Tap into your creativity with these poetry prompts and writing exercises
Has the creative well run dry? Have you been starring at a blank page hoping for inspiration? When you do write, are you unhappy with every word? Writer’s block is the bane of every writers existence. But, luckily there is a way to help rekindle your creativity – poetry prompts!
Prompts help get the creativity flowing by asking you to write even when you think you have nothing to write about. Some poetry prompts ask you to write about specific topics or on certain themes. Others might ask you to try writing in a certain style to spark a bit of inspiration. They give you just a little nudge in the right direction, even if you never end up using what you’ve written for the prompt.
We love great poetry prompts!
We’ve gathered a collection of prompts and writing exercises designed to help you explore new ideas, experiment with different forms, and better observe the world around you. Pick and choose from the list of prompts or change up the instructions if you need to. These prompts are here to help you write your next poem.
Go on a Walk
Whether you walk in a city, around your neighborhood, or out in nature, take note of your surroundings and consider what words you’d use to describe them. Write a poem using those words. For an extra challenge, write the poem about something that isn’t where you went walking.
Found Objects
Find an object that doesn’t seem to fit into it’s surroundings. For example, trash in a garden, a misplaced item around your home, or furniture that doens’t match. Focus on how the contrasts between the item and it’s surroundings. Write a poem describing these contrasts.
A New Form
Take a poem you’ve already written and change it’s form. Can you take a free verse poem and write it as a haiku or a sonnet? Do the poems still evoke the same feelings, say the same things? How has the change in form changed your poem?
Mimicry
Mimic another poet. Read poems by your favorite poets and take notes on the different methods and tools used. How have they achieved their voice in these poems? Experiment with a few of those same methods in your poetry. How does it change your work?
Color Theory
What is your favorite color? How would you describe it? Can you describe it without naming it? Use your imagery skills to write a poem about your favorite color. Extra points if you don’t name it.
Response Poems
Write a response to a poem. Choose a poem and write down what you would say back to the speaker of the poem. This isn’t a critique of the poem itself, but a response to what is happening in the poem. Take your response and write it as a poem in either your own style or a style similar to the original poem.
Ten Topics
Open a book or magazine and flip through the pages. Take note of any topics or images that stand out as you flip through. You can also scroll through your favorite social media feed and do the same. Once you have about ten topics or images noted, write a poem using as many of them as you can. How you interpret and use images in the poem is up to you.
Weird Facts
Do you have any weird facts that live rent free in your head? For example, elephants can’t jump or that more time separates the T-Rex from the stegosaurus than the separates us from the T-Rex? Write a poem about your favorite odd fact, or about several weird facts.
Poetic Advice
Imagine you have the opportunity to offer some advice to your younger self. Write a poem about what you would say.
Mirror, Mirror
Spend some time looking in the mirror. Take note of any feelings or emotions that arise as you look over yourself. Now, write a body positive poem as though you are speaking to your reflection, or as if you were speaking to a friend or loved one.
Current Events
Write a poem inspired by current events. How does the event make you feel? What are your thoughts on what happened? Consider adding headlines, research, quotes, or public reactions to paint a larger, more expansive image.
Free Write
Free writing doesn’t have to be a long journal entry or about anything specific, it can be something as simple and silly as a list. A lists can be pretty much anything such as your favorite books, words you like to say, streets you’ve lived on, or animals you think are cute. Just start working the writing part of your brain and who knows what kind of inspiration you will find.
Writing is hard sometimes. Words are elusive, ideas are fleeting, and every page remains blank. Poetry prompts activate your creativity. They help you discover new topics. Some even challenge you to write in new ways. Whether you write a few lines, fill whole pages, or don’t use anything you’ve written, we hope that these writing prompts help you create your next great poem.
