POETRY WRITING PROMPT #24 of 30

I think the mark of a good love poem is how many readers/listeners read/hear it and wish the poem was written about them. And when McPherson said the line in his poem at Urbana Poetry Slam the other night - “You are shaped like an hourglass filled with tiny Beyoncés” - I think everyone wished that was written for them. Even the dudes.

What I love so much about that line (besides the visceral image that my brain immediately saw) is that “you are shaped like an hourglass” is such a cliche love poem line, which McPherson turned on its head with such a new, fresh idea.

Often when I hear love poems with those cliche hallmark words - I cringe. “Your eyes are two oceans” or “Your freckles are constellations” or “I see you tattooed on the back of my eyelids.” EW. EW. EW. 

I read that the songwriter for Beyonce’s “Rocket” was challenged by Beyonce herself to write a song about what he wished she would say to him. To quote, “What’s the first thing I’d want Beyoncé to say to me, as a man? What have I not heard her say?…That’s where the song came from. And essentially it’s what all of us would want Beyoncé to say to us—no disrespect, obviously, to Jay.”

So today, I want you to write a love poem. And make it a love poem you wish someone would write to you. And if you feel a cliche coming on, like “your freckles are constellations” flip it on its head. Say “your freckles are constellations that spell out ‘BAD BITCH.’

Go shine on, you Beyonce-Filled hourglass, you.