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Animate: River Valley Poetry Prompt

By Heather Eure 18 Comments

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

Prompt Guidelines and Options

1. Speak in the first person.

2. Be specific. Think nouns instead of adjectives.

3. Consider where you—a river valley—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 river valley.

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Featured Poem

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Megan took us along on a mountain hike in her poem:

Bear Lake

When you were two, one
hike was all I — pregnant — could handle.

We picked the easiest, most popular hike.
Bear Lake, elevation 9,450. But a trail
the length of a lonely football field
threaded between boulders and pines
was almost too much for me.

“Where are the bears?” You wanted to know.
I said, “It’s hot. They’re napping.”

They weren’t
They were watching

—by Megan Willome

Photo by Tony, Creative Commons via Flickr.

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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.

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—Callie Feyen, English Teacher, Maryland

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Heather Eure
Heather Eure
Heather Eure has served as the Poetry Editor for the late Burnside Collective and Special Projects Editor for us at Tweetspeak Poetry. Her poems have appeared at Every Day Poems. Her wit has appeared just about everywhere she's ever showed up, and if you're lucky you were there to hear it.
Heather Eure
Latest posts by Heather Eure (see all)
  • Poetry Prompt: Misunderstood Lion - March 19, 2018
  • Animate: Lions & Lambs Poetry Prompt - March 12, 2018
  • Poetry Prompt: Behind the Velvet Rope - February 26, 2018

Filed Under: Animate, Blog, Mountains & Valleys, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, writer's group resources, writing prompt

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Comments

  1. Bethany R. says

    July 10, 2017 at 11:42 am

    What an inspiring prompt, Heather. 🙂 Love that description of the trail, and the ending of your poem, Megan.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      July 11, 2017 at 9:47 pm

      Thanks, Bethany. Hope you’ll jot down a poem with us!

      Reply
  2. Donna Falcone says

    July 11, 2017 at 11:57 am

    All weather
    flows toward
    my own heart.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      July 11, 2017 at 9:51 pm

      Thanks for sharing your poem, Donna. “Flow” is such a good word, isn’t it?

      Reply
  3. Donna Falcone says

    July 11, 2017 at 11:57 am

    So happy to see your poem again, Megan!

    Reply
  4. Michael C. Garcia says

    July 12, 2017 at 10:00 am

    Glen Rose State Park

    “Glen Rose State Park.”
    “Dinosaurs.”
    “Dinosaurs?”
    “Glen Rose State Park?”

    “Yes. Glen Rose State Park.”
    “Dinosaurs.”
    “Ready?”
    “Yes!” you replied; “Let’s go!”

    Off to the Texas Hill County
    To see where the dinosaurs
    Once roamed, 113 million years ago.

    “This is a National Natural Landmark.”
    I mentioned to you. “Because of their
    footsteps being preserved in limestone,
    sandstones and mudstones deposits.”

    We went down to the riverbed
    to searched for their presence
    that occurred so long ago.

    An impressionable young girl
    you enjoyed the moment;
    though lamenting the dinosaurs’ fate.

    And just like those dinosaurs
    our relationship unfortunately
    became extinct; though the moment
    forever etched in my memory.

    Copyright by NewLife2008

    Reply
    • Megan Willome says

      July 24, 2017 at 1:39 pm

      Glen Rose! Michael, I love this, especially where you took this memory, applying it to a relationship.

      Signed,
      Hill Country Girl

      Reply
      • Michael C. Garcia says

        July 24, 2017 at 5:10 pm

        Thank you Hill Country Girl – It was a trip I took my daughter too a long time ago. Though no longer in my life, I still cherish the moment.

        Michael

        Reply
  5. Laurie Flanigan says

    July 12, 2017 at 6:47 pm

    Outlook for Falling Rocks

    A stiff ridge held and claimed me,
    until water broke and liquid stoked
    my crumbling, ridged shape.
    Then gravity splashed my
    fragments to a lithe and fluid place –
    where I can’t remember my molten core,
    or its magma scent, or anything but sediment.

    Reply
  6. Prasanta says

    July 17, 2017 at 3:11 pm

    I enjoyed thinking and working on this prompt. It’s late, but thank you for the inspiration!

    River in Coosa Valley

    I am running, most days,
    through the Coosa Valley
    in the Great Appalachian chain

    My heart pulsing, most days,
    pushing me onward

    Beautiful green hills and grassy lands
    stretch beyond my fingers,
    rest beyond the lap of my shores

    The quiet sounds of rushing waters
    soothe aching souls
    of those who walk on foot
    when they rest and glide,
    washing over a soul
    in need of solemn beauty

    I cannot be contained
    I am connected to a force
    mightier than myself
    with the strength of a thousand men

    Follow me
    to find where i go

    I wonder what I am to you:
    transport
    beauty
    stream of rushing loveliness
    serenity, solitude, rest
    sustenance
    coolness upon the brow

    i give all to you
    pouring from my depths
    The source of all I am
    I spill at your feet

    Loving you, a source of joy–
    and pain when you are absent
    leaving me with a thirst–

    Waves and currents
    cannot bring you to my shores
    but a memory of delight
    when you first beheld me
    sunlight sparkling in your eyes

    Even my current
    does not belong to me
    nor the wind
    nor may I drift backwards
    only meander forward,
    onward

    I travel alone
    your memory ebbing
    in the wake
    of your presence

    Reply
  7. Megan Willome says

    July 24, 2017 at 1:36 pm

    Thank you, Heather!

    Reply

Trackbacks

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