Here’s a little refresh for the page: Poetry Prompts!

A few days ago, I re-tolled a fun prompt I sometimes use to get myself out of a rut, using predictive text to break me out of my overused words and rhythms. Wordplay and found poetry help me to find new ways to breathe into a poem, and sometimes offer profoundly new ways of expression. “Let go of the reins of the horse of your brain, and let it wander where it wants to for a while,” I sometimes tell my students. I find that the beautiful balance of letting go, and being ready to step in and actively create (as my student did in the image above) not only informs my poetic process, but my living as well.

So here are some initial ideas for using predictive text to restart your poetic mojo. If you don’t think of yourself as a poet (I disagree, btw–if you put words together in your own way, you are a poet), you can use these exercises to play and explore language. I’ll call the prompts Games, just to make it clear that we’re starting playing here.

One note before we begin: Each Game has rules. Try to follow them, to give the game a little structure and challenge. But be ready to break them if the Poem Gnome taps you on the shoulder and suggests you try something different.

Game 1:
You’re going to write a six- or eight-line poem. You are in charge of the word or short phrase that begins each line. Then let predictive text finish the lines for you. Here’s an example, with my words in bold. Of course, I have stolen the words for this one, for the sake of play:
Roses are the only thing I need.
Violets are the only thing I have.
Sugar and honey roasted figs with you
And now I’m waiting for the bus.
So are you.
So it will be.

Game 2:
Let’s try the same thing, only alternating words with the predictive text. I find this one creates more tension as I try to direct the predictive text. I actually fought it a little and changed the predictive text generator’s (PTG’s) “look” to “looked.” And I actually let the PTG suggest “whenever” instead of the “when” I was considering.
Wafting to the bottom of Pandora’s pool,
my little feather was almost ready for you.
Dreams of her own box of possibilities
flew out of the grove in the rain,
and now she has forgotten about her last lover,
how the clouds looked whenever he was leaving.

NOTES:
1. You might notice, like I do, that you find yourself backtracking and choosing different words in order to force the PTG to offer you better choices. Feels like chess with the computer.
2. Maybe what you came up with, like mine, is laughable trash. But maybe it gives you an idea for something to do next with your own line breaks and cadences. Steal that and run with it!
3. Likely the poem itself it not a publishable gem. But perhaps there’s a line in there that sings? Take it an spin it into another poem of your own!
4. I love that the PTG gave me “Pandora’s,” but I didn’t want to let it force me into using “box.” But my work in the poem quickly became about telling Pandora’s story. I think I should change the “my” to “her.”

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Gratitude List:
1. The wild creatures of Goldfinch Farm.
2. Although there is a lot to accomplish in my summer days, I like how I can choose and plot the course with my own intentions.
3. This lavender-filled collar that I put in the freezer and then wear about my neck when the heat feels overwhelming.
4. These teenagers. I love their company, quiet and reserved as it is. Comfortably being together in the house.
5. The creative urge. Making stuff.
May we walk in Beauty!