The Poem as Word Salad: A Poetry Prompt
by Sarah Freligh
In an effort to incorporate more good stuff into my diet, I’ve been on a mission to find the perfect salad, one that is not a prelude to the meal but the meal itself and one that is so satisfyingly filling that I won’t need to hit the peanut butter jar to stave off the pre-bedtime munchies.
The answer every time is balance: carbs (veggies, fruit, starch and whole grains) + protein + healthy fat and voila! Delicious and not hungry. Also, layering the ingredients. This takes practice.
What works for salads also works in a poem: a balance of ingredients and practice. Have at it.
The Ingredients:
1. No more than twenty lines.
2. Use at least five of the following words in your poem:
roof
violet
bicycle
cradle
sip
ruin
bruise
repeat
leap
sorrow
3. Use at least three words that “balance” your list words, i.e., sorrow/glee, cradle/grave, sip/gulp. (Note that "balance" is however you interpret it).
4. Noun a verb and verb a noun (i.e., Anthimeria, a rhetorical device that uses a word in a new grammatical shape: The woman turtled along the road. )
5. Have fun.
6. Did I say twenty lines? Twenty lines, no more.
