Prompts From Richard Blanco's Looking For The Gulf Motel

Looking For The Gulf Motel: What's the first vacation you remember taking with your family? How did you feel at the beginning of it? Does it in any way reflect the way you feel about your family now?


The Name I Wanted: What's the origin of your nickname? How do you feel about people who share your nickname? More or less of a kinship than the people who share your birth name?


Betting On America: Have you ever bet on something that you probably shouldn't have? Maybe it felt inappropriate to bet on a certain event, or maybe you decided to bet on something that you were woefully ignorant about. How did it turn out for you?


Tia Margartia Johnson's House In Hollywood: Do you remember a particular house from your childhood other than your own? It could be a house from TV (Blanco talks about The Brady Bunch house), one of your friends', or a relative's. Did you compare it to your own house? Did you want to live there more than you wanted to return home?


Cousin Consuelo On Piano: Write about a song you irrationally hate.


500 AM In Cuba: Ghost Line
I have nothing I want, but everything I need


Playing House With Pepin: Do you remember the first time you playacted a gender you were not born into? How did people react to it? How did it make you feel?


Abuelo In A Western: Have you ever seen a relative or someone you care about watching TV with you, and realize they are coming to that show from a completely different place?


The Port Pilot: How do your parents' occupations speak to who they are as people?


My Brother On Mt. Barker: Write about what one of your siblings (or a lost love or farr away friend) is doing right now. Unless it's sleeping. Or, ok, fine, you can write about how they sleep, provided they sleep in an interesting fashion.


Papa At The Kitchen Table: Begin a poem looking at an actual photograph of someone in your life. Zoom out.


Love As If Love: Have you ever been in a relationship with someone you knew you didn't have feelings for, even though they clearly had feelings for you. Looking back, how do you feel about that?


Killing Mark: Sometimes when there is too much quiet or too much noise, we imagine terrible things happening to the people we love. Not things we want to happen. Things we fear will happen or have already happened. How do you get yourself out of those thoughts? Can you imagine a way to keep them from happening?


Cooking With Mama In Maine: Sharing a kitchen with family or people we love can either be incredibly therapeutic or absolutely maddening. Write about a memorable experience cooking with a loved one, or watching them cook. If possible, write about one positive experience and one negative. Now remove yourself from both experiences and imagine the positive experience sharing a kitchen with the negative experience. How do they interact?


Unspoken Elegy For Tia Cucha: Were you ever forced, as a child, or as a significant other to give a gift to someone when you didn't feel comfortable giving a gift? How did that go?


Since Unfinished: What's a poem or piece of writing you keep coming back to you? Is it possible to put it to rest?