Pen & Page: Layering Your Poem
I’ve been playing around with offering prompts with many choices. Often we read prompts that are singularly directed, a simple statement to consider and respond to. Instead of a single arrow, these prompts come as layers—a little choose-your-own-adventure for poems. Pick what serves you, leave the rest. The sections (setup, craft menus, shapes, and “turbo” twists) are designed to spark surprise, texture, and tension so your draft grows in unexpected directions. What follows is an invitation to play and build a multi-dimensional poem that’s unmistakably yours.
Prompt #8: Name the Doors
Jot 10 tiny “portals” from the last 24 hours—ordinary moments that changed your direction or mood: the click of a latch, the sting of hot dishwater, a text that shifted your plans, the lamp you switched on before dawn.
Core Prompt: Walk through three
Pick three portals. Write a poem that moves through them in order. Include:
one concrete object (not symbolic—just itself),
one sound,
one texture word,
one question the speaker can’t answer,
a turn two-thirds in (a line that begins with “But…” or “Then…” to pivot).
Craft Menu (choose 2–3)
Anaphora: Start several lines with the same phrase.
Image Echo: Repeat one image three times, each time altered.
Verb Swap: Replace “is/are/was” with muscular verbs.
Specificity Test: Swap every abstract noun for something you can touch.
Line Music: End five lines on nouns; end five on verbs.
Perspective Slip: Shift briefly into second person, then return.
Shape Options (pick one)
List Poem: Number the portals 1–3 and let each section hold 5–7 short lines.
Prose Poem: One tight block with strategic sentence breaks.
Fragment Field: Write in fragments (3–9 words), generous white space, no punctuation until the final line.
Haibun-ish: Short prose paragraph + a 3-line closing poem that includes a season word.
Turbo Variations (use if you want constraints)
Time-Stamp It: Begin each portal with a time (e.g., 7:12 a.m.).
The “Almost” Lens: Start every line with “Almost…” for the first section, then drop it in the turn.
Quick Version
Choose one portal and write 12 lines (4–7 words each). Include one smell and a question. End with a verb.
Stretch / Expansion
Field Notes: Take a 5-minute walk and collect three new portals from things you overhear or notice; add as a coda.
Found Language Collage: Fold in a phrase from a receipt, weather alert, or to-do list (mark found text with italics).
Title Play: Draft three titles: one concrete (“The Blue Mug by the Sink”), one temporal (“After the Second Call”), one wild metaphor (“House of Small Doors”).
Share Back
Post one favorite line and name one craft move you used (e.g., Anaphora + Image Echo). Offer a gentle “What surprised you?” in the comments.
#Margin Notes
Step away. Rewild your poems.
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Let this be the weekend you say yes to your writing. Step into the quiet, the woods, and the good company of poets—and leave with fresh pages you didn’t know you had. If the poems have been calling, consider this your nudge. Reserve your spot and come rewild with us. All info and photos can be found here.
I am truly gratified that you stopped by to read and write. If you’re able, go paid—it directly funds the time and care behind these layered prompts.
Back to preparing next week’s longer post—Negative Space, Positive Charge. The full post will be available to paid subscribers; however, free subscribers will have a sneak peak at what is included in the longer post. See you on “Notes.”
Write and thrive,
Robbin