d. ellis phelps's Blog, page 3

Writer’s Idea Box: sample prompt

Photo by Nyusha Svoboda on Unsplash

Here is a syllabus from my Writer’s Idea Box series: show me how with the resultant poem I wrote to the prompt: “how to explain yourself.”

This syllabus has enough fodder for one so inclined to write an entire collection of poems around. Try it!

writer’s idea box how to poems sample promptDownload

I post such a syllabus monthly for subscribers to Writer’s Idea Box ($10 annually). Your subscription makes you eligible to submit to the fws: writer’s idea box, too. Join us!

If you find this prompt inspiring, please share the poem or prose piece you write to it on your blog and tag this post when you write. Enjoy!

how to explain yourself

~d. ellis phelps

when invited somewhere
—a birthday party
—a camping trip
somewhere she didn’t want to go
somewhere she couldn’t go

my friend would say simply:
i won’t be there

she would smile
take in a breath of zen
say this matter-of-factually
just like that

she didn’t bother with excuses like:

i have to care for my neighbor’s chinchilla that day
or
i’ll be testing the bungy jump on the lake that day

we never knew whether she was washing her hair
or visiting an elder auntie

~

once i asked her about this evasive habit
i think it’s evasive don’t you
i feel obliged to make an excuse

i was taught to say:

i simply must glean the garden that day
otherwise the melons will swallow
the garlic whole and i’ll have none
for my italian dinner on sunday
and italian food without garlic
won’t do

or

i have just this minute realized
that i promised to play a round
of bridge at the lady’s club
that afternoon and i am certain
i will be entirely too weary
for dinner out afterward

say

the tomatoes need blancing
the exterminator will be slaughtering bugs
i’ll be watching my homemade bread rise

make an excuse
outright lie
spare their feelings
save face

my friend smiled
took in a breath of zen

you don’t
have to
explain


there.
just like that.
she changed me

Writer’s Idea Box: write about place

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Poem on the spot!

What are you doing right this minute?

Can you write a jaunty little rhyme about it right now?

Here’s one I wrote last night in response to a text from a friend who was relaxing by the lake.

sitting in the kitchen
warming up a bag
aching back and bones
graceful aging hag
rowdy friends sit by the lake
no more late night howls
but sagging boobs and creaky knees and overhanging jowls

Now you try! Post it on your blog with “Poem on the spot” in the title and tag me (if you know how to do that). I’d love to see what fun this can be!

Namaste,

d

Writer’s Idea Box: silence & sound

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Writer’s Idea Box: the blessing

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Writer’s Idea Box: list poems

Photo by Cathryn Lavery on Unsplash

Even if you’ve written many list poems, you’ll be surprised at how easily another one comes and how much better you get at expanding the list poem as you practice writing.

Follow the link below to get to the writing exercise. If you like what you see and enjoy working with this kind of prompt, consider joining us as a Writer’s Idea Box subscriber! ($10 annually) Read more about that here.

I can’t wait to read what you’ve written! Enjoy.

Writer’s Idea box list poems for 5 2025Download

Writer’s Idea Box: Togetherness

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Writer’s Idea Box: sample prompt

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on UnsplashMemoir Writing

I am currently facilitating a six-month long series of memoir writing workshops at a local senior activity center. The first one was last Friday. I’ve included the whole workshop syllabus here for you so you can get a feeling for what I mean by “writing prompt.”

I use the same format for each workshop: writing warm-up, sharing, exploring writing samples of the genre we are writing, writing exercises, and more sharing with what I like to call “soft feedback.”

I am posting this syllabus here at no charge so that you can see what you’ll get before you join the new and evolving Writer’s Idea Box community, which I hope you do! There is an annual ($10) fee to subscribe. You’ll get a new syllabus like this one every month plus the opportunity to submit to the fws: writer’s idea box issue (No one has submitted to the issue yet! Be the first!) of fws: international journal of literature & art. There are already three syllabi in the idea box now.

Here’s the syllabus modeled after a poem and a project by George Ella Lyon, Kentucky Poet Laureate 2015-26 entitled “Where I’m From.”

Memoir Writing Where I’m From for Writer’s Idea BoxDownload

I look forward to reading what you write and to having you join the Writer’s Idea Box community! Leave a comment below and let me know what you think…

Namaste,

d

If you’re not watching news…watch now!

Cory Booker (D), US Senator from New Jersey held the Senate for the last 25 hours, making the longest speech in history, urging us, the people, to take unprecedented action to put a stop to #47 and his rich friends egregious missteps.

Further, Susan Crawford (Liberal) just won the open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court despite Musks attempts to bribe voters. Not okay Mr. Musk!

I am posting, donating, writing letters, and arguing with conservative voters.

What will you do?

Here is one option:

https://secure.actblue.com/donate/rrr-booker?refcodeSB=b-178029-HQWDxS&refcode=250402_Booker_R7

And, if you want to copy and paste my letter to my senator, you may. Here it is:

Are you listening?

Corey Booker has spoken for millions of Americans who are frustrated and frightened. The egregious missteps and abuses of power being wielded against the American people must be checked.

As a poet, employed by libraries, I am appalled at the cuts in grants and funding to libraries but moreover, I am incensed at the terrible abduction of individuals like Mahmoud Kahlil who are being abducted, arrested, imprisoned and deported without due process. And there is more.

Elections should not be bought. Attempts by Musk to bribe voters in Wisconsin and other such attempts to buy elections, like the 2.5 million he donated to the recent presidential campaign should be outlawed immediately.

Please intervene.

Respectfully,

Please. Do something. Resist! Reclaim. Rebuild.

Namaste,

d

d’Verse Open Link Night #381: ekphrastic poem

Self Portrait (7), Amrita Sher-Gil, 1930, From the collection of: 
National Gallery of Modern, New Delhilean in

-d.ellis phelps

i’ll whisper some
sweet secret

-each one a lie a promise
& jangle the bracelets i wear

in your burning ears
nibble there too

my long black hair
-velvet veil

falling over my shoulders
-your breasts as we kiss

~

you say i am wrong
to love a woman

tell me
indolent neophyte

how can you suck
such sour juice

from this sweet fruit

Thanks to dVerse for providing this ekphrastic prompt.