Category Archive: tips from the bar

Find, and write about, an event or pursuit even less deserving of SlamCenter-style play-by-play than poetry slam.

Write a rallying identity poem for a place or thing that either doesn’t exist, or else isn’t frequently made the focus of identity (i.e. carpet embroiderers, soup enthusiasts, what have you).

Write a poem in today’s modern “dialect” –as imagined by people many generations in the future.

Write about the people who ruined music forever. (Bonus points for not mentioning Creed or Nickleback.)

Ruin a joke with your poem: start with the punchline, then go on from there.

Revisiting an old prompt from last year: write a poem you are afraid your parents would write about you.

Consider one or more pick-up lines that might reveal too much about the speaker.

Write the poem you’ve been avoiding: the one filled with grief, loss, tragedy, and drama. Now take out the drama and replace it with a cute animal of your choice.

There’s a preying mantis on your pillow. How did it get there? What does it want from you?