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poetry prompt

A different word or phrase will appear here each time you visit the site or refresh the page. Your current prompt is — fumarole

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collaborating tip

Use instant messaging to write a poem with a collaborator by taking turns one word, one phrase or one line at a time. With group chat, you can do this with more than one partner.

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writing tip

Pretend an event in your life needs explanation. Write the rules for this event as if it were a board game. How many players are there? What is the objective of the game? How do you win? How do you get home? You could also apply this process to a dream, and use the dream as the foundation for the poem.

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reading tip

Some poets are so prolific that it would take a year to read all of their works. So, why not take a year and piece through a hefty collected works? You can learn a lot about the development of a poet’s aesthetic by reading their collected works chronologically. Sometimes, reading a famous writer’s juvenilia makes you feel much better about your own junior high verse.

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poetry quote

I don’t know where the next poem is going to come from — a bit of language, an image, a mood, a recalled experience. Something sets off a train of associations and the poem begins. — Charles Simic