Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 609
Every Wednesday, Robert Lee Brewer shares a prompt and an example poem to get things started on the Poetic Asides blog. This week, write a world-building poem.
Yesterday, we dropped our latest Writer's Digest Presents podcast episode. This one was based on world-building in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. It includes a great interview with poet Jeannine Hall Gailey, who reads a couple poems, talks about promotion for poets, crafting project-based poetry collections, and more.
For today's prompt, write a world-building poem. This could be a poem based on an already existing real or fictional world, but it could also be one of your creation. In the world-building podcast, Gailey mentions using persona poems to help with her world-building in poetry.
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 World-Building Poem:
“no dine, no dash,” by Robert Lee Brewer
he sits at a table
& glances over
his shoulder
the waitress took
his order & then
disappeared in
the kitchen
that was ten
minutes ago
he sits at a table
& sees nothing
hiding outside
the diner
the interior lights
reflect the night's
darkness back
at him
he considers
whether it's safer
to leave now
or wait for
whatever
comes next
