One of the first prompts I gave when this blog was a mere infant, was to write an advice poem to your younger self to help them out.

This time, write a letter to younger self without including any spoilers. The time stream is super easy to influence right now, and you really don't want to accidentally erase your current partner or best friend (ok, maybe you do Right Now, but in The Long Run, you're probably going to regret it).

Jonah Comstock shared a story on our open mic this week about a time he was heckled for wearing a vest. He was, of course, wearing the same vest as he told the story, inciting the heckle to be repeated, so that he could respond to it the way he wished he had the first time the heckle occurred.

Write about a time you were heckled, and how you wish you had responded.

Alternately, write about a time you heckled someone. Bonus points if it was an accidental heckle.

Several years ago, a poet who was eighteen and new to poetry was very excited to read on our open mic, and, after a couple of weeks of reading the precise kind of poems one might write when one is eighteen, he read a poem called "Ten Ways To Get Into My Pants" which went so poorly that several women, and a few men, approached him urging him never to read or write anything like that again.

My response, naturally, was to write a satirical response poem with the same title.

​I offer you the title "Ten Ways To Get Into My Pants" and ask you to write a non-problematic poem advising someone of how to literally, figuratively, metaphorically, or decisively get into your pants. 

A little over a decade ago, someone I was dating came out to their parents by moving in with me, who was several years older than him. His parents...didn't like me very much. And I understood why.

Imagine you have just broken up with someone you were involved with and one of their friends or family, someone who hated you for being in that relationship, finally had the opportunity to talk to you and explain why they hated you.

Write a poem from their perspective about why they hated you. And write it as though they are 100% correct to hate you.

Of course this is a fictional concept. You're great. And they just hate you because they're jealous. But, you know, pretend.