Poem Prompts

Write a series of 5 haiku (5-7-5 syllable structure) inspired by a walk you took today — or a walk you imagine taking. Each haiku should capture one specific moment: a sound, a texture, a smell, a color, a feeling. No abstract concepts — only concrete, sensory images. Arrange them in the order you experienced them to create a small journey.

Write a poem in the form of a letter to someone you will never send it to — a past version of yourself, someone who hurt you, someone you lost, or someone you never told the truth to. Use the format: Dear [name], ... Sincerely, [name]. Let the poem say what you could never say out loud. Be specific — name real places, real dates, real words that were spoken.

Choose an everyday object — a key, a coffee cup, a shoe, a clock. Write a poem where the shape of the words on the page mirrors the shape of the object (concrete/shape poetry). The poem should describe the object from its own perspective — as if the object is speaking. What has it witnessed? What does it know about its owner?

Find a painting or photograph that moves you (online or in a book). Write an ekphrastic poem — a poem that responds to and describes the visual artwork. Go beyond describing what you see. Write about what is happening just outside the frame, what the subjects are thinking, or what will happen one second after the image was captured. Let the artwork be your prompt and your collaborator.

Write a poem that is structured as a list of rules. The rules should be for a specific, unusual situation — rules for living on a submarine, rules for talking to your future self, rules for surviving a haunted house, rules for the first day on another planet. Each rule should be one or two lines. The tone can be serious, humorous, or absurd. Let the rules build in intensity or strangeness as the poem progresses.

Write a poem where sound matters more than meaning. Choose a theme — rain, a city street at night, a kitchen in the morning — and focus on the sounds: alliteration, assonance, consonance, internal rhyme. Read it aloud as you write. If a line does not sound good spoken, rewrite it. The poem should be musical before it is meaningful. Aim for 12-16 lines.

Write a poem from the perspective of someone who is nothing like you — a lighthouse keeper, a 12th-century monk, a deep-sea fish, a retired astronaut, a stray cat in a foreign city. Research one small detail about their world and include it. The poem should capture their voice, their concerns, their way of seeing. Avoid sentimentality — let the specificity of their world carry the emotion.