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