Playing with Plentiful Poetry Prompts

Thanks to some great Medium publications

Photo by Trust “Tru” Katsande on Unsplash

Lately, I have been writing poetry daily, thanks to some evocative prompts on two amazing sites — The Bad Influence and The Chalkboard. But I’m also published on Dead Poets Live and No Crime in Rhymin.’ Not to mention silly couplets and limericks on the satirical pub, MuddyUm.

The Bad Influence (TBI) is not solely a poetry publication. But it has a tab/series called IdeaStream. It’s a page full of prompts — a list of fascinating and quirky characters to combine in a scene, a list of topics to mash up two or more in a single piece, and a list of ten words to use in a poem called Salvage Poetry.

Let me put in a plug for prompts. Given I try to post one or more pieces daily, it’s easy for my brain to dry up. Prompts are the cool drink of water that gets my creative juices flowing again. Usually, in a brand new direction, I would never have come to on my own. I can practically feel the synapses in my neocortex jumping lanes to connect with each other.

That is essentially what creativity is — making connections between unlikely things, people, events. So, as I told the editor,

Xavier Van Holde

, I consider my pieces a collaboration. In a short poem of 30–50 words, the ten he suggests with are a significant percent.