122 Poetry Prompts to Get Your Creativity Flowing

Every time I’m scouring the internet looking for poetry prompts, I run into the same problem. Poetry prompts on Google are either basic or cliche, and neither get me really thinking. This year, I did quarterly poetry prompts for my Instagram, and this helped to spark my creativity, and lend my creative voice to others so they could also take a stab at writing something new.

Below is a list of all the original prompts I came up with through the year!

1. bitter fruit and sweet lies

2. write about not knowing where to start

3. i burned my tongue on sunrise

4. my resolution is _

5. i am a retired musician

6. silent drives home

7. i swear on turned soil and stubborn roots

8. i didn’t learn a damn thing

9. loneliness smells like _

10. who’s next?

11. missing you is chronic

12. poetry’s afterglow

13. in the grand scheme of things

14. write about the sun and ‘green flash’

15. places in between spaces

16. i wipe the blood from my busted lip 

17. breathing in the thoughts of a thousand poets

18. to those that don’t love me anymore

19. and for my final act

20. letting love lead the way

21. don’t you dare

22. taking bullets  

23. was it ever supposed to be real?

24. coming home from the snow

25. write a list poem of everything fear holds hostage

26. given the circumstances, i’ve decided to love you again

27. i’ve got secrets called blood cells

28. i kept holding onto _ , this is where it got me 

29. you were a performer

30. fuck it

31. i gave my hair to the birds to make a nest 

32. i am just another bad habit 

33. i put myself back together [but a screw is loose]

34. i think I’m starting to have my doubts

35. falling in lust

36. let me give you the grand tour

37. i think i’ve been dead for a long time

38. if you are a library, i am a _

39. write about your favorite flower

40. this is how i begin again

41. i sweat poetry and cry forgiveness

42. how young must i be?

43. burning my fingers on an all nighter

44. i’ve been hunting monsters that wear my face

45. they don’t make them like the romance novels

46. how many thoughts must i suffer from?

47. write about advice you would give to the heartbroken

48. write about stereotypes people associate you with

49. there are two kinds of people 

50. the trees are choosing to bloom and so am i

51. what do you breathe when the air is too thin?

52. another year, another obligatory birthday poem

53. crawling meant something once, too

54. i can’t sleep [because you’re not here]

55. write about eye contact

56. i’m not afraid of getting old anymore

57. grabbing fistfuls of flesh

58. meet me under the lonely glow

59. harnessing all this divine energy 

60. baring my bloodied teeth

61. i’m having some big feelings

62. my thoughts are too big and my brain is too small

63. i keep falling in love with things that hate me

64. fist fighting my consciousness

65. stones dropping into a pool of _

66. i burn my feet against the sand

67. fizzing up my throat

68. peeled my skin back, and look what i found

69. driving past the warning signs

70. write about a decision that changed you

71. what makes you think you can help me? 

72. head back, eyes a pool of want

73. prison isn’t that different from depression 

74. in an almost perfect world

75. write about a moment of weakness 

76. promise me you’ll do better

77. is it too late to give these thoughts back?

78. i left my body on a beach  

79. i chased a dream and caught a nightmare

80. fear has nothing on my thoughts 

81. love, death, and other things

82. hand feeding these snapping teeth

83. this is a proposal

84. your dialogue could resurrect demons

85. if this is the afterlife, then i am [staying/leaving]

86. write about all the times you’ve been sweaty

87. write about what it would take for you to heal

88. from now on, i’m making deals with angels

89. i may be going mad [and i think i’ll take you with me]

90. just because we’re naked 

91. to a summer that always leaves 

92. i put my hand on a cutting board and raise the knife

93. melancholy is my new middle name

94. i stare at myself a little too long in the mirror

95. like raindrops against feverish skin

96. i don’t run from monsters, i _ them  

97. write about a moment of chaos 

98. maybe i will taste you too

99. love, you thought you could hurt me

100. breaking each piece of you off

101. i’ve pricked my finger one too many times

102. write a poem without punctuation or pause

103. i’m glad you called

104. in between this depression

105. write about sex, without using the word sex

106. tremulous hands and whispers

107. give me or give me

108. write about something you’re grieving

109. i tug and you release

110. maybe next year i will abstain from misery 

111. she rips the skin off her nails and chews

112. i’ve killed one too many butterflies

113. the chill whispers my name, frozen

114. falling in love with strangers

115. my chances wane as the moon does

116. bite my tongue till you taste blood

117. i was never the best at _

118. write about the monotony of a lazy day

119. catching snow against my tastebuds

120. in between bouts of intimacy

121. they called me a villain, i called them close-minded

122. i await you on the edges of eternity