Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 680
Every Wednesday, Robert Lee Brewer shares a prompt and an example poem to get things started for poets. This week, write a history poem.
Happy New Year! Let's poem!
For this week's prompt, write a history poem. Feel free to write about ancient history, somewhat long ago history, and/or recent history (like last year). Go big and wide by covering a whole society or time period, or get very specific by covering a particular person or moment. Also, your history poem could be about something many people know, but don't be afraid to make it a more personal history.
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
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Write a poem every single day of the year with Robert Lee Brewer's Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming. After sharing more than a thousand prompts and prompting thousands of poems for more than a decade, Brewer picked 365 of his favorite poetry prompts here.
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Here’s my attempt at a History Poem:
“the history of this poem,” by Robert Lee Brewer
was less a whisper
& more a wind
howling through trees
removing the leaves
& clawing at the edges
of houses & chimneys
pleading let me in
because i have
a story to tell
but that story only
prompted more stories
that prompted more winds
racing off across the horizon
until this very place
was but a whisper
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
