The Proper Response to a Poem
I have to admit, I have a strange relationship with the whole idea of writing prompts. Part of me thinks if you need a writing prompt to write, then you're not really a writer. The thing is, I use writing prompts secretly and not so secretly all. the. time. Sometimes a single word will act as a prompt, or an image. When writing poetry or essays or essay-poems, I've been prompted to write by other poems. I love Canadian poet Phyllis Webb's injunction (which I've often repeated): "The proper response to a poem is another poem."
In my book Asking, I wrote a whole section of poems titled, "Writing Prompts." One can go too far with these types of suggestions which is what I try to get at in the poem of the same name. It's possible to go overboard, when, for example, one ends up writing a poem about writing prompts. And yet.....there are a lot of great poems that come from other poems. Perhaps it's true that all great poems come from other poems.
In my book I riff on a poem by Joe Brainard, "Ten Imaginary Still Lifes" and a lot of people have riffed on "I Remember." Today, I thought it might be fun to riff on his "30 One-Liners" which you can read in its entirety on Poetry Foundation but begins like this:
WINTER
More time is spent at the window.
SUMMER
You go along from day to day with summer all around you.
STORES
Stores tell all about people who live in the area.
WRITING
Others have already written what I would like to write.
TODAY
Today the sky is so blue it burns.
IN THE COUNTRY
In the country one can almost hear the silence.
For today's writing prompt, make a list of words that could be the titles for your one-liners. Borrow from Joe Brainard's list, add some of your own: Fall, leaves, snow, yesterday, on my street, walking, on my phone, not really, bitterness, pure joy, etc. When you're done with the list, write some one-liners. If you'd like to share some, I'd love to read them in the comments of this post!
2016
