Prompt-er-ly-ness

Definitely NOT a word, I know. This blog is all about PROMPTS, though, and I wanted to make it interesting I'm going to continue updating this post with prompts. If you have ideas for any, just send me a note! Don't forget to submit any poems that are in response to a prompt to our "Prompts" folder. These do not have to be completed in any order or by any deadline. They are just for fun, to get the creative juices flowing!!!




If you are looking for some good prompts as part of the DA community, you should of course go join transliterations RIGHT AWAY if you have not already done so. Not to mention that HammeredPoetry is BACK IN BUSINESS! Be sure to take a look at their fun, off-kilter prompts! You get all sorts of opportunities to "translate" words, pictures, sculptures, videos, etc into poetry. So much fun. Also be sure to check out the LITplease and theWrittenRevolution prompts!



February 9, 2013
This month's prompt is very simple: "hunger"

November 30, 2012
December's monthly prompt involves mutilating famous quotes through the power of homophones. Check it out: wordsmiths-guild.deviantart.co…

November 9, 2012
We've begun our monthly prompts! This month's prompt is to use a non-English word to write a poem. Check out the full prompt: wordsmiths-guild.deviantart.co…

30 August, 2012
Today's prompt comes from The Journal:

Consider the term "saturation" and what it means. Write a term using three different concepts of it - use the senses to explore the term.

16 July, 2012
I'm so sorry things haven't been very active lately! Life's been crazy. On the topic of "crazy" and "life," I give you the newest film in Sigur Ros' "mystery film series": vimeo.com/45775119. It has both wonderful music and a FABULOUS compilation of images for you to find inspiration from. I invite you to go take a look and let it speak to you!

17 April, 2012
Lately, I've been delving quite a bit into the folklore, ghost stories, and urban legends of my state and the area in which I live. I invite you to do the same. Go check out a book of ghost stories from your local library, or google search for some haunts in your city. You'd be amazed at some of the gems you can dig up. Find a story that intrigues you, whether it's because of the weird circumstances of the story, or because of one of the characters, and write a poem about it.

cogongrass's remarkable piece "Lay Bridge" weaves a personal story around an urban legend about a ghost. Perhaps use this for inspiration for your own piece. Are you going to write from the perspective of a character? Are you going to write about your interactions with a character? Or are you going to use the whole story as a vehicle for talking about something else?

09 April, 2012
A lot of words out there derive from a root that seems to have NOTHING TO DO with the meaning of the word we use today. So go find a weird word (or two!) and write a poem that talks about what it used to mean and what it means today. Or perhaps go backwards - start in the present, and peel away the layers of meaning until you find what it "really" means. I'm leaving a few such words below to help you get started!

Sinister
early 15c., "prompted by malice or ill-will," from O.Fr. sinistre "contrary, unfavorable, to the left," from L. sinister "left, on the left side" (opposite of dexter), perhaps from root *sen- and meaning properly "the slower or weaker hand" [Tucker], but Buck suggests it's a euphemism (see left), connected with the root of Skt. saniyan "more useful, more advantageous." The Latin word was used in augury in the sense of "unlucky, unfavorable" (omens, especially bird flights, seen on the left hand were regarded as portending misfortune), and thus sinister acquired a sense of "harmful, unfavorable, adverse." This was from Greek influence, reflecting the early Greek practice of facing north when observing omens; in genuine Roman auspices, the left was favorable. Bend (not "bar") sinister in heraldry indicates illegitimacy and preserves the lit. sense of "on the left side."

Avocado
1763, from Sp. avocado, altered (by folk etymology influence of earlier Sp. avocado "lawyer," from same Latin source as advocate) from earlier aguacate, from Nahuatl ahuakatl "avocado, testicle." So called for its shape, and because the Aztecs believed it to be an aphrodisiac.

Sycophant
1530s (in L. form sycophanta), "informer, talebearer, slanderer," from L. sycophanta, from Gk. sykophantes, originally "one who shows the fig," from sykon "fig" + phanein "to show." "Showing the fig" was a vulgar gesture made by sticking the thumb between two fingers, a display which vaguely resembles a fig, itself symbolic of a cunt (sykon also meant "vulva"). The story goes that prominent politicians in ancient Greece held aloof from such inflammatory gestures, but privately urged their followers to taunt their opponents. The sense of "mean, servile flatterer" is first recorded in English 1570s.
And according to Charlotte Higgins: 'The origin of the word is this. Since the beginning of the 6th century it had been illegal to export food, except olives, from Athenian territory. Sometimes, though, people would try to smuggle figs over the border. If someone denounced you as a fig-smuggler, he was a sykophantes – a "tale-teller about figs". Waterfield: "If it was part of his purpose to ingratiate himself with the authorities, he was close to being a sycophant in the modern sense of the word."'

For others, check out the Online Etymology Dictionary by Douglas Harper!

03 April, 2012
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a fable (¹fa·ble, ˈfā-bəl\)  is...
Function:noun
Etymology:Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin fabula conversation, story, play, from fari to speak
Date:14th century
: a fictitious narrative or statement: as  a:  a legendary story of supernatural happenings  b:  a narration intended to enforce a useful truth; especially one in which animals speak and act like human beings
But also...
Main Entry:beast fable
Function:noun
Date:1865
a usually didactic prose or verse fable in which animals speak and act like human beings

Think about what a fable (or perhaps folktale) means to you. Pick your favorite story, or create your own. But when you write the story, pick one thing about it to change or to play with. You could set your story in a different time period, or you  could make your characters people with animal traits instead of being animals with people traits. I took the idea of a fable as being an allegory and instead tried to make the story simply about a fox trying to get a meal (see my poem >here). Play with it! Have some fun. And best of luck!

31 March, 2012
I've been on a Devil-imagery kick lately, and one of the reasons is that the Devil has so many fantastic names from different eras and regions of the world. I'm listing a couple of his names below. Go ahead and pick one that speaks to you and try to write a poem that involves the Devil in whatever aspect the name you have chosen suggests. Address him directly, include him as a side character, explore who he is, anything! Be creative!

Old Scratch/Old Nick
Lucifer
Leviathan
Dark Lord/Lord of the Underworld
The Stranger
Iblis
Kölski
Der Leibhaftige

21 March, 2012
Go find a cool-sounding word from another language (I'll leave a list of some fun ones below!) and write the first half of a poem about what you think it means. Then go look up the meaning, and write the second half about what it actually means.

Here are some examples:
soukougnan
crepusculo
landvettir
mijmeren

20 February, 2012
WHEW It's been a while! Check out the song prompt >here<

04 October, 2012
These prompts are too long to write out here! But they're a set of prompts celebrating October. If you're interested, check out the Octoberfest! blog.

13 September, 2011
Check out the DailyLitDeviation's current contest: dailylitdeviations.deviantart.…. Write something about fists, flowers, and fire that doesn't actually use any of those words!!!

28 August, 2011
Write about a distinctive characteristic of a season in your part of the world.

13 August, 2011
I have three prompts for you today:
1) Try to write something using the word "transmogrification."
2)Tell someone else's story; give us a vignette of someone else's life.
3)I love haikus because they force me to use only the words I really need. Try writing a poem in as few words as possible - even if that means cutting out basics!

9 August, 2011:
Attempt to write a Villanelle (wikipedia for the form: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanel…). For inspiration, check out Sylvia Plath's "Mad Girl's Love Song", Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle", or UltimateOutlaw's "Your Fingers Drip Sonatas."

4 August, 2011:
"Aesopian" (ē-ˈsō-pē-ən, -ˈsä-)
Function:adjective
Date:1728
1: of, relating to, or characteristic of Aesop or his fables
2: conveying an innocent meaning to an outsider but a hidden meaning to a member of a conspiracy or underground movement <∼ language>
This word just has so many layers to it! Write a poem about one or all of them

26 April, 2011
One of the past NaPoWriMo prompts challenged writers to create a poem that was a reflection of another poem. I want to expand that to a piece of music - it could easily be a song, with lyrics, but I'd be interested to see someone create a poetic "reflection" of a purely instrumental piece. Just to give an example, Vigilo has tackled the ambitious "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," by T.S. Eliot (fav.me/d3dqgk9).

18 April, 2011
Read one of these quotes and see if they inspire you:
Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow. ~Aesop
A gun gives you the body, not the bird. ~Henry David Thoreau
By daily dying I have come to be. ~Theodore Roethke
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. ~Niels Bohr

16 April, 2011
The prompt theme is "sound and meaning" - first, you'll need a random word generator, like this one. Pick whatever level grade of common-ness or rarity that you like. Then use it to pick 5 words that you like based on the way they sound, and 5 words that you like based on what they mean. Now, use them to write a poem! PS. If you really want to add another layer of complexity, do a random music search, and use the song you come up with for the title and the theme (literally, typing "random music" or "random music playlist" into youtube works like a charm).

11 April, 2011
Imagine yourself as a blacksmith. You are forging a great treasure. What is it? What does it do?