Part of the purpose of Rabbit Room Poetry is to not only nourish your creativity with excellent featured work but also give you actionable steps for moving forward with your own poetic projects. At the beginning of every month, we share a roundup of poetry prompts created by our Director of Content, Andy Patton, to whet your imagination and launch you into the creative process.
For even more inspiration, practice poetic techniques in community during our first-ever poetry workshop! Applications close so; details below…
I love the poem “Boxing” by Zack Eswine. I first came across it in this sermon on God’s steadfast love. Zack merges two ideas (my-day-as-boxing-match) in a way that produces a visceral effect. Your prompt for this poem can go two ways:
1. Imitate the structure. Write a poem built on a repeated opening phrase (“This ___,” “Another ___,” “Every ___”). Let each stanza widen the scope: from a small object to daily life, then to existential stakes.
2. Build an extended metaphor. Choose an ordinary part of your day (commute, parenting, work, cooking). Recast it entirely as something else (a heist, a courtroom trial, a storm, a game).
Did you ever see that video that made the rounds some years ago called “It’s Not About the Nail“? Marital dynamics in that video aside, I have found that the idea this video has popped back into my mind from time to time when it comes to understanding poetry. Often people want to know what a poem is “about.” However, answering that question can be harder than it seems at first, and may not even be the right question at all.
On the surface, Lawrence Raab’s poem “Sudden Appearance of a Monster at the Window” is “about” exactly what its title says it is about. On that level, it couldn’t be more straightforward. Yet, that is not really what it’s about. The sudden appearance of the monster at the window is only the doorway into what this poem is about, and beyond that doorway is a vast room of meanings, speculations, and questions leading on to further questions. In that sense, the poem is a certain kind of invitation. It is an invitation to enter the room and dwell there for a while, while the poem dwells inside of you—and to see what you discover there.
So your writing challenge for this week is to write a poem in which you talk about something that is really talking about something else. You could take the form and structure of this poem as a template and change the topic, or you could veer off on your own journey altogether.
The poet Scott Cairns said in an interview once, “I get two poems out of every translation.” He describes sitting down with a legal pad, a poem in a foreign language and a dictionary for that language and working through the poem word by word. Somewhere in that process the creative juices started to flow and he would begin to jot his own lines down on the legal pad.
So that is your challenge today. Here we have a poem in German by Rilke. Open up a translator and try to do it line by line, only give yourself the creative freedom to go far afield from a proper translation. Think of this poem as only a dialog partner. You aren’t making a translation of it, you are priming the creative pump. When your own words start flowing, go with them.
Think of these prompts not as homework assignments, but as open doors inviting you to walk through. How can you use these in your poetic practice this month? Post your poems in the comments; let’s celebrate each other’s work.
Like any writing, poetry can be a lonely—and uncertain—art. In our recent Substack poetry survey, many of you admitted to wrestling with the same questions: Is my poetry “good”? How can I improve? Where can I find trusted resources for learning? And most importantly, where can I connect with other poets?
That’s why we’re excited to present the Rabbit Room Poetry Workshop! Over the course of four weeks, we’re hosting an interactive workshop experience designed to help you hone your technical skills and gain confidence in your work through hands-on feedback from your peers. During each ninety-minute Zoom session, you’ll learn tools for taking a poem all the way from the initial spark of inspiration to a final polished draft. Best of all, you’ll work alongside other poets to practice skills in real time and exchange collaborative feedback in a supportive environment.
If you’re searching for creative community and are passionate about writing poems that glimmer with truth and beauty, then this workshop is for you! Find out all the details and apply below.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
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