Let’s take a look at the alphabet and see what creatures crawl and spring from letters we know so well. Then, it’s time to write letter poems!
Writing Prompts Galore
A delicious selection of writing prompts—from poetry prompts to fiction prompts and more.
Write along with our community. (We love that.)
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(We ask your permission, if we'd like to feature you in Every Day Poems!)
Read Like a Writer: Mary Oliver’s “Upstream”
Charlotte Donlon invites us to “read like a writer,” discovering both a rich past and an immediate present in the present tense writing of Mary Oliver’s “Upstream.”
Writing Prompt: The Alphabet—Start With Who You Are
Callie Feyen tells a touching and inspiring story about one daughter who sings her way to amazingness. Come sing your way, too, through writing a memory of something you learned with passion.
Poetry Prompt: The Farm—Endings and Pretending
What poetry can be found in an ending? Can we play pretend long enough to believe? Join Callie Feyen as she writes about disintegrated definitions and why poets make some of the best friends.
Poetry Prompt: Farm Blackout Poetry
Not sure where to begin when crafting a poem (or learning about a new concept)? Join Callie Feyen to write blackout poetry from new and unfamiliar material.
Writing Prompt: Play With Your Food
Creative nonfiction writer, Callie Feyen, takes help from poet Tania Runyan to write food poetry. Come along and craft your own poem or story—purple carrots optional!
Poetry Prompt: Find a Farm Skeleton
Creative nonfiction writer, Callie Feyen, takes help from poet Tania Runyan to try to write farm poetry. Come along and craft your own (with or without the talking goat.)
Writing Prompt: Beach Metaphors
How is an exploration on the beach like an experience in a new school, a new town, or a new phase of life? Come write with a beach metaphor!
By Hand: Sorting
By Hand is a monthly prompt focused on freeing our words by using our hands. This month, we’re exploring sorting with Megan Willome as our guide.
Writing Prompt: Speckled Scenes
What is mysterious and magnificent about speckles? What excites us about small patches of color on a summer’s evening? Join us as for a speckled writing prompt.
Writer Friends: Helping Each Other Get Published (From Olympic Gold to MTV)
From interviewing an MTV cast to passing along a potential Jim Carrey feature, these friends have worked the writing scene together—to their mutual benefit over time. Learn the secrets of how they’ve done it.
Poetry Prompt: Sparkler Sensory Poems
Summers mean sparklers! A spark doesn’t last; its impression – the color, the singe, the crackle – does. Join us this week and bring that impression to others when you try your hand at sparkler sensory poetry.
Writer Friends: The Lunchtime Literary Discussion Society
Friendship forms among coworkers after the perfunctory question ‘How are you?’ gets an unexpected answer.
Onomatopoeia Firework Poems
Feeling a word before we actually know its definition is like a firework. Join Callie Feyen and write some “firework” words with us.
Writer Friends: Luci, Madeleine, and a Lean Leather Jacket
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Poetry Prompt: Fireworks, Sparkles & Speckles
Take a little time to engage in some sparkly living this week. Pay special attention to what glints and gleams, sparkles and speckles, or… explodes!
By Hand: Writing Longhand
By Hand is a monthly prompt focused on freeing our words by using our hands. This month, we’re exploring writing longhand with Megan Willome as our guide.
Writing Prompt: Science Fiction and Ecopoetry
Reports on the state of the planet’s future can sound like dystopian science fiction. Can they also be a clarion call that enlivens our creativity? Join us as we write about our interconnection to the world we’re part of.
Poetry Prompt: Science Fiction with Ray Bradbury
Go on a walk after reading Ray Bradbury’s story “The Pedestrian,” then craft a sci-fi poem to share with us where your rambles took you.
Poetry Prompt: Science Fiction with Ursula K. Le Guin
Try writing a poem inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin, where setting is everything, whether it’s the California foothills, the banks of a creek bravely winding its way to the ocean, or an utterly new planet that only you have explored!