Challenge: Dear Reader

I've always been told that when I'm writing, I should write for me, not for the reader.  Picturing the reader can be stifling, and I think that the idea is that in writing for ourselves, we're more likely to delve down into raw emotions and places we'd not likely otherwise explore.  It can always be edited later, but I find that in writing a poem for myself, rather than for a reader, I enjoy it more.

Well, Billy Collins wrote his poem, "Dear Reader," with the reader clearly in mind.  In fact, the whole poem addresses the reader directly:  

You could be someone I pass on the street  

or an indistinct face                                          

behind the wheel of an approaching car,      

sunlight flashing off the windshield.                

You can read the entire poem here.

So your challenge is to write a poem addressing your reader, or readers.  Confront them, confess to them, plead with them, argue with them - but address the readers.  Good luck!

Form Challenge: Blackout!

Today's prompt is a form challenge.  The form?  The newspaper blackout.  This style of poetry has been made famous by Austin Kleon.  You can read more about him here.

So, go grab yourself a newspaper article and a black marker.  The object here is to black out all of the words you don't need, leaving only the ones you do.  Try for minimalism here - black out most of the article, and leave only a very few words for startling effects.  Don't worry if the article doesn't initially intrigue you - we're going for the hidden things here, the messages you would never see without blacking out everything else. 

Hint: don't black out the title until you've found the poem inside the article.  Sometimes the resulting contrast between the article title and the poem itself is the best part. 

If you feel like submitting your blackout poem, or viewing others, newspaperblackout.com offers a large collection of them. 

Prompt: Album Playlist

This prompt is simple, but can lead to really interesting results.  You'll need to find the names of songs you've never heard before.  Songfacts.com can be a good site to help with this, as it provides a formidable listing of song titles, both alphabetically and by artist.  Browse through the titles until one jumps out and grabs you.  

But wait - don't listen to it!  Write it instead.  Write it as a song, or as a poem, but write what you think that title ought to lead to.  Maybe use the title as your first line, or use it as your poem title.  Maybe you don't use those title words at all, but rather take it as a jumping-off point.  Do what works for you.  Good luck!

Challenge: Word Borrowing

For this challenge, find a poem written by another poet.  Go through the poem and pick one word out of each line.  Write each word you've chosen in the margin of a blank piece of paper - one word per line.  Make it challenging for yourself; pick words with substance, instead of picking words like "the" or "and."  Go for the tough stuff.   Picking words you don't normally use is especially helpful and can lead to interesting results.

Once you have your words listed down the side of your paper, it's time for you to use them.  Write a poem using each word in the line where you've placed it.  See where it takes you.   For a variation on this exercise, list all of the words together in a jumble in the center of the page, and pick them in a random order as you proceed.  Be sure to use all of the words in the poem. 


Good luck!

First Blog - Welcome, Poets!

Welcome, and thank you for stopping by!  After many searches for poetry-focused writing prompts and exercises, I've decided to begin this blog to compile such tools in one handy place for poets.  I'm hoping to post regular prompts and exercises designed to challenge you and push you past your "normal" writing boundaries.  If you have comments on the prompts - what helped you, what didn't, what you'd like to see in the future - I would love to hear them.  You're also welcome to submit prompts and exercises of your own.  Please contact me at paigecerulli7@gmail.com with any comments or submissions.

So, be inspired, poet!  Thank you for visiting, and please check back regularly for new challenges.