Dragon Writing Prompts

Cut up the following words, mix them up and choose 8 randomly. Play around with combinations. Pick a few more until you find something you like.

The write free verse (no need to rhyme or stick to a particular length of line) using your words somewhere in the poem. (Feel free to change tenses and so forth.)

PEOPLE
actor
alchemist
alien
android
angel
apprentice
artist
avatar
baby
Barbie
beggar
bounty hunter
boy
bride (of)
cat
demigod
demon
demon slayer
dragon
embezzler
enchantress
father (of)
fiend
ghost
ghoul
girl
goth
groom (of)
lady
lord
mouse
ogre
orphan
outcast
Ozzie
pig
poet
psychic
pyromaniac
rat
slave
soul
specimen
spirit
thief
troll
vampire
weasel
witch
writer

VERBS
assassinate
assault
bite
blast
bless
capture
celebrate
challenge
charm
corrupt
curse
disappear
discover
doom
dump
eat
exorcise
explode
expose
fall for
flee
hit
imprison
kill
knot
lose
murder
plot to kill
quest for
rebel against
resurrect
reveal
rip off
sacrifice
seize
shoot
silence
slay
smack
smash
stab
surrender
terminate
torment
torture
transform (into)
trick
vanquish
wed
weep

PLACES AND THINGS
bakery
bazaar
bed
bones
castle
chamber
clock
computer
diary
drum
dungeon
empire
fire
flute
forest
garden
goblet
grave
heaven
hell
island
jewel
key
knife
labyrinth
lightening
monastery
palace
paradise
parchment
phone
plastic
quill
quilt
ring
runes
sanctuary
sarcophagus
space colony
star ship
strands
sword
tavern
temple
thunder
tomb
tower
underworld
volcano
well

ADJECTIVES
340 pound
abandoned
accused
amnesiac
angry
annoying
blind
brilliant
crazy
crimson
crumbling
delirious
devoted
doomed
dying
emerald
enchanted
escaped
exiled
faded
feline
first
glowing
haunted
hollow
icy
impenetrable
indecipherable
infested
inhuman
lavender
lost
magic
monster
naked
noble
oozing
phobic
pink
primitive
resurrected
sacred
sapphire
shattered
singing
stinky
tattooed
teen
telepathic
wicked

For today’s poetry prompt imagine you’re a creature or thing. What’s it like to be a television or your cat or a cloud or a record album or a fish in a tank …

The children took the idea in many different directions: interviews, imagining what the answers would be, taking on the persona and revealing the answers … Don’t limit yourself to what you think the approach “must” be :-)

Examples:

I would like to be a pen because every day I would dance and whenever I’m out of ink they would put me away until I got ink. And I would go any place people go.

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Questions to Ask Snow Person

Do you like to be what you are?
Do you like when people step on you and make snow balls with you?
Do you like your color white?
Do you like to be mixed with now?
Do you like to stand all day out in the snow with nothing to do?
Do you like when people fall on you?
Snow
The answer is
NO!!!

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How does it feel to be a blackboard?
I think it would feel funny,
Always being written on.
Always having examples erased off.
What do you see?
You see many many kids.

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From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

Write a series of eight-word lines. Each line will contain one of each part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, interjections and conjunctions.) How many lines you write is up to your muse or your 15 minutes timer :-)

(Not sure why he — and lots of other grammar lists — leave out articles (a, an, the).)

Here’s a quick stab at it:

And, well, slowly his hungry Borslang chewed through
But, oh, inside her dark Gorvopl patiently waited
And, alas, enormous hunger unexpectedly slaked within her.

Okay, the conjunctions are tricky when you can only have one noun or verb per line!

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And if you’re a bit rusty on your grammar:

Noun: person, place or thing. Can be general (the president, the city) or specific (David Palmer, Mos Eisley).

Verb: action word.

Adjective: describes a noun. (Red, hot, blushing …) (Hmm, could also have a poem made up of entirely one part of speech.)

Adverb: describes a verb. (Slowly, haltingly, boorishly …)

Pronoun: a word that takes the place of a noun (he, she, it, they, we, his, her, their, our, its … Actually there are way more than I thought since I usually just think of personal pronouns. There’s a list of Pronouns and a thorough list of personal pronouns at Wikipedia that include nonstandards like “youse guys” ;-)

Preposition: identifies the position of something (before, inside, under …) (A very thorough list of prepositions at Wikipedia)

Interjections: Words that can be followed by an exclamation point. (Uh-oh, yippee, shoo, jeez, ouch, wow, …)
Long interjection list at Wikipedia and a list of interjections by language, for no other reason than just because I stumbled across it and it’s cool! :-)

Conjunctions: Joining words (and, or, but, nor)

From: Charles Bernstein.

To warm up your poetry muscles today, have fun with false comparisons.

Use the form

As ____ as a ____.

and make comparisons that aren’t true.

As always, you can use that format for every line. You can use it at the beginning and then explore the comparison in subsequent lines. Or make a few of the same comparisons and move onto others.

For some reason, it’s a lot more fun and freeing than trying to come up with comparisons that are true. Maybe it ties into the psychology of wanting to do whatever we’re told not to do ;-)

Here’s some examples off the top of my head since this didn’t come from Koch’s book:

As quiet as a wolf in a hen house.
As quiet as a broken muffler.

As alone as Santa at Christmas.
As alone as a Brittany Spears.

As busy as a beach in winter.
As busy as a full bellied kitten.

For this warm up, in each line write an fanciful combination. Keep going for 10-15 minutes.

The following examples were all done by children who didn’t feel constrained only to combinations that make sense. :-)

swan of bees
sailboat of water
pajamas of oranges
book of stripes
kiss of babies
skeleton of discovery
blackboard of moons
swimming pool of doorknobs
hat of laughs

If you want, you can use templates like:

“I once saw …”

or

“I wish I had …”

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

I’m always on the look out of books that approach a subject in a simple way without dumbing it down. I found this slim volume titled Extraordinary Poetry Writing by Margaret Ryan that’s a gentle but not dumbed down introduction to poetry writing. It’s nicely divided into small chunks with side bars and tips.

“Poems need to be about something.”

An obvious and yet intimidating statement ;-) At least from my time in school, I picked up the idea that you began with a subject and tried to write profound or amusing things about it, as though the poem in its entirety were hidden inside of you and you just needed to find a way to transcribe it. As she goes onto help you see, you begin with something to focus on and then let yourself free associate and explore that idea. Comparisons, contrasts, images, feelings, phrases, lines, memories, words … Then you play with those, finding patterns and interesting ideas that arise from the original subject.

“… it’s not so much the subject of your poem that makes it special. It’s the way you write about that subject — the language you choose, your insights, your point of view.”

As she explains, little to none of that is there at the beginning. You begin with a subject but your exploration uncovers surprising things you didn’t know were inside you :-)

(This is true of prose, too, of course!)

Tip FIle: “Just sit down with a pen you like and a clean sheet of paper, lined or unlined, and start writing. Play with words and images that interest you. Experiment with the music of words and see what happens. Let your subject emerge as you focus on it and it begins to clarify.”

Though some people find a blank sheet of paper intimidating! If you do, mess it up. Put marks on it. Crumple it. Write on the back of an envelope. Or in your writer’s notebook. Whatever will help you feel that you’re not about to begin a finished product. It’s notes. It’s supposed to feel like chicken scratch :-)

“Let your mind wander. Daydream as you write. Cover at least one side of a sheet of paper with ideas, feelings, insights, and items you associate with your topic. Don’t ask yourself ‘Why does an orange make me think of gym class?’ Just write down that it does.”

“Be aware that most poems have more than one subject. There will be the obvious subject, the one that triggered the writing of the poem — a groundhog, a hyacinth in bloom, an encounter with a friend in the hall. Underneath will be another, larger subject that you will most likely discover during the process of writing your poem.

“Because this layer of subject — sometimes called a theme — will reveal itself to you as you compose your poem, you don’t have to worry about working it in.”

Then she goes onto the structure of poetry.

“The first line of a poem is an invitation.”

And, as she has already pointed out, you may not write the first line first. You may not write the first line until the end. You may find it in the middle of the poem.

In the following chapters she discusses first drafts, final drafts (”Where the Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary”), and finally onto 5 poetic forms: haiku, list poems, dramatic monologue, ballads, sonnets.

Today take a journey around town and collect words that strike you: street signs, business names, sale signs, political slogans, lost and found posters, family names, graffiti, bumper stickers …

Create a list poem from them. A list poem is just that: a list, but a list that you’ve organized in some way that feels right to you. Play with the sounds and images as you order them. You may find some that create a rhythm and some that are opposites.

I’ve got it easy since our town is small, basically two blocks long ;-) If your town is overwhelming try just your street or your neighborhood.

Compare opposites for today’s poetry warm up.

Begin with a comparison that is opposite: a big thing and a little thing “An elephant is like a mouse” or two things that seem not alike “Rain is like a cemetery” and then explore how they’re alike. You can use one comparison or many comparisons in the poem.

Here’s something quick as an example:

An elephant is like a mouse.
Both are gray with long dangling attachments and papery ears and dark button eyes
Rain is like a cemetery.
They’re gray and dreary and make the grass grow.
A peach is like a snake.
They bulge when they are full of food.
A ghost is like a pencil.
You find them in the most unexpected places.

Hey, that was fun! :-)

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As I should have explained at the beginning of the month about warm ups, but didn’t have my notes from last year:

Warm ups: These are chances to be wild and creative and get the words and ideas flowing. Generate lines based on a template. The point isn’t to create a whole poem but to generate lines for the poem. The ones at the beginning will probably be trite, cliche and stiff. Let them out onto the paper. Allow them to clear a path that will allow the creative ideas to flow out. :-)

The “I” writing the poem doesn’t need to be you! It can be anyone or any*thing* you want.

If you get stuck before your 15 minutes is up, read back over what you’ve written to see if it inspires some more ideas.

When you’re done, you can toss out the ones you don’t like and collect the lines you like into a poem :-)

Sometimes having the structure dictated can free up your creativity. Seems odd, yet it’s like a coloring book. You don’t have to spend time making the figure look right, just mess around with color.

A diamonte poem begins with one subject and ends with its opposite. The number of words increase then decrease and, if you center it, it looks like a diamond. Well, sometimes, if the words are the right length ;-)

Subject
2 adjectives describing the subject
3 words ending in -ing telling about the subject
4 words, the first two describe the subject, the last two describe its opposite
3 words ending in -ing telling about the opposite
2 adjectives describing the opposite
Opposite

Here’s an example off the top of my head:

ink
black liquid
flowing staining expressing
splatter blot soak splash
flowing washing obliterating
clear liquid
water

If you like that structure, a diamonte poem is similar to a cinquain: A not so traditional cinquain and More nontraditional cinquains and the real one.

For today’s poetry warm up begin with:

If I were ______ I would ______.

Then either continue that pattern with different speculations or start each line with “I would” to expand on the original speculation.

Here’s an example from the book that was prompted by the more specific “If I were snow …” (so you don’t need to begin with the same object for yours, but can if you want!)

If I were snow I would fill up the streets.
If I were snow I would also freeze my brother.
If I were snow I would be mean and nice.
If I were snow and I saw somebody eating something very hot I would cool it for him.

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

Select one sentence each from a variety of different books or other sources. Add sentences of your own composition. Combine into a poem (or paragraph), reordering to produce the most interesting results.

The sentences can come from any printed source: children’s books, novels, chemistry texts, dictionaries, webpages, newspapers …

(From Charles Bernstein’s Reading/Writing Lab course)

For today’s poetry warm up, make a statement about something ordinary. Then think of strange, impossible or maybe beautiful things that you might wish were there but aren’t. For example:

The stars twinkle in the night sky.
None are falling to earth.
None spell my name in the sky.

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

Write the worst possible poem.

If you need inspiration, take someone else’s poem or one you’ve written and start substituting words, like:

Burning, burning distant sun.
I needn’t consider what you’ve done.
Way off far in our galaxy
Like a nuclear inferno of kind maxi.

Well, not nearly as bad as it could have been ;-)

(From Charles Bernstein’s Reading/Writing Lab course)

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Of course they don’t need to rhyme but if you need help with rhymes try Rhymer or Rhymezone. If Rhymer gives you an overwhelming number of rhymes try choosing “Last syllable rhymes” or “Double rhymes” from the drop down menu. (Annoyingly, you need to type the word into the search box again.) Rhymezone returns fewer rhymes (which can be a good thing sometimes!)

Warm ups: These are chances to be wild and creative and get the words and ideas flowing. Generate lines based on a template. The point isn’t to create a whole poem but to generate lines for the poem. The ones at the beginning will probably be trite, cliche and stiff. Let them out onto the paper. Let them to clear a path that will allow the creative ideas to flow out. :-)

Write a noisy warm up poem. :-)

As a template for each line you can use one of the following (or come up with your own):

______ sounds like ______.

or

The noise of/made by ______ is like ______.

or

The sound of ______ is like _____.

You can use the same template line for each line. You can mix them up. Use the template as an aid rather than a straight jacket!

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

An acrostic poem uses each letter of a word or phrase to begin each line of a poem. The poem will have something to do with the initial word or phrase.

Voracious
Appetite
Mesmerizing
Personality
Icy
Reserve
Elegantly
Savage

There’s some amusing ones by Bruce Lansky at How to Write an Acrostic Poem.

All the examples happen to be single words for each letter but of course they don’t have to be!. Each line can be a phrase. The format of the acrostic is very loose :-)

Use a character’s name, a movie title, a word, an emotion, the beginning of a favorite poem.

April is National Play with Words Month!

Actually it’s National Poetry Month but to keep the prompts relatively short and encourage people who cringe at the word poetry, it’s a whole lot more about playing with words.

Last year I introduced Kenneth Koch’s poetry warm up exercises. (You can see them all here by clicking on Poetry Warm Ups over on the right.) They’re a way of playing with words to get stuff flowing :-)

No actual poetry will be produced, though you may come up with an intriguing line that leads to a poem or a story.

For today, use the structure of the first tabloid headline and generate similar lines of the form:

Food — Noun — -ed verb

Cucumber Killer Captured
Bean Bomber Bamboozled
Anchovy Anarchist Annihilated

Top 10 Tabloid Headlines from APRIL 1998

1. CUCUMBER KILLER CAPTURED! — WWN
2. BEN FRANKLIN SHOCKER!He was a Founding Father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence — AND A SERIAL KILLER! — WWN
3. Teens ordered to clean toilets after peeing on theater seats! — WWN
4. 10 GIRAFFES HAVE HEADS TORN OFF — when zoo truck passes under low bridge — WWN
5. Kitten drowned by a giant goldfish! Cat dips paw in tank & fish pulls him in! — WWN
6. Exploding grapefruits kill hundreds in Argentina! — WWN
7. DEAD HUBBY BURIED WITH WINNING LOTTO TICKET IN HIS POCKET Anxious wife digs up 103 corpses looking for him! — WWN
8. FARMER DEVELOPS THE ELVIS CHICKEN! New birds sport slick hairdos & swivel their hips when they walk! — WWN
9. Gun-totin’ Texan shoots baby kitten. . . THEN CLAIMS SELF-DEFENSE! — WWN
10. VENGEFUL OLDSTER SUES DAUGHTER FOR DEAD WIFE’S ASHES . . . SO HE CAN FLUSH THEM DOWN THE TOILET! — WWN

You can use this as a prose inspiration too, but colors tend to make me think of poetry.

List as many things as you can think of that are blue. Then next to each write an emotion. Next to those, write a verb.

Now pick your favorite and see where it takes you.

Today’s and Tuesday’s inspired by Susan Writes where there are a few conventional writing prompts. (Click on the picture, then click again to see a much larger view of the gorgeous colors.)

One writing technique is to juxtapose seemingly unconnected ideas to see what new ideas they spark. While this idea won’t write great poetry, it certainly draws together some disconnected ideas. It’s a very left-brained (logical, mathy) beginning to end up with something for right-brainers (chaotic, artistic).

Use the title of a book as an acrostic key phrase. That is, write the title vertically. For each letter of the key phrase , find the page number in the book that corresponds to the letter (a=1, b-2, etc.). Scan the page until you find a word that begins with that letter. For the poem line, copy from that word to the end of the line or to the end of the sentence.

Some tips: While it’s obvious that x isn’t likely to turn up on a page, it was surprising the “d” and “n” took some scanning. Try scanning lines backwards. I tended to start reading ;-) Also most books start on page 2. You can choose a random page for “a”.

Here’s the raw material I came up with. Surprisingly, the ideas are not totally disconnected. Thought maybe that makes sense since the lines will all come from the first 26 pages of the book and that’s when the author establishes the main ideas of the story.

killed you a long time ago
is the woman you loved taking the change in your appearance
lie to yourself more than me
likely to thrive in domestic bliss as I am
it was not a friendly look.
now, unfortunately we were mingling in the living room
glared at his amused face

dark cloak
always had a killer fashion sense
not as rare as it used to be
caught some sort of disease from trying
eye was secure and watched my face

1 a
2 b
3 c
4 d
5 e
6 f
7 g
8 h
9 i
10 j
11 k
12 l
13 m
14 n
15 o
16 p
17 q
18 r
19 s
20 t
21 u
22 v
23 w
24 x
25 y
26 z

This is from 66 Experiments by Charles Bernstein from the Language is a Virus website where there are quite a few writing ideas. (This one is #4.)

Cut up the words in a poem and rearrange them into a new poem. Here’s one but feel free to choose any poem!

Dragons
Anita Wilson

Dragons flying in the sky
Swooping down and soaring high
Mighty wings, so awe inspiring
Always moving, never tiring

Outlined against a yellow sun
Giant shadows, having fun
Rising, diving, again repeating
In a game of dragons, meeting

Jeweled bodies in the light
A golden wingspan, shining bright
Powerful tails in joy entwining
Playing, while the sun is shining

Oh, how wondrous is this sight
When great dragons show delight

(From Writers Digest.com)

Write a seven-line poem, where each line contains exactly one syllable greater than the previous line.

If you need a beginning, you can start with one of the following words:

ancient
toad
icy
within
blissfully
psychotic
wandering
whispering
vanquished

Adapted from Writing Sparks writing prompts.

The Genuine Haiku Generator

Genuine? It’s not about nature. Haiku? It does have the structure of a surprising observation at the end. Generator? It does generate some pretty nifty dark fantasy images of 5-7-5 syllables that have peculiar haiku rhythm and feel :-)

Here are some examples:

rainstorms juggle, hard
demoness descends, owl jumps
apprentice shines, fierce

  . .. … …. … .. .

happily entranced
determined deaf chimera
rises evilly

  . .. … …. … .. .

careless river rusts
hatefully, rainmakers lurk
mirthfully, flesh snarls

  . .. … …. … .. .

plowshares replenish
coolly, reflection murmurs
careworn lizards choke

  . .. … …. … .. .

boasting moodily
wife softens, unaided sad
mournful devils break

Like your goth tongue in cheek? Check out Dead Lounge where resides the Goth-O-Matic Poetry Generator

From the website:

Interested in birthing your own bastard of diabolically morose proportion? There’s nothing simpler. Choose one of the classic topics of Darkly Gothic poetry below, then you’ll be taken to the Goth-O-MaticTM Poetry Generator. Construct the opus by making the selections that best fit your tormented desires, and choose an appropriate image to loom ominously over your creation. Tap the “Create Your Poem” button, and you’ll be able to cut and paste your new expression of pain and angst into your own Web page!

Care to create a Darkly Gothic poem? The Goth-O-MaticTM awaits the touch of your agonized mind:

• Create the The Supernatural Violence & Horror Darkly Gothic Poem
• Create the The Feeling Very Sorry for Yourself Darkly Gothic Poem
• Create the The Fear of Religious Persecution Darkly Gothic Poem
• Create the The Eternal Love of Vampires Darkly Gothic Poem
• Create the The Black Abyss of Righteous Hatred Darkly Gothic Poem

Here’s the one I made from “The Eternal Love of Vampires”:

It is a night of ethereal pain, a song of dark desire,
wolves vent their loneliness. The thirsting one
wakens.

Curling, icy wisps of death shrouds her gaunt form,
an everlasting desire.

Her midnight hair cascades over
translucent ivory shoulders, and her
full really very deeply crimson lips part slightly, to taste the
red tears streaming from the
pale flesh beneath her.

Now a night of ecstasy,
I hunger.

Tips, also from Dead Lounge, if you’d like to try writing your own Darkly Gothic Poetry without the generator:

You’re probably wondering how such tormented and artistic individuals pen such magnificently dark epics, where they got their expressive names, and how you can crank out the same self-pitying drivel, uh, create your own shadowed and unearthly opus. Read this list of handy tips for the proper creation of Darkly Gothic Poems. Then choose an appropriate subject from the page of poems, and the Goth-O-MaticTM will help you express your inner angst!

Darkly Gothic Tip 1: DarkRaven’s probably already taken

Choose an appropriate gothic moniker by which you wish to be addressed. Feel free to throw a couple of appropriately dark and wicked words together to form something mysterious with which to impress your nonpoetic friends. Adding a color to a predatory bird is still reasonably popular, as is naming yourself after one or two of the notable entities in Hell.

Darkly Gothic Tip 2: Choose an appropriate subject

Things such as darkness, loss, pain, grief, madness, death, night, and the bloodthirsty undead make good topics for darkly gothic poems. You cannot create a darkly gothic emotional abyss about how hard your Spanish class is, or how Mom gives you grief for wearing black eye liner.

Darkly Gothic Tip 3: Read Edgar Allan Poe

If you don’t know Poe…

Darkly Gothic Tip 4: Feel free to hurt!

Go ahead and let that emotional turmoil draw you into depression. It makes you create better. You can always pull out of it, right? You don’t want to commit suicide, but you want to make everyone think you do. Oh, and don’t be that person that goes to schools and starts gunning down innocents; those people have some sort of weird revenge or God complex, and they never write good poetry.

Darkly Gothic Tip 5: Don’t try to create a darkly gothic poem at 2:15 on a sunny Friday afternoon in a hip artsy coffee house drinking a decaf mocha espresso

Enough said.

Darkly Gothic Tip 6: Go ahead and chop it up

Don’t worry about how short the lines of your darkly gothic poem are. Feel free to devote every line to a scant few words or even a single word. Remember, solitude makes something stand out by itself, um, well, by definition. Consider the following:

“Falling ever darkly into
the ebon abyss of feral eyes,
screaming against
the groping fingers of your
black obsessive passion,
torment.”

…Wow! Did you feel that torment at the end? We know we did. Hey, entire outpourings of tormented souls have been contained within a couple of fingerspans on the left. The best poems will make you scroll down a Web page after only twenty words or so.

Darkly Gothic Tip 7: Yeah, yeah, dark, blood, heard that one before

Grab that thesaurus and rape it. The more methods you have of saying the same word over again will vastly increase your wordsmithing. Using little-known words like ‘eidolon,’ ‘inexorable,’ ‘vitae’ or ‘etiolated’ will give you a depth which not-so-darkly gothic poets will envy.

Darkly Gothic Tip 8: Blow it way out of proportion

Go off about that personal angst. Rant in a depressingly deep way about the heartless one who left you alone and barren in the world because you were too depressingly deep. Describe the vision of the ethereal path you have chosen; make sure there’s dark fog wisping through it. Display your broken and tattered soul for all to see. Occasionally stopping and reaching your arms out in the stigmata position helps stretch those creative muscles. Take minor everyday objects (a clock) and make them looming and malicious (a stark, cruel reminder of inevitable mortality, blank and accusing, every second drawing inexorably closer to oblivion).

Darkly Gothic Tip 9: Use those bleak images!

If you’re building a poetry Web page, or any goth page for that matter, it is imperative that you include any picture of an angel statue or gravemarker you can find. Those weeping Mary ones, or angels with heads bowed, make your poetry that much more painful to read. Ah, I mean convey your pain all the more. If you can combine it with images of dead roses and a few spinning-ankh bars, so much the better.

Darkly Gothic Tip 10: Get inspired!

Of course, one can’t always be at one’s utmost ghoulish. Sometimes, even the undead can get that pesky writer’s block (let alone the occasional artery block). Be creative! Go out to a local cemetery and read the tombstones. Find a large flat one and lie down upon it, reveling in your closeness to the dead. Lock yourself in a darkened room and read H.P. Lovecraft stories to yourself until you sob with horror. Got that feeling that needs creative writer’s block healing? The brave even move toward ancient Celtic, or even Runic manuscripts for that special surge of dark energy. Feel free to go to European cathedrals and sit through those Latin choir hymnals with a tape recorder. Practice saying everything in Vincent Price’s voice.

Darkly Gothic Tip 11: Get classy with some regional interest

For a special esoteric flavour that leaves the reader aching, er, moved to their centre, go ahead and spell using the Queen’s English. Go check out that great medieval literature, the ever-popular Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Use names like Ethelred, Morgoth and Vincegatorix for darkly powerful supernatural beings. Check out a medieval book from the library and write a poem about the torment of translating Middle English while blinking from the blood dripping into your eyes. Let your imbalanced humours bleakly shine!

Darkly Gothic Tip 12: Don’t be (that) afraid of sunlight

Every Darkly Gothic Poem need not be written about distant fogs rolling through twilight graveyards (but boy, do those poems taste good). Let the sun bring to light in your poetry your horrible guilt, your significant other’s hypocrisy, and your self-absorbed pity, I mean, your hidden meekness. Let that eye-searing daystar expose your naked insignificance, burning you to your angst-ridden soul.

Darkly Gothic Tip 13: Have fun with it!

Wait… no, forget that, I’m sorry. Don’t have fun with it. This isn’t about fun.To get you inspired to write your own, here is some non-automatically generated original Gothic Poetry.

When you’re done there, check out the Random Gothic Lyric Generator.

Here’s an example:

by Suspiria Malaisia

Devils shroud red glossolalia
Serpents feign mocking treachery
My solitude whispers blasphemous innocents
Blazing pinions run amuck through embittered effervescence

Hunger scoffs at crucified abattoir
Wolves recoil from dying sepulchre
Lonliness entangles sanguine soul
Serpents lock up trembling disillusionment

Evil kisses celestial fragments
Fire consumes severed poison
Vengeful cripples feign spectral torment
My Master howls hollow brilliance

Wolves hide under baleful fragments
Wolves languish luscious clutches
The stench unleashes mocking innocents
Terror whispers dark caresses

As a counterpart to the blessing poem from the Oh, Most Revered One prompt, call down the ire of the gods and goddesses or Ruler of Hell on some one, some thing or some endeavor with a curse poem.

It’s the opposite of the blessing poem. You can begin by addressing the higher power and then like a warm up, you can start each line with “May” or “Let”. Like a list poem, it can be a list of things you want harmed and the harm you want to befall them. It can be a list of harms you want to befall someone who has really upset you. It can be events you want to go awry to foil your rival.

Here’s a few lines from Paul Janeczko’s curse poem: (His is rhyming couplets. You don’t need to rhyme (but, in his poem’s case, it helps give it a less serious tone :-)

May your gym shorts drop below your knees
May your locker fill with killer bees

May your parents find out what you did
May the bully find out where you hid

May you get a pimple on your nose
May you grow an extra pair of toes

From Poetry from A to Z by Paul B. Janeczko.

For the poetry warm up today, use the template: “The third eye can see …”

The third eye can see what regular eyes can’t or is only open when the regular eyes are closed.

Here are some examples of children’s poems from the book:

The third eye can see inside me
The third eye can see my voice
The third eye can see my bones
The third eye can see the wind

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

The Automatic Poetry Generator. Something to play with :-)

Though this generates entire “poems” use it as a starting point. For each line write a second line to follow. You can use the lines as the basis of your own poem or link them together. It doesn’t need to rhyme but you can if you’d like. Here’s some examples of poems generated at the site. Use these or generate your own.

All peaceful about the fog

Strangely comely beyond the ground
You destroy dank ghosts on the trees
Oh God! The Fool is good
Totally murky on the earth
You breathe sensuous bugs beyond the rain
Be aware! The twilight gets weird
All peaceful about the fog
We spread cold knives before the land
God! The Knave was hard
wary hopeful
fading slowly
so many roads to choose from
In whose heart
the refugee
take comfort
not knowing why

Strangely hot about the fire

Weird and glowing over the fire
I stroke dry rabbits in the towers
Be watchful. The vision will be born
Strangely humming within the ground
We command electric claws under the light
Alass! The King continues
Strangely hot about the fire
We violate dry bugs behind the grave
Alack! The passion is good
backlit silent
at a crossroads
an old passport
With what hopes
the refugee
seek shelter
while the snow fell

All hot about the rain

So evil among the water
You poke evil ghosts beyond the virgin
Be aware! The insanity shall flee
Dark and damp below the water
You breathe scary dreams beyond the virgin
I reach! The Knave must continue
All hot about the rain
I examine heavy balls within the fire
Oh God! The sin was hard
unsure alive
lost in broad daylight
nothing to lose
With what memories
the hero
stop for a while
all through his life

All hot about the rain

So evil among the water
You poke evil ghosts beyond the virgin
Be aware! The insanity shall flee
Dark and damp below the water
You breathe scary dreams beyond the virgin
I reach! The Knave must continue
All hot about the rain
I examine heavy balls within the fire
Oh God! The sin was hard
unsure alive
lost in broad daylight
nothing to lose
With what memories
the hero
stop for a while
all through his life

For today’s poetry warm up play with onomatopoetic sounds. Begin with a sound and then follow with words that sound like it (but don’t necessarily rhyme). You can explore one word for several lines or a different word on each line.

Here’s some examples from Kenneth Koch’s class:

The buzz of the bees was as fuzzy as my cousin’s dozen muzzled puzzles.

clink — pink, drink
tap — hat, snap, black, cat

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

In honor of the Anime Boston convention that kept me busy all weekend and since nothing is coming to me that relates anime to poetry, the “Saturday” tip at least draws inspiration from Japan. This game was designed to play with a “Yaddy-Yadda” card deck. It’s no longer available (or temporarily unavailable) but you could substitute Scrabble tiles. Or write the alphabet on slips of paper. You may want to add extras of S, P, C, D, M, and A since those letters start the most words.

Yaddy-Yadda Haiku

For 3 or more players

To play this game, you need a Yaddy-Yadda Deck as well as pencils and paper for each player.

Overview

Each player will create a haiku based on letters drawn from the Yaddy-Yadda Deck. The title of the haiku will be chosen by one player who will act as moderator. The moderator will also judge the winning haiku based on criteria given at the start of the game.

Preparing to play

Remove both X’s and Z’s from the deck. They won’t be used in this game. Shuffle the remaining cards and place them in the middle of the table.

Next, choose a player to be the moderator for the game. Her role will be to choose a title and the criteria for judging a winning haiku. After all other players have written their haikus, she will also pick the winning poem.

A haiku in this game

The definition of a haiku will be in very general terms for purposes of these rules. Here, a haiku will consist of a title and three lines. The first and third lines will have five syllables each. The second line will have seven syllables.

Here’s a simple example from one of our games:

Cold Day

Under my blanket
I keep warm in pajamas
It’s freezing outside

Traditionally, the haiku is simple, dealing with ordinary life and seasons of the year. A moderator may always give a more specific definition of a good haiku for any session. A brief introduction to the art of the haiku can be found here.

Playing the game

First the moderator will turn over the top two cards of the deck. These two letters must be used to form a title for the haiku each player will write. There must be a word in the title that begins with each of the two letters just revealed. In the above example, an "D" and "C" were revealed giving way to the title "Cold Day". The order in which the moderator uses the letters is irrelevant. Also, there can be more than two words in the title, with other words beginning with any letter. However, it’s best to keep titles very simple for this game. Players should write the title of the haiku at the top of their papers at this time.

After the moderator chooses a title, she then must tell players the criteria she will use to judge the winning haiku. As examples, she may judge haikus based on…

• originality
• humor
• aesthetic value (possibly further clarified)
• relation to title

The moderator’s criteria may be a single aspect of the haiku or she may wish to list a few aspects she’ll base her decision on. It’s completely up to the moderator.

Next, the moderator turns up three pairs of letter cards from the deck onto the table. Each pair should be arranged in a separate row, so that players can easily see which letters are paired up. Each of these pairs of letters will be used to begin words in each line of the haiku. For example, if the first pair of letters was "H" and "M", the first line of each haiku must have a word that begins with an "H" and one that begins with an "M". As with the title, the order of these words in the haiku is irrelevant. So, given this example, a player could write "My hands shake with cold" or "A hundred or more-". The second pair of letters will be used for words in the second line and likewise with the third. Back to the "Cold Day" example above, the letters we had to work with are highlighted:

Under my blanket
I keep warm in pajamas
It’s freezing outside

At this time, players work on their individual haikus until everyone is finished. While the moderator can’t make and judge her own haiku, she may choose to make one that would represent the criteria she chose for the game.

When everyone is done, the haikus are passed to one player (other than the moderator) who will read each aloud. If the moderator chose to write one herself, she can begin by reading hers. Then the player reads each haiku to the moderator. She may request that any be repeated as often as necessary to make a judgement. Her judgement as to the best haiku is final, but a winning haiku should at least relate to the title given at the start of the game and it must follow the rules above regarding syllables and the use of the letters on the Yaddy-Yadda cards.

Further games

The game can be repeated any number of times. If each player is moderator once, an overall winner may be determined by keeping track of who wins each game. It’s likely several players may tie for victory in this case, but I hope it’s clear winning isn’t the only enjoyable goal of this game.

Players may choose to vary the poetry in many ways. Instead of writing only haikus, poems of any type can be created as the moderator chooses. Since words are chosen based on letter cards, the maximum length of the poem will always be dictated by the moderator. Game time, of course, becomes a major factor with longer poems. The moderator may create a rhyme scheme the players have to follow, or that may be left up to the individual players.

For today’s poetry warm up you have permission to lie :-) You can make each line a different lie, or every line about the same lie.

Here’s an example from Kenneth Koch’s class:

I am grass as green as can be.
I am in a tree on a leaf.
I am in New York on a flying blueberry.
Mud is pretty.
Rain is ugly.

Marion Mackles

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

Write three lines that rhyme and have a similar rhythm for the following words:

remains
curse
frogs
ghoul
crunch
eye

A poem of 3 rhyming lines is a tercet (”TER sit” or “ter SET”) or triplet. Like the poem by Joan Bransfield Graham:

Kitchen crickets make a din,
sending taunts to chilly kin,
“You’re outside, but we got in.”

If you look over the rhymes at Rhymer or Rhymezone, you might find some interesting combinations (curse, nurse, purse? remains, brains, chains?) to spark your muse :-)

For today’s poetry warm up compare opposites.

Begin with a comparison that is opposite, for example, a big thing and a little thing: “An elephant is like a mouse” or two things that seem not alike: “Rain is like a cemetery” and then explore how they’re alike. You can begin with one comparison and explore that in the rest of the poem, or use many comparisons in the poem following each with a one line exploration.

Here’s an example of the second:

An elephant is like a mouse,
for they are grey with active noses.

Rain is like a cemetery,
for they are a times restful and at times saddening.

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

Take an untranslated poem you can’t read but whose letters you can pronounce and translate the sound of the words into English. The spelling may block your ears from hearing the sounds so try closing your eyes and saying any words you get stuck on out loud. You’ll need to stretch some a bit. You can, of course, turn single words into two or more words and turn phrases into single words. Don’t be afraid to play with it :-)

If you don’t happen to have untranslated foreign poetry lying around the house ;-), here’s three of them. (There are more nursery rhymes from around the world at Mama Lisa’s World.

First a children’s song in Swahili:

Ukuti

Ukuti, Ukuti
Wa mnazi, Wa mnazi
Ukipata Upepo
Watete.. Watete.. Watetemeka..

Second, a lullaby in Polish:

A-a-a, kotki dwa

A-a-a, a-a-a,
byly sobie kotki dwa.
A-a-a, kotki dwa,
szarobure, szarobure obydwa.

Ach, śpij, kochanie,
jesli gwiazdke z nieba chcesz - dostaniesz.
Wszystkie dzieci, nawet źle,
pogrążone są we śnie,
a ty jedna tylko nie.

A-a-a, a-a-a,
byly sobie kotki dwa.
A-a-a, kotki dwa,
szarobure, szarobure obydwa.

Ach, śpij, bo wlaśnie
księżyc ziewa i za chwilę zaśnie.
A gdy rano przyjdzie świt
księzycowi będzie wstyd,
ze on zasnąl, a nie ty.

And, third, the beginning of a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. (The Germans capitalize their nouns so those aren’t proper names sprinkled through the poem — though feel free to treat them as such if you wish.) If you need more of the poem, the rest is at About: German - Goethe-Gedichte but note: the translation is right next to it!

Der Zauberlehrling

Hat der alte Hexenmeister
sich doch einmal wegbegeben!
Und nun sollen seine Geister
auch nach meinem Willen leben!
Seine Wort’ und Werke
merkt’ ich, und den Brauch,
und mit Geistesstärke
tu ich Wunder auch.

Walle, walle,
manche Strecke,
dass zum Zwecke
Wasser fliesse,
und mit reichem, vollem Schwalle
zu dem Bade sich ergiesse!

Und nun komm, du alter Besen!
Nimm die schlechten Lumpenhüllen
Bist schon lange Knecht gewesen:
nun erfülle meinen Willen!
Auf zwei Beinen stehe,
oben sei der Kopf,
eile nun, und gehe
mit dem Wassertopf!

The point is not to translate the poem, of course, but if, after you’re done, you’re curious what the poems mean, click on the comments. (The last is actually a story you’re all familiar with.)

From 66 Experiments by Charles Bernstein.

Here’s a fun poem I stumbled across one day. It’s best read out loud :-)

<> ! * ‘ ‘ #
^ ” ` $ $ -
! * = @ $ _
% * <> ~ # 4
& [ ] . . /
| { , , system halted

Here’s how it’s read:

waka waka bang splat tick tick hash
caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash
bang splat equal at dollar under-score
percent splat waka waka tilda number four
ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash
vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma crash

In a sestina each line ends with the same 6 words but in a different order. It sounds hard but the constraints can be freeing.

Sestinas normally have 7 stanzas (groups of lines) but you don’t need to go on that long. Just try two or three stanzas and then the last stanza (which has a different pattern). The pattern of ending words for the stanzas are:

123456
615243
364125
532614
451362
246531

The last stanza — it’s called the envoi which isn’t important but sounded cool :-) — is only 3 lines, and each line uses two words. The first word of the pair comes in the middle of the line and the second word comes at the end.

1&2 3&4 5&6

(If you like number patterns, the pattern for the end words of the stanzas isn’t as random as it first appears. The article at Wikipedia mentions that it’s like folding bread dough back on itself during kneading. Which I only mention because I had no idea what picture to use for a sestina and the bread dough made a nice image ;-)

If, like me, you often find yourself limiting yourself to subjects that poetry “should be” about (a hold over feeling from school undoubtedly!), here’s a list of fantasy type words that might help you think outside the box:

ice, fire, creature, quiet, cocoon, black
ghost, night, moon, seek, hidden, curse

Some examples of words suggested by kids in Kenneth Koch’s class:

pink, aquamarine, green, blue, purple, red
buildings, portrait, prayer, subject, brush, canvas
thunder, apartment, country, pleasant, scratched, spinach (a sestina about Popeye)

I should have copied the poem created by the kids from the book but I forgot before I returned it. Most of the adult sestinas on the internet have that intimidating formality to them that turns off droves of people from poetry :-/, but here’s one that while very formal in tone feels very informal for a poem. :-) Notice she didn’t stick strictly to the end word patterns. She changed whole to hole and used various forms of relate.

The Concord Art Association Regrets
Pam White

Your entry was not accepted. We regret
it wasn’t (enough for us), a work of love.
We liked many of the colors on the whole
but the mass was just something unrelated
to the rest of our show. We hope your work
will have a bright future in another place.

We remember last year you tried to place
another photograph and it was also with regret
we turned you down. Though for that particular work
we found nothing about it (no one could) to love.
It was obscure and a little upsetting in relation
to the rest of our show which we look on as a whole.

Now you may think us ungenerous. On the whole
you are probably right, but this is our place
and we can do what we want whether you relate
to it or not. However we don’t want you to regret
your association with us. We want you to love
us, send us money, but please, no more work.

You see right now we need money to work
on the building we’re in. There’s a hole
in the roof and one wall needs all the love
and attention it can get. Really the place
needs so much, which all costs. I regret
to remind you we need more space for related

works. We’re trying to expand and relate
to lots of different kinds of work
so different people won’t regret
their visit with us but will see the whole
beauty and tranquillity of the place
and come with us, a journey of love

where people of all races, colors, and creeds love
to look and bask and of course bring relations,
friends, and lovers. All are welcome to our place
here where all the world’s magnificent work
can be shown in its entirety, the whole
place filled - with your exception, we regret.

We know you’ll love the whole
work we’re doing for this place.
We can’t relate enough our regret.

(Copyright © 1983-2003 by Pam White.)

One site on sestinas mentioned “One of the challenges of writing a sestina is to create one that can be read aloud without the audience being conscious of hearing the same six words repeated seven times.” Which Pam White seems to have achieved by using fairly ordinary words and not having her sentences and phrases end at the end of a line. (And not even at the end of a stanza!) Which sounds like another interesting challenge but don’t worry about it this time! :-)

From Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?: Teaching Great Poetry to Children by Kenneth Koch.

Use the following template for today’s warm up.

_____ is as ______ (color) as ______ (sound).

Here’s some examples from the kids in Kenneth Koch’s class:

A rose is as red as a beating of drums.
Clouds are as white as bursting firecrackers.
A tree is as green as a roaring lion.

From Wishes, Lies, and Dreams: Teaching children to write poetry by Kenneth Koch.

Call down the blessings of the gods and goddesses (or Ruler of Hell to smooth the way for evil plans) on some one, some thing or some endeavor with a blessing or prayer poem.

You can begin by addressing the higher power and then like a warm up, you can start each line with “May” or “Let” (or any word or phrase that strikes you as a respectful plea). Like a list poem, it can be a list of things or people you want protected from harm and the harm you want them protected from. It can be events you want to come to pass or flow smoothly.

Here’s a bit from Prayer for Reptiles by Patricia Hubbell

God, keep all claw-denned alligators
Free.
Keep snake and lizard, tortoise, toad,
All creep-crawl
Tip-toe turtles
Where they stand,
Keep these;

From Poem of Direct Address in Poetry from A to Z by Paul B. Janeczko.

I should have sent this as the first warm up, but since we’ve had several new people join in the last week, it *is* the first warm up for them :-)

A poetry warm up is a template that lets you play with words without worrying about structure. It’s sort of a coloring book for poetry :-)

This is a great initial warm up since it gives so much but allows for a great deal of goofy creativity.

Each line starts with “I wish” then must include a color, a fictional character and a place.

Here are some children’s examples:

I wish I was green with Superman in the Negev Desert.
I wish I was Charlie Brown in blue Saudi Arabia.
I wish that I was Popeye with a yellow dress on me and in South Carolina.
I wish Bugs Bunny didn’t climb the blue tree in Turkey Land.

From