And can you rest along the way

or do you have to keep going?

And where does the path lead?

And how much farther do you

have to go?

Is anyone listening or are you

here alone in the fog?

How far does your voice carry?

Can you hear an echo?

A call in response?

What comes next?

Where are you going

and how do you know

you're on the right path?

Exploring Your Imagination

Imagine a scrapbook of questions about writing, as well as inspiring quotes about writing, and prompts to serve as catalysts for writing, and you have Lynda Barry’s What It Is, a remarkable writer’s resource to help you explore your imagination and get your words on the page.

The format and design of the book, which is filled with 200 pages of drawings, post-it-like notes, cartoons, collages, and more, can overwhelm a reader at first. The inside front and back covers, for instance, are completely pasted over with notes like “The groove is about a kind of forgetting” and “Where is the image world?” and “Practice sustaining concentration… the rest takes care of itself… like learning a language” and “Not having an experience to write it but writing to have an experience.”

But once you enter the flow, which feels a little like stepping into the author’s consciousness (and, at times, her subconscious), you’ll begin to find your way into the rivulets and stronger currents that will pull you into the process of writing so that you can gain access to “the formless thing which gives thing form.”

Barry’s questions are so thoughtful (and so thought-provoking) that they have the power to inspire you to take your pen and start writing.

Here are a few examples:

What happens when we put words together? What happens when we keep words apart? 

How do we recognize something? A person, a situation, a melody, a mood? Where does it come from? 

What is a memory? When an unexpected memory comes calling, who answers? (Knock! Knock! Who’s there? An image.) 

What happens when we read a story? Even though an image is not a thing to be seen or touched, it can be stored.

Barry, who was born in 1956, “has worked as a printer, cartoonist, writer, illustrator, playwright, editor, commentator, and teacher and found they are very much alike.”

Indeed, this book draws its strength from Barry’s uncanny ability to integrate the many issues that make up the writing process, drawing together a writer’s questions, doubts, and struggle for words in such a way that writing (with all of the doubts and questions and memories and elusive words and stories) becomes a key into the mystery of a larger process called life.

For more information about Barry and her work, visit:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/pep/lynda-barry

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/11/arts/design/11kino.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/magazine/cartoonist-lynda-barry-will-make-you-believe-in-yourself.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1150937

http://www.avclub.com/articles/lynda-barry,49191/

Slipping Back Into the Flow

You’ve had one of those magical mornings when the words are flowing from your pen in a steady stream, and you're reluctant to stop because you fear the words may never come this smoothly again.

Have you ever felt this way?

It isn’t easy to pull yourself away from the page--to pull yourself out of the water--at these moments, but sometimes you can’t help it.

You have to pick up a child at school or make it to the post office before it closes or shower before leaving for the office, and you know time is running out and you need to close up shop until tomorrow... or the next day.

So, how do you get back into the flow?

One strategy is to put down your pen before reaching the end of a sentence or paragraph... and return to the page the next day and start writing where you left off.

Another strategy is to leave your work at a dramatic point in the action, stopping just before the climax occurs, and begin there the next time you return to the page.

Using word or writing prompts is an equally effective strategy for drawing your mind and emotions back into the place that you left the day before.

Sometimes I’ll end a chapter, and, before closing up shop for the day, I’ll start a blank page with the title of the next chapter using words that will pull me emotionally into the story again.

Or sometimes I’ll finish a sentence or a paragraph, noting down a word that will connect me emotionally to what I’ve just written so that I can step into the story and start writing as soon as I sit down to work the next day.

For this post, in fact, I scribbled down “word prompts” on a blank page in my notebook. And this morning, when I opened the notebook and saw “word prompts,” I began writing. (Admittedly, the words aren't emotionally engaging, but they did the trick.)

The key is to find a word or words (or image) that will trigger your imagination so you can slip into the water again, almost without noticing that you were on shore, and start swimming in the same direction that you were swimming in when you left the day before.

That’s how word and writing prompts work for me, anyway.

What about you?

For more on word and writing prompts, visit:
http://www.journalkeeper.com/2009/07/word-prompt-1.html
http://fictionwriting.about.com/b/2009/04/15/share-your-favorite-writing-prompt.htm
http://resourcesforwriters.suite101.com/article.cfm/spring_writing_prompts
http://www.life123.com/parenting/education/creative-writing/creative-writing-prompts.shtml
http://readwritepoem.org/2009/04/27/read-write-word-15/
http://www.write-your-short-story.com/short-story-writing-prompts.html
http://dragonwritingprompts.blogsome.com/category/word-prompts/