Poetry prompts celebrating the fall season.
It seems like summer always passes too quickly and winter lasts too long. Maybe that’s why fall is a favorite season for so many people. It seems to hang around just long enough. It’s not too hot, not too cold — a mild, colorful, and comfortable season.
Every fall, my creativity goes into overdrive, and I doubt this year will be any different. I’m not sure what it is about all the rusty and golden hues that fills me with inspiration, but I’m always grateful when the leaves start to turn because I know my imagination is about get fired up.
It’s the perfect time of year to write a little poetry. The seasons have been inspiring poets for millennia, and it’s up to us modern-day writers to keep the tradition alive. The poetry prompts below are a great way to get started.
Poetry Prompts
Poetry prompts are simple. Below, you’ll find three lists of words. Your task is to compose a poem using all of the words from one of the lists. You can also get creative and use any of the following alternatives:
- Mix and match random words from the three lists. Try to use 5-10 words to prompt your poem.
- Write three poems, each based on one of the lists.
- Write a single poem using all of the words from all of the lists.
Once you’re done writing your poem, set it aside and let it sit overnight. Come back to it the next day and spend some time polishing it. You can add words, remove words, put it into form, or take it out of form. Focus especially on deleting extraneous words and phrases. Try to keep the poem as tight and concise as possible. Also, make an effort to infuse the poem with vivid imagery, which is the key to writing great poetry.
| List One | List Two | List Three |
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Discover and Share
Once you’ve finished using these prompts to write a poem (or several poems), come back and tell us what you discovered or learned through the process. Did you write a poem about autumn or did some other topic emerge? Did you come up with any compelling images for your piece? How did revising your poem improve it? Leave a comment to share your experience. And keep writing!
This is so helpful! Thank you, I love writing and this definitely helps with ideas.
I’m so glad you enjoyed these poetry prompts!
One of my favorite things to do is find a random list of words and tehn find each one in the thesaurus and pick your favorite word from the synonyms and then use those in the poem instead, a poem just wontfeel right without your own favorite words.
That’s an awesome idea for writing prompts! Using a thesaurus, you could take one list of writing prompts and keep recycling it over and over. Great idea, Torquil!
What a brilliant idea, Torquil. I’ll be trying that, for sure.
Great idea. I love the lists. I’m away next week,but I’ll give it a go when I get home.
Let us know how it goes!