This semester, I’ve taken on several projects which have necessitated a lot of self exploration. Through this exploration, I’ve been forced to come […]

Below is a link to 1989, The Number, “an exploration of the year 1989 through politics, personal history and culture. This chapbook plays like a mixtape incorporating the hottest records and stories of ’89 and reflecting their relevance for today. For hip-hop heads ’89 was the peak of the Golden Era and the Crack Epidemic. For…[Read more]

Disclaimer: I still haven’t finished Cannibal. It is a…[Read more]

I spent last semester studying abroad in Montpellier. Under the crescent-moon indigo skies of […]

I really like this idea of getting outside yourself by writing exclusively about other people, other moments. So my first recommendation is actually kind of an exercise more than a specific source. You […]

My first recommendation after reading your source list is actually a list of tools to help you find more sources, rather than a source itself. I don’t know if you use Spotify, or if you’re familiar wit […]

Thanks for posting this. It’s not something I had ever considered either, but it is such an important thing to recognize! I bet a lot of the poems I love love love started out just as shitty as mine […]

I think it’s funny that you cited my poem as an example of a pun, because this is something I have struggled with this semester, too. In fact, before this semester I had never even thought about puns in […]

I love this prompt. I’m someone who LOVES to write from images (photography is one of my sort of interests in that I think it’s pretty dope but also have no real skill or knowledge beyond how to use a […]

Also want to give a huge shout out to this post. I’m spend a lot of time exploring different photographer’s websites, and am more than often inspired, but have never tried to write a poem about any of […]

First, I love your summaries of the different perspectives on poetry. They are both amusing and informative!

I think another interesting writing exercise would be to try to write poetry as each of […]

I experience my poetry in a completely opposite way. When I “finish” writing a poem, particularly one that I don’t like/ am having a hard time with, I completely ignore it for a very long time. My poems […]

I really like the way that you broke this problem down, distinguishing between a word’s denotation, connotation, and “sound-meaning” (is there a word for this?). It’s a really great way to […]

Great post. I think another thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that all undergrad degrees get you pretty much the same thing career-wise. Unless you’re pre-med or something, a bachelor’s […]

I think a lot of the questions you posed here relating to what it means to attempt to write as a marginalized identity of which you are not a part is a complex conversation that will likely continue […]

After reading through this blog post a few times, I felt like I needed to meditate on the meaning of meditative! A word I feel like I use pretty often, one I always assumed I really understood the […]

You and Meghan have thrown out some really amazing thoughts to ruminate on, but I’d like to respond to just one thing that really resonated with me: the idea that “poetry is one of the only methods […]

I am also a masher (or as Meghan put it, a knitter). I am someone who likes to jot down single lines or images or phrases that I think of/ come across in everyday life to inspire my poetry, and often […]

This is a really awesome exercise that I feel like could be expanded even more. One could take the poetic statements of other poets and attempt to write a poem that agrees with that poetic statement […]

So, I’ve actually never considered the difference in my winter music and summer music. I guess I don’t have separate music for separate seasons. However, what’s really interesting to me is that if I […]

First off this is such a good song ahhhh. Second, for me I honestly have trouble not being inspired. I’m sure that sounds super pretentious like “Oh I find inspiration in everything around me” but […]

I absolutely love this idea! I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been inspired by the writing I’ve come across in workshop. To be honest, I’ve already stolen from workshop poems (not actually). I […]

I totally agree that knowing the intent behind a poem before scribbling words down could definitely provide some new sense of awareness to the writing. However, my hesitation with having some sort of […]

Morning writing, at least for me, is absolutely the best. (I should mention that when I say “morning” I mean like 10 or 11 am). I don’t just wake up and start writing; I usually give myself awhile to […]

So I’m basically obsessed with using the physical human body in my poems and even when I try not to, it sneaks its way in there. This being said, I love your prompt, and I tried it. While the result is not […]

I THINK ABOUT THIS ALL THE TIME, TOO. There’s such a hierarchy when it comes to “who is published” and “who is renowned,” etc. etc., and this hierarchy really silences a lot of people, […]

I really love this blog post because I’ve never really thought about the vast differences in the way each poet begins writing his/her poem. Thank you for opening up this conversation.

I rarely begin […]

To me, you have bequeathed
a half-dissolved
apple, a spider,
and three crescents
of your fingernails.

A large Y of black stitches
has split your trunk into thirds—
a child’s rendition
of a […]