Tweetspeak Poetry

Animate: Wall Poetry Prompt

By 14 Comments

animate wall poetry promptAnimate is a poetry prompt that focuses on speaking as if we are a particular object. This time, we’re speaking as a wall.

Prompt Guidelines and Options

1. Speak in the first person.

2. Be specific. Think nouns instead of adjectives.

3. Consider where you—a wall—are located, or where you came from, or where you are going. Or, speak as if you have a special desire or concern: maybe you are hungry, missing something, afraid of a sight or sound, in love with another thread that is like you or not like you. Be creative. Any type of situation is fair game.

4. Consider doing a little research about the object you will speak as: its history, associated words, music, art, sculpture, architecture, fashion, science, and so on. Look for unusual details, so you can speak convincingly and intriguingly about yourself.

That’s it! We look forward to hearing you speak poetically, from the viewpoint of an object— a wall.

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Featured Poem

Here is an excerpt of a poem Jayashree shared with us in last week’s poetry prompt:

Reins of courage taut, stepping cautiously
She tread ahead, trembling like a leaf in rain,
Then a spontaneous ebb of ecstasy, a tsunami
Of new light drowned her fear and baseless shame.

—by Jayashree

Photo by Tim Green, Creative Commons via Flickr.

Browse more writing prompts
Browse poetry teaching resources

How to Write a Poem 283 high How to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.

“How to Write a Poem is a classroom must-have.”
—Callie Feyen, English Teacher, Maryland

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Heather Eure
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Comments

  1. Donna says

    Oh my…. Jayashree…. your words gave my heart a little leap of something good- hope maybe. Beautiful. Thank you.

    Reply

    • Jayashree says

      Donna, Oh! I can’t believe what I see, my little poem being chosen the featured poem here!

      Thank you and the entire team, I am so glad the lines there have a positive vibe and you love it.

      Jayashree

      Reply

  2. Andi says

    There is this.
    And that.

    Here field.
    There grove.

    Neither better,
    nor worse.

    For all that,
    my indifference is not idle.

    I may be unremarked,
    but I have my opinion.

    This.
    And that.

    Must remain separate.
    though I do allow the occasional glimpse,
    of each,

    any laxity,
    on my part,
    would mean chaos.

    Were I to rest my watch,
    the individual necessity of
    this, and that,

    would be lost.

    And each would be no more.

    Reply

  3. Katie says

    Walls

    I can enclose
    as did The Great Wall
    an entire country.

    I can divide
    as did the Berlin
    Wall, east and west.

    I can support
    as did sea walls
    the shore along the gulf.

    I can provide
    as does the sound barrier
    wall between beltway and city.

    I can protect
    keep from harm or injury
    as does a border wall.

    Reply

    • Bethany Rohde says

      Katie, thanks for sharing this piece. I like the clarity of each stanza and the vivid images. I am particularly drawn to that sound barrier and the sort of twist it contributes to the ending (at least just for me–everyone experiences poems differently). Hope I see you again in the comments. 🙂

      Reply

  4. Brenda Sabo says

    A Wall

    My feet stand where they shouldn’t.
    My toes straddle the property line.

    On my right, a gathering of laughter and fellowship.
    On my left , a quiet read in the shade.

    Before I was born there was anger – shouts and dirty looks,
    My purpose to mute.

    Reply

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