Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 740

For this week's prompt, write a pivot poem. At it's most basic meaning, pivoting just means to turn or rotate like the hinge of a door or cabinet, though I admit I often think of a basketball player pivoting on one foot (maybe because I used to play basketball). However, people in business and politics pivot when they shift positions or strategies; and as a parent, I can safely say that most parents make several pivots a day. So pivot your way to (or through) a poem today.

Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.

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Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.

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Here’s my attempt at a Pivot Poem:

“And It Was So,” by Robert Lee Brewer

In the beginning, there was the word and the light,
but darkness divided the day into the night,
and everything was made in a way that made sense,
though we've debated the details every day since
with just a few small rules to help guide us along,
to love each other and try to never do wrong,
but here again, we can't seem to ever agree
on exactly what's bad for you or bad for me,
and so the easiest things feel impossible:
Say we want peace, but it never feels probable
as we've debated the details every day since
the beginning when almost everything made sense
like the darkness cutting the day into the night,
or those first promising words of, "Let there be light."

wednesday poetry prompts

Robert Lee BrewerAuthor

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of Solving the World's Problems, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.