Writing Prompts: Taking Inventory

Free Write Prompt

Make a list of things. Take inventory of something—a cluttered room, the scars on your body, the 50 ways to leave your lover. Expand on any, or none.  Write more than one list or be devoted and see how far a single list takes you.  Write for 10 minutes. Ready? Go!

Poem Prompt

Using the ideas from your list(s), write a “list poem.”  Where does the list take the reader? How does the list comment on the objective world? What is the significance—of the list, of each item—by the end of the poem.  Write for 10-15 minutes.

Example Poems

• Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota  by James Wright 
• 99 Problems by Morgan Parker​ 
• The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop 

REFLECTIONS

• How is the idea of a list different in each poem?
• What does the list reveal about the speaker, the conflict, the material world?
• What is the tension between the ending and how the poem was developed?

TO TRY

• Explore a "list making" style of your own
• Making a list in the free write forces the writer toward imagery.  Work on provocative imagery. How can your imagery develop tone?
• Play with the syntax of list making, writing complete thoughts, and the unique form of a poem.

Something Extra

• Ode to the Yard Sale by Gary Soto

Can you give another life to things you'll discard from you home by including them in a new original poem?  Do the things lying around your house, in and out of storage or boxes, tell a story--what story do they tell?  Share lines of your work or thoughts about Soto's poem in the comment section.

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