Finding it difficult to write, but wishing to get back to your writing practice? Try working from these prompts created by IWC staff for the April National Poetry Month Poem a Day Challenge, and Journaling through the Pandemic program. Both are run through interactive private groups on Facebook.

Indiana Writers Center Poem a Day Challenge Week 2

?8.    Pick a favorite song, or one you like, listen to it, & write.
9.    Chose a vowel (a, e, i, o, or u) and write a 10+ line poem with words that have only that vowel in them. For your poetic terminology – a poem which excludes one or more letters is called a “lipogram.” A poem which excludes all vowels but one is called “univocalic” (from the Latin for one-voweled). For an exampled you can check out Cathy Park Hong’s poem, Ballad in A.
10.    Free Day! Write a poem or poem thingy of your choosing.
11.    Use the last line of one of your poems as the first line of a new poem.
12.    Today’s form challenge is to write a Triolet.
13.    Write a poem to or about the wind.
14.    Select 10-12 words from a poem (or from a couple poems) you admire and use them to create a new poem. The poem can have as many words as you want. Try to choose a variety of word types (verbs, nouns, adjectives, etc) in your selection.
15.    This is a prompt from Poets & Writers Magazine: “Truth can be lazy because it becomes satisfied with itself, and it is often so tethered to time and space that to demand one truth can often invisibilize another’s truth,” says Natalie Diaz in “Energy,” an interview by Jacqueline Woodson in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine. “When and where does truth begin, and whose truth is it?” Think of an issue in your life that you feel conflicted over, an idea or state of being that you have long held to be true, whose solidity you have begun to question. Write a poem that attempts to demand more from this perceived truth, exploring how it entered your belief system. To whom is it tethered?

Journaling through the Pandemic week 2

Writing Prompt #1

How have you changed your shopping habits?

Think about gardening, CVS, Target, online retail… do you stop yourself before buying a new shirt? Does it even cross your mind?

Do you shop completely online now avoiding stores as much as possible?

How will this forever change how you shop?

Writing Prompt #2

 How are you keeping track of time?

 Are your sleep cycles off? Do you have planned meal times? How are you separating your home/work life?