30 Poetry Prompts from National Poetry Month 2023

Whether you’re a seasoned poet or just beginning to experiment with the medium, these prompts will challenge you to think outside the box and explore new poetic forms and styles. So grab a pen and paper, and let’s dive into these prompts together!

How (Else) to Use These Poetry Prompts

Of course, you’re free to pick and choose which poetry prompts speak to you and leave the rest, but that’s not the only way to use them!

• We originally posted all of these prompts on Instagram, so we’d love to see you challenge yourself by putting your work out there on social media! Don’t forget to tag us!
• Challenge or collaborate with your poet friends by selecting the same prompt.
• Let the prompts inspire a piece of visual art—like a watercolor painting or a collage—as well as a poem!
• Let one prompt inspire a series or collection of poems. You could even publish it!
• Mesh two of the prompts together for a really unique spin!
• Print or write down each of these prompts, cut them into strips, and stick them in a jar. The next time you’re struggling with writer’s block, pull out a prompt and get to writing!

The Poetry Prompts

1. Use prose poetry to describe a stormy night and the impressions it leaves.
2. Write a haiku about a time when you had to say goodbye.
3. Write a rhyming poem about the ocean without using the word “water.”
4. Open up to a random page in an old notebook and write a poem beginning with the seventeenth word on the page.
5. Search the web for a random color palette generator. Write a poem using all the colors in the fourth palette you generate.
6. Write a sestina that takes inspiration from one of your least favorite songs.
7. Write about a real or fictional place that’s hidden from the world as if you’ve just stumbled upon it.
8. Write a list poem about the human heart.
9. Write an ode to your favorite person you know. Whether you give it to them is up to you!
10. What’s been your favorite word lately? Use it to write an acrostic poem.
11. Write a poem from the perspective of your (or someone else’s) front door.
12. Go to RecommendMeABook.com, print or screenshot the page, and use it to create a blackout poem.
13. Write a “bad” poem on purpose. break rules and don’t try to make sense!
14. Search your hometown on Instagram. Write an ekphrastic poem about one of the results.
15. Write an elegy for an artist you love who passed away decades before you were born.
16. Open your email and write a poem that begins with one of the subject lines from the past 24 hours.
17. Write a villanelle about growth of any kind.
18. Use exactly ten lines to describe a dream you had that left an impression on you.
19. Write a poem about a scent that holds special meaning to you. Don’t reveal what the scent is from.
20. Did you know some experts say we have over twenty senses, not five? Write a poem using at least three of the lesser-known senses.
21. Write a diminishing verse poem inspired by a fairy tale.
22. Write a poem from the perspective of a rock, then wrap it around a rock and leave it for someone else to find.
23. Search the web for books published the year you were born. Use three of those titles in a poem.
24. Write a quatrain about your favorite writing tool.
25. Write a poem using five of your frequently used emojis.
26. Find somewhere you’ve never written before—a hotel lobby, a friend’s home, your bathub—and don’t leave until you have ten lines down.
27. Write about the changing seasons in the style of the poet whose work you’re most familiar with.
28. Look up a list of Latin phrases. Pick two and use them in a poem.
29. Steal a line from the bard himself for your poem’s last line.
30. Take one of the other poems you wrote (that isn’t inspired by #12 on the list) and use it to create a blackout poem.

Did any of these prompts inspire you to write more poetry? Tell us in a comment, and be sure to tag us on social media if you post one!