#PoetryMonth: From Prompt to Poem

This month is flying by WAY too fast. As you know, I’m trying to spend the month reading and WRITING poetry since I haven’t done either much lately. Well, I have been reading some more poetry. The writing part of this plan is still not happening much.

At the beginning of the month, I was getting more active on Instagram (surprised me too) and found (/was found by) a poet, Nairy Fstukh, who shared a Tumblr page full of writing prompts from 2012’s National Poetry Month. I don’t find much from prompts that actually prompt me to write a good poem, but I wanted to give a few a try.

The other night, I picked one that seemed interesting. You’ll find that prompt and the poem I created from it, below. And if you’d like to find more on the poet who turned me onto this prompt site, you can find her on…

Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

Also, Nairy can be found under the name A Poet’s Utensils where she creates and sells a great looking “handmade line of Items designed to keep poets and writers inspired.”

Instgram | Etsy shop

Prompt #15: The Word Bank

Directions:

1. Take a piece of paper, and fold it in half.
2. In the left-hand column, make a list of your 26 favorite words, 1 for each letter, A-Z.
3.  Using Google or a thesaurus, find a synonym for each of the 26 words.  The synonyms need not start with the same letter as the original word. Write each word’s synonym in the right column next to it.
4. Use the righthand-column words as a limited vocabulary with which to craft a poem. The only additional words you may add to the poem (for the sake of clarity) are: the, is, are, & and.

DO feel free to pluralize words (i.e. “sun” versus “suns”), deviate from proper syntax (i.e. using a noun as a verb or an adjective as a noun), to reconjugate non-verb verbs for the sake of clarity (i.e. “turntable” to “turntabled”), and use wordplay (i.e. “sons” versus “suns”).

DON’T re-conjugate preexisting verbs (i.e. “love” to “loved”).

Note: This prompt was inspired by the concept behind Aaron Kunin’s book The Sore Throat, a collection of poems crafted from a limited vocabulary of approximately 50 words total.  Its subtle power is epic. I highly, highly recommend it.

No title yet

…and unnecessary
to clarify?

The obscure
followers
constrict.
The meek
loosen
frequently.

Dull
work
quenches
energetic.
The significant
and needed
construct.

Rise
perfection.

Moderate
humble
loyalist,
partial to
prose

unconfined
sympathy.

Hate
somebody.