Prompt inspired by Sam Sax's Pig:

Write a remembrance or exploration of self focused on repeating ​the same letter. Try and have a reason for why *that* letter, in particular, is important to you and the story.

From a series of prompts inspired by Sam Sax's Pig:

My partner & I do a multimedia exchange every day. I show him things I think he'd like from TikTok, he shows me things he thinks I'd like from Imgur.

Do this with a friend or loved one for a week, and find something from their feed that inspires you to write a poem. Also, what thing did they show you that made you feel totally seen. "Ah, this person does totally understand me and what I love." Tell us about how your relationship inspired that understanding.

From a series of prompts inspired by Sam Sax's Pig:

Looked up "sus sofra," an adorable type of wild boar. "but pig existed before we had tongues/to name it. today we might call them soy & hormone factories."

Update the name of an animal, place, everyday item to reflect how its usage / intention / identity has changed in modern society. Give us a brief history of its transformation, and convince us that your term is better and more accurate.

Apart from the occasional cool stuffed animal, carnival prizes were garbage. What ten year old needs a mirror with "Smoke Marlboro Reds" or "Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy" frosted on it?

​Write about a gift you received that you had no use for. What did you end up doing with it?

Ghost line! 

Here's the first line of a poem. Use it as inspiration and then delete it, and see what you're left with:


"I wanted to look good enough to pass as influential." -- Leigh Stein, "Halo Lighting For Amateurs"

Comrade's mom got us each calendars for Christmas (among other things, this wasn't the primary gift). The art on each calendar was great, but neither of need calendars anymore. That's what computers and phones are for, right?

​I'm trying to come up with ways to use the calendar so that it's a functional part of my life. So far, I'm using it as To Done list. A record of what goals I've reached each day.

What device that's been technically rendered obsolete by technology have you used in an unintuitive way?

Comrade and I were sold on the house we've been renting by several different things. Among them, there is a diner at the end of our street.

It's not a great diner. It had some wonderful middle aged servers with snappy personalities, but over the last couple of years they've been replaced by bored twenty-somethings. The food is...often somewhat resembling what you would expect when you order diner food. Sometimes, though, a milkshake arrives that doesn't have milk in it. Sometimes the vegetarian omelette has ham and bacon in it.

We don't go there as often as we used to. But we do still go there sometimes.

Write an ode to a place that doesn't live up to your expectations but you keep returning to, perhaps out of habit.

Bonus points if that place isn't your job.

I've been reading through Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel related graphic novels for the last few weeks. A couple of them have filled me with joy and nostalgia for the television series but most of them are awful.

What thing that brought you joy has some offshoot or related media/hobby/culture that just doesn't do it for you? Why? How could it be made better?

A doctor or therapist might ask you if you are "under a lot of stress", as if many of us might live some life of leisure wherein we can be relaxed at all times. I wonder if these doctors or therapists even live in the same world as the rest of us.

What invisible stressor do you have that you don't often speak of? Write about it as though it was something you love experiencing. Invite others to join you in your stressful situation. Please don't start a cult centered around it, though. Just, you know, Tom Sawyer a fence painting.

I found out recently that, being a redhead, I have a genetic resilience to Novacain. It barely works on me. This is a shitty thing to find out in the midst of getting dental work done.

My dentist didn't know this, either. But my friends who worked in hospitals knew. And my friends who also have red hair already knew. 

That night, I was watching a comedy show, and the redheaded comedian introduced himself by announcing that Novacain doesn't work on redheads. 

How had I never heard of this until now?

Tell us about something you learned at an inopportune time. Something that seemed to be common knowledge amongst a section of your peers.
​

Write about a god or personification (such as Death or Angst) fixing a simple mechanical device.

In a discussion about queer poetry, a friend mentioned that they were highly affected by a poem about the 20th Century AIDS crisis, an event that had happened in their youth/formative years but that they had never engaged with nor known the scope of. For me, the story had been everywhere. Statistics are still chilling but not at all a surprise. I remember the history because I was reading about it while I was growing up.

This friend is not oblivious, nor are they homophobic or one of those awful people who just don't pay attention to a news story if it doesn't directly affect them. It's just that what they were watching/reading/listening to didn't spend much time going in-depth on this massive forty plus year news story.

What world shattering event in your lifetime somehow didn't gain your attention while it was front page news but you now know of and wish to learn about?

Have you ever been literally siren called into a bar or club. As in, you had no intention of going into that particular venue, or maybe any venue, but you heard a band or song that was so appealing that you have to go in and find out more.

What was that music? What was the venue like? Did it live up to your expectations? Did you/do you still follow the band that drew you in?

You can totally own and wear boat shoes without ever stepping foot on a boat or near the ocean. You can wear a life preserver in a desert. You can wear sunglasses at night so you can, so you can see.

What item do you use, or piece of clothing do you wear, despite not needing it for its intended purpose?

One of the big cliches about Death in literature is that you can battle him in chess for a chance to live longer or save someone else's life or some other Big Stakes Ask. 

I posit that there should be an alternative. What game would you like to play against Death? Operation? Settlers of Catan? Freeze Tag? Present an idea that's offbeat but that you can totally explain so that people will nod their heads and say "Ah, yes. that makes much more sense than chess."

The prompt I posted yesterday advised you to create your own conspiracy theory, preferably something silly and unbelievable.

Well, now that it's out in the world, please, debunk it in another poem.

Conspiracy theories are b-b-bonkers sometimes. I'm not going to mention any here because I don't want to be involved in the spreading of propaganda, even if I'm obviously disavowing it. 

​For this prompt, create your own completely inane conspiracy theory. Something that couldn't possibly be true even a little bit. Please make it more fun than creepy, unless the creepiness you're going for is more horror movie than political dystopia.