Illustration of a typewriter
POETRY PROMPTS
Anya Johnson
  1. Make a list of images, comments, and moments that have stuck with you indelibly, whether or not they are welcome or seem significant (mine might include the texture of the closet door in my childhood bedroom or an ex-boyfriend advising me to travel light so I could look sexy walking through the airport). 
  2. Write down any connections.
  3. Describe a thought or behavior that you believed was entirely unique to you and later discovered was commonplace. 
  4. Write a prose poem with this material and don’t edit or erase anything. 
  5. Put it away. 
  6. In a day or a week, rewrite the poem from memory to the best of your ability, adding anything that has since occurred to you.
  7. Repeat the process until you're not discovering anything new. 
  8. Compare the drafts and see what’s there.
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