I administer two weekly, poetry prompt sites. Every week, A Muse Fuse follows the alphabet by picking a new word, in alphabetical order, from the dictionary. The Magnified Muse chooses a particular quote from which to create a poem based on what that quote means to the poet. Before I became so absorbed with my own projects, I wrote to the weekly prompts at Poetic Asides and micro poetry.
On July 6th, A Muse Fuse began a Poem-A-Day Challenge and for the next twenty-six days, I wrote a poem based upon a word following the alphabet from A-Z. My partner, Lynda, created the list two months ago. I added the list to my calendar and didn’t look at the words again until the Challenge began. Every morning, my PDA beeped and blinked with the daily prompt while it dared me to find a way to work the word into a poem.
The Challenge ended on Saturday, July 31st. We were having friends for dinner on August 1st. With company coming, our house of two dogs and two cats needed a serious de-furring. Preoccupied with the cleaning and cooking preparations, I had little time to think of much else. It wasn’t until this morning that it hit me. There was no scheduled poem to write. My muse was on a mini-vacation until next week when I would return to my series of poetry prompts. And I felt lost.
I was trying to decide where to begin, here at my new blog home. What deep, inner revelations would inspire my first post? After some serious thought, and several cups of coffee, the idea materialized. I’d write about poetry prompts.
Several months ago, I was scrolling through some Twitter comments about poetry prompts. One entry caught my attention. A woman posted that she didn’t believe in poetry prompts. Poems should be born solely through the inspiration buried within the heart and soul. Puzzled by her comment, I discussed the point with a friend of mine. To my surprise, he agreed with her. He didn’t like his inspiration being restricted to a particular word or thought. Not for the first time (and, surely, not for the last), I remain baffled by people’s perceptions. I’m a poet. I’ve been writing for years. Inspiration abounds in my heart and soul, but it doesn’t just jump haphazardly through my fingers to the keyboard.
So how do you define inspiration? If you write about how you feel in the rain, aren’t you writing about rain or a particular emotion? If you write about your love for someone, you’re inspired by love, a person or a relationship.
Poetry prompts serve the same purpose and, usually, produce results on a deeper level. For example, it isn’t just writing a poem about a grapefruit. After you’ve said it’s a round, tart, diet food, what else is there to write? The poem is more about what the image of a grapefruit brings to mind. I’m taken back to my younger days, sitting around the table in our kitchen. We seldom ate breakfast as a family unit during the week, and we weren’t much of a hot breakfast kind of family. Cereal was our morning staple. Dad ate his Wheaties with a banana and Mom ate her Total with half a grapefruit. If we were eating together, it was because we were heading out for the day or getting ready for Sunday Mass. From that one grapefruit, I’ve got the inspiration for family, memories, anticipation, and spirituality. That’s a pretty hefty list of ideas from one piece of fruit!
Words, phrases or images fuel our imagination. They uncover places we might not otherwise think to visit. And once we reach that destination, the sky is our creative limit.
Weekly quote prompts at The Magnified Muse resume on Thursday, August 9th. A Muse Fuse returns to its regular, weekly journey through the alphabet on Thursday, August 12th, starting with the letter “S”.
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