Image by Ray Shrewsberry

Tell me about the four directions from your vantage point.  What is north of you right now? East of you? And so on.  What would you like to summon from each direction? Add a fifth and sixth direction if you like (sky, earth, etc).  Write for 10 minutes.

• Using details from your free write, compose a poem that is a prayer to the Four Directions.
• Find your “true north,” meaning orient yourself, and write a poem that lights up the four directions—or just one of the directions. 
• Write a poem summoning something, honoring something, remembering something from each of the directions.

​Write for 15 minutes

Though "Remember" by Joy Harjo does not specifically mention the four directions, it does place the reader in the center of things, and commands the reader to "remember" in multiple directions.  Remember in the direction of the sky, in the direction of your ancestors, in the direction of the earth, the wind, the languages. The speaker's voice is authoritative, so we experience what the speaker says to be true. And we wish we had heard this in the church of our youth, as it is the perfect text to teach the concept that. you. are. the universe. You are within the sacred hoop.

If you have forgotten where you are. If you are lost and seeking true north, this poem (indeed each of the example poems) will help you "echolocate" once again. 

Six Prayers by Ralph Salisbury

Make a list of all the things you are waiting for.  Describe the circumstance, or describe none of the circumstances.  Write for 10 minutes. 

Using information from your free write, compose an anaphora poem, exploring what you are waiting for.  Use the phrase “I Am Waiting” repeatedly (but not all of the time). Arrange the “I am waiting” statements thematically, or choose a different organizational pattern, but consider how each grouping of “I am waiting” builds urgency. Where do the stanzas/or list of  ‘waiting’ lead us by the end of the poem?

This prompt is inspired by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "I Am Waiting." Ferlinghetti 100 years old, the poem 52 years old -- and still relevant.  
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How about your writing?  Did the "I am waitings" turn into action? Was your waiting sarcastic? Humorous? Meditative?  Let us hear from you in the comments. 

Tell me about your experience with tarot cards.  If this is your first introduction, then write about everything you see on a selected card from this gallery.  ​Write for 10 minutes.

POEM PROMPT #1  Write a tarot poem using details from your free write.  If you're stuck for a starter, try one of these::

• Write about the setting, the objects, or the meaning 
• Write about the archetype as a person in today’s world 
• Write about one or all of the senses the card’s archetype may experience 
• Voice thoughts from the character in the card.  Write for 10 minutes. 

Adapted from writing exercise by Tabitha Dial of Arcana: The Tarot Poetry Anthology

POEM PROMPT #2  Write a tarot card or tarot poem for one of the archetype characters below. Write for 10 minutes

How fast you can write the poem isn't really the issue, is it?!  What I am saying is sometimes writing doesn't get done unless you schedule yourself.  By putting yourself in a habit of writing, a practice of writing, you can make the good stuff happen more frequently.  A famous technique is to time yourself in each sitting, and extend the time every couple of weeks.   PoetryBones unique approach is to free write for 10 minutes, and write the poem for 15 minutes.  I know, I know, this makes it 25 minutes.  So what--go write!

Try these strategies in making that poem happen -- on the spot:

1. Start with free-write exercise.  Write for ten minutes on a topic.  Keep your hand moving, don't judge, don't stop to correct  or proofread or evaluate.  Just write. WRITE!  And write some more. Then, use select material from the free-write  in your poem. This is the PoetryBones unique approach to a poetry writing practice.  Check the writing practice blog  and the archives (in the right panel) for prompts.  
2. Pick what's PERcoLAting  in your free-write. Where is the tension? Where is the energy?  Where are the most provocative phrases?  Highlight them and weave them together in a poem.  A l l o w them to be used differently in the poem form than they were first used in prose form.  
3. Purposefully Edit.  In the free-write, keeping the hand moving (ala Natalie Goldberg instructions) is the goal.  But in the poem-write, take time to revisit and edit.  Purposefully experiment with arrangements of phrases and line breaks and stanza-building.  Differentiate from the flow of free-write to the “editing” or slowing down for the poem-write.
4. Try a classic structure.  If you've got the words and images on flow but are stuck with structural questions, employ my favorite go-to: Let stanza 1 establish the setting, stanza 2 relay the event itself, let stanza 3 be the processing of the event.   For example, see the writing prompts for  Stopped You in Your Tracks.  
5. Try elements of poem types.  For example, knowing some qualities of an ode can influence what you keep in your ode poem and what you trim away.  Likewise with the elements of the ghazal, the cinquain, the epic -- I know!  So many poem forms, so little time. 
6. Practice writing across genres.  One of my favorite writing instructors, Sterling Plumpp,  once said if you can write your story in each genre, then you know you're a writer. Whether or not you agree with the sentiment,  it is a  great writing exercise, which is why I participated in a NaNoWriMo event this past weekend.  So, take that prose of your free write and make it a poem, then take the story of the poem and make it a script, re-write a section of the story as non fiction, a scene in a short story, a chapter in a novel.  This experiment helps you also discover the best genre for the story you're trying to tell -- or a whole new focus  may emerge because you're working in a different genre.  

What are your strategies for getting a poem written!

Close your eyes, and fully picture a scene in a city or in a town you hold dear (for whatever reason). Tell me about this place.  Write for 10 minutes.  Ready? Go!

​Using details from your free write, compose an ode to a city, a town, a place. Try the “ode elements" below. Will you personify your city? Write for 15 minutes, and go!

• Speak directly to your city or town.  Maybe personify it.
• Focus on giving it praise or thanks. (Oh, _____________!)
• Describe intellectually as well as emotionally. 
• Use verbs to bring that city or town to life. 
• Use repeated lines.