​Select a specific aspect of your personality for an event, outing, or night in. Now dress that part of yourself: in costume, drag, or daily wear.

In honor of poet, Tony Hoagland, who died this week, I created a suite of prompts based on his first collection: Sweet Ruin.  I had a complicated relationship with his poetry, as his first two collections: Sweet Ruin, and Donkey Gospel were very influential on the way I wrote in my twenties, but his later work became more and more problematic.

And while many writers found that our older work wasn't accomplishing the things we hoped as it aged, he chose to write about his struggles with bigotry in a way that many of his readers, and some of his close peers and friends, felt was punching down. His internal struggles with prejudice (which everyone has) came out in a way that felt bigoted instead of enlightening.

I don't want to celebrate that part of his writing.

One of my prompts from Suite Of Ruin was inspired partly by the second poem in his collection, "For Men Only", and partly by listening to "progressive" male poets trying their best to write inspiring poems about women:

Prompt: Poem For Men Only. Masculinity is tough, huh? Between Mens' Rights Activists, and the men who struggle against that stereotype, your average open mic listener has spent entirely too much time listening to men talk about masculinity. So take a break for this prompt. Write about a female or non-binary inventor. If you are female or non-binary, write it however you wish. If you're male identified, then completely remove yourself from the poem. Don't talk about how the female or non-binary inventor inspired you or changed your life or what her love life was like, write a list poem about them, or find an angle that never mentions the inventor's beauty or courage. Tell us about the invention. Try to avoid mentioning men at all.

I am often trapped behind a counter while I am working retail. This means, while trying to do data entry, run a sale through, or answer a customer's question, someone who is not even a potential customer will come in and talk at me. Because society has deemed it rude to say "Fuck off, I'm busy, and don't have time to listen to you prattle on about nothing." to a stranger, I often hear more than anyone's fair share of useless doggerel.

In the past week, much of it has been armchair sports fans, who, despite not having played baseball since their tee-ball league team came in last place, are convinced they Know how the local sports franchise can win the World Series, if only their coaching staff would listen to them.

​What activity in the world are you completely unqualified to give advice for, but are so passionate about that you feel the need to share your limited knowledge with the entire world?

Prep for your annual Halloween project by writing a story or poem in which a ghost appears, and saves your life.