Journey Prompts

1. Reach beyond dictionary definitions and write about the growth of a poet, yourself or another poet you admire, and the stages they came to be the poet they are today. If writing about yourself, see if you can foresee the poet you imagine you will become.

2. A journal is found under an old desk in an old house. The entire journal is full of writing in a foreign language unknown to you. After flipping through it for a date, you find a photograph. Describe your impressions, thoughts, conjured feelings.

3. "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." - Albert Einstein
What sources? And in what way do you hide them in creative endeavors?

4. If there are not Great Truths recognized and agreed upon by all people, there are some Great Truths each of us recognizes or values. What are yours? How have they aided or halted your actions?

5. Think of one of the times when you first appreciated silence. Maybe it was late at night after the neighbors have all gone to sleep. Maybe it was during a test. Maybe it was on a busy street during business hours and yet you sensed silence. Describe in detail the kind of silence you recall, your thoughts, observations...

6. Reverse senses. Choose an experience to write about, one your recall or one you imagine. Instead of describing the taste of something with adjectives used to describe taste, use adjectives reserved for one of the other senses. Choose any of the 5 senses you want to be substituted.
Examples: The juice was jagged when I bit the lemon. The trumpet blast filled the air with a bitter odor.

7. Listen to a song, preferably one without lyrics, and contemplate the images it draws up, whether they are memories, imagined scenes, fantasy, etc. Write.