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Form It: A Tunnel Poetry Prompt

By L.L. Barkat 8 Comments

tunnels poetry promptForm It is a prompt that focuses on exploring our topic through form poetry. This time, we’re going to “form” a tunnel.

Prompt Guidelines and Options

1. Consider how you are feeling today, as you approach your topic. Are you sorrowful? Overflowing with joy or good humor? Maybe you’re in a snarky frame of mind. Or feeling perplexed. Perhaps you’re just in the mood to tell a story or express gratitude or awe. You could also consider the nature of the topic itself. Think on these things before you…

2. Choose a form that either matches or purposely works against how you feel as you approach your topic, or that matches or purposely works against the nature of the topic itself. Options:

Acrostic (good for creating puzzles and mystery or dedications)

Ballad (excellent way to tell a story)

Catalog Poem (useful for building intensity, praise, or a sense of magic)

Cinquain (a good form for creating a sense of focus on a single experience, possibly with a twist ending or a terse ending)

Ghazal (helpful for emphasizing “longing” or for exploring metaphysical questions)

Haiku (good for creating immediacy or focusing in on emotion)

Ode (excellent way to praise something or someone you love or admire)

Pantoum (useful for plumbing depressive or anxious themes)

Rondeau (helpful for giving form to extremes of either sadness or dark wit)

Sestina (good for exploring confusion, questions, worries, neuroses, fears in an oblique way)

Sonnet (excellent way to confine a bombastic theme or rein in a potentially sappy or overly-sentimental theme; also an excellent way to “work against” a topic humorously)

Villanelle (useful for themes that feel resistant to answers; also can be used to “work against” a topic, using mocking humor)

3. Be specific. Think nouns instead of adjectives.

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

That’s it! We look forward to hearing you form poetically, about a tunnel.

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Featured Poem

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here is a poem from Maureen we enjoyed:

Tunnel to me, love
I’ve built bridges of pillows
Soft like sounds of snow

—by Maureen Doallas

Photo by Hiroyuki Takeda. Creative Commons via Flickr.

Browse more bridges & tunnels
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How to Write a Poem 283 highHow 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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L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat
L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.
L.L. Barkat
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Filed Under: Blog, Bridges & Tunnels, Form It, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, writer's group resources, writing prompt

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About L.L. Barkat

L.L. Barkat is the Managing Editor of Tweetspeak Poetry and the author of six books for grown-ups and four for children, including the popular 'Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing.' Her poetry has appeared on the BBC and at NPR, VQR, and The Best American Poetry.

Comments

  1. Donna Falcone says

    January 8, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    Maureen…. oh, I’m so happy to see this poem again!

    Reply
  2. Sandra Heska King says

    January 8, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    Me, too!

    And Heather, you do such a beautiful job with these posts.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      January 9, 2018 at 10:12 pm

      Thanks, Sandra but I can’t take the credit. There’s a brilliant editor who helps me shine. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Katie says

    January 9, 2018 at 8:27 am

    Me three:)

    Reply
  4. Maureen says

    January 9, 2018 at 5:35 pm

    Thank you all!

    Reply
  5. Monica Sharman says

    January 11, 2018 at 5:39 pm

    Parallel Lines

    Two lines, like the long walls of a tunnel, parallel
    under what defines them: a fixed distance that
    never lets them intersect, never allows a
    nexus. Keeping a constant distance is not
    exactly a pushing-away. But hold out a stiff arm’s
    length, and the two will never touch.

    Reply
    • Sandra Heska King says

      January 12, 2018 at 7:17 am

      I see what you did there, Monica. 🙂

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Bridge of Love: Poetry Prompt - says:
    January 15, 2018 at 2:10 pm

    […] to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. Here is a poem from Monica we […]

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