Post-Thanksgiving Poetry Prompts

So, we’ve feasted and relaxed for a whole day, time to get back to writing. Here are a few prompts for you, use them for poetry or any other writing medium you embrace.

1.  Barrels. Think about barrels. All sorts of cool things come in barrels, mostly alcoholic in nature, but not always. Whiskey, vinegar, Tabasco sauce, beer barrels, flour barrels, water barrels, oil barrels, a barrel of monkeys (anyone remember that game?). Think of the types of wood that a barrel could be made from and why. Staves and hoops, firkins, kilderkins, and hogsheads. Did you know a barrel of beer is 160 liters?  So what’s in YOUR barrel?

2.  What are you more afraid of – fire, water, or ice? Would you prefer to die in a fire, by drowning, or lost alone in the Arctic? Or maybe on a boat in the Antarctic that’s on fire and ready to drop you into the ocean? All kinds of Movie of the Week possibilities.

3.  What’s under your skin? Blood, muscle, and tissue? Something more sinister? Tiny nanobots? Is skin just a wrapper or something more? Maybe something (or someone) gets under your skin. What would that look like? How would it feel? Would you want anyone to know? Are things truly only skin deep?

4.  If you could go back in time to high school, say, and do it all over again, would you prefer to go back with all your present memories intact or just start anew? What problems would your present memories bring to your 17-year-old self? If you started new, would you trust yourself to make the right decisions this time around?

5.  Aliens are coming to take you away. They say you can only bring one plant with you and you are forced to choose between a coffee plant and a cacao plant. Which would you choose and why? (The aliens don’t bargain, so don’t even try and take a banana plant instead.)

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