flourish in imperish
—Anna Maria Hong, “Romanze,” Ecotone 28
About this guide
In April 2020, Ecotone’s editors invited poets with work in the Love Issue to try an experiment: choose another poem from the issue, and create a poetry-writing prompt inspired by it. The prompts were originally posted during National Poetry Month 2020, and will be collected here as they are published. The Love Issue, and three additional recent issues of the magazine, are free to read online through the end of May.
These invitations to write might be used as warm-ups at the beginning of a workshop, as take-home prompts, on a poetry picnic, or in collaborative work. However you use them, we hope they will engender many more love poems!
Prompts for poem making
Writing Away from Closure: On Chad Abushanab’s “Here on Earth,” by Jenna Le
Writing from Echoes: On Anna Maria Hong’s “Romanze,” by Lesley Wheeler
Queue Ball: On Simone Muench & Jackie K. White’s “Queue,” by Anna Maria Hong
“I Am Now in Love with ______”: On Kathleen Balma’s “Sonnet after Watching Blue Planet II,” by Simone Muench
Nonstandard Sonnets: On Jenna Le’s “Byerly’s — Fine Foods — 24 Hours,” by Maryann Corbett
“After _______”: On V. Penelope Pelizzon’s “Some Say,” by Geoffrey Brock
“Double Stitching”: On Lesley M. Wheeler’s “Doubled, Briefly”
