Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 713

Every Wednesday, Robert Lee Brewer shares a prompt and an example poem to get things started for poets. This week, write a Back to Blank poem.

For this week's prompt, take the phrase "Back to (blank)," replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: "Back to School," "Back to Life," "Back to Doing the Same Old Thing," "Back to Back," and/or "Back to Coming Up With a Title to a Poem (and Then Writing a Poem)."

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 Back to Blank Poem:

“back to basics,” by Robert Lee Brewer

i consider the soft surrender
of autumn & become the moon
reflecting the sun like a mirror

for everything that burns. i wax
& wane & always refrain from
saying what i mean when i mean

to confess everything too soon
because we only get one chance
to spin & tilt & orbit in this dance.

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 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, 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.