8 Poetry Writing Activities That Actually Work

- A chapter from How To Write Evocative Poetry -

What follows are some activities to help you begin or enhance your writing process. I suggest that you don’t just read what follows, but actually give the activities a try. I have put these here for a reason – they work. They won’t all work for you, but some certainly will. It would be a shame for you to miss out on adding a vital tool to your writing arsenal. I state this here because I know how easy it is to read ideas from a book, to promise yourself that you will do it, and then promptly forget. So, try these activities, your writing will thank you - but be smart, if you are doing one of these activities and discover that an evocative poem of your own is desperate to be written, stop the activity and write that poem. Remember, we are trying to both inspire creativity in the moment, but also give you the tools to combat writer’s block and inspire new and alternative methods of expression.

1: Sit In Silence

Technology has granted us the ability to have endless distraction. Videos, podcasts, social media, books, messages, memes, and more. It is possible to literally spend every waking moment with some kind of input coming in. This isn’t natural and isn’t conducive to creativity. I’ve spoken to thousands of people on this topic, with most saying they are afraid of silence. They struggle to believe that they could sit alone with their thoughts for longer than a minute. Some doubt they’d last even that long. Whilst I have said elsewhere that it is important to get inspiration from multiple sources, it is important to allow said inspiration to work its magic and have some space to inspire you.

That space is silence.

Whilst it is possible to create while simultaneously consuming media, it isn’t easy. Ideas are like delicate seedlings attempting to burst through the dirt and establish themselves. They are small, they are quiet, they are easily destroyed. But, if you give them the gift of silence, they can thrive.

Activity – 20 Minutes Of Silence

Get a timer and something to write on. If you choose something digital, make sure to set it to do not disturb, and have the writing application open and ready. Set a timer for 20 minutes and wait. Let your thoughts flow. Let yourself become lost in them. Do not force yourself down any one path, rather imagine the thoughts that come as cars on a road. You are simply observing them pass. When a strong idea comes, one that seems like it simply must be written down, do so. Feel free to continue writing on this idea beyond the 20 minutes if needed. If however, you start writing and the idea falls away, don’t force it, instead let it go and return to observing the thoughts for the remainder of the time.

2: Limit Yourself:

 A blank page is intimidating. It could be filled with anything, but right now, it is filled with nothing. Ahhhhhhhh! Not only do you have to write something on that page, but you also must choose what will be written, and then you must make it ‘good’ – whatever that means.

For better or worse, you are free. Sometimes it can be hard to know what to do, as the page can literally have anything on it. Thus, you restrict your options to increase creativity. This sounds counter-intuitive, surely having more choices would allow for more creativity, right? Sometimes, but often not. If you limit your options, you may find that those limitations enhance your creativity. You now need to create something glorious, within the bounds of certain barriers. These barriers could be imposed by you, made up in the moment, and be as loose or as tight as you like. Or they could be the restrictions imposed by following a traditional structure. You will notice in previous sections I talk about different structures, both formal and my own, that I chose to write under. This is no accident. Sometimes I chose to write a piece with a particular restriction in place, other times the piece was coming and with it, the certain restrictions that I wanted it to fit.

Here are a few potential restrictions to consider and try:

‘ABAB’

The ending word of the second and fourth sentences rhyme, this could be implemented for one or more stanzas (paragraphs) or extended into an ‘English Sonnet’ with the ABAB CDCD EFEF GG structure.

Example of ABAB:

Excessive Thinking

I replaced drinking
With excessive thinking

The hangover is worse
Thoughts form a curse

No longer dumb
No longer numb

Swallow burn shame
Write ink pain

Bottles emptied of sin
Notepads fill the bin

Addicted to stress
Addicted nonetheless

The bar is locked
My writing is blocked

My 12 step process
Is journaling this nonsense 

Just these few lines
Stress and whiskey rhymes’

Should I have another?
Write on my brother!

‘Mono-Rhyme’

The ending word of each sentence has the same rhyme sound, and/or the same rhyming sound is used throughout the entirety of the poem. This can be hypnotic to hear and impactful to analyse – particularly given the potential need for obscure words to be used to maintain both the rhyme and ‘story’ of the poem.

Example:

Spilled Ink

Spilled ink
Words to make you think
Words to drink
Words to talk you back from the brink
Words written to your shrink
It’s okay
I too am out of sync
Struggling with the link
Between my kink
And those who chose to hoodwink
Clearly I need to rethink
Cause life is over in a blink
And I’ve got no more time for their stink 

‘Haiku’

The haiku structure: 5, 7, 5 syllables, is a great way to practice brevity and word choice. Traditionally Haiku are written about nature, but you can use the structure to talk on anything.

Example:

Trapped

I find myself trapped
By the very rituals
I made to survive

 ‘Alliteration’

Alliteration when you use the same starting letter of two or more words in a sentence. Either changing the letter choice each sentence/stanza or keeping that same letter for the entire poem.

Examples:

Defecation As Distraction

From the seclusion of our toilets
We like the curated lies of another’s life

As our bowels open up
Shit flows from our fingertips

As we wipe
We swipe right

As we flush
We consume content

As we wash
We scroll

Urination as unity
Defecation as distraction
Expulsion as expression

Stupefied

I sit
Stupefied
Seeking solace
From shame

The silence
Is no longer safe
Secrets seep
From the shadow

Slowly I find myself
Surrounded
My sanity siphoned
Into stillness

Activity – Limit Yourself, Part 1

Pick one of the following topics to write upon: grief, betrayal, lust, dread, love, peace. Then attempt to write a poem on that topic using each of the four restrictions discussed above: ABAB, mono-rhyme, haiku, and alliteration. For the mono-rhyme, use the ending sound of the topic word to base the rest of the poem off, eg: ‘love’ – ‘dove’ – ‘glove’. For the alliteration restriction, use the first letter of topic word to base the rest of the poem off, eg: ‘love’ – ‘lemon’ – ‘lake’. These poems do not have to be ‘good’. This activity is designed to show you that perhaps restrictions can inspire creativity and help you to fill the blank page.

There are plenty more traditional styles of poetry for you to explore, as well as many other ways you could think to limit yourself. If you take another look at the poems I have shared throughout this book, you will notice that some of them follow their own internally consistent rules. Maybe I wanted to use the same phrase repeatedly, perhaps I wanted the tenses to change, maybe I wanted certain symbols to be featured, or perhaps I wanted the poem to ‘look’ a certain way on the page. The point is, you may discover that by imposing rules upon yourself aka, making it ‘harder’ to write the poem, you are boosting your creativity and thus the impact of the poem.

Activity – Limit Yourself, Part 2

Take the same topic you chose for part 1 and write a new poem. But before (or as) you do, impose your own unique rule upon the poem, eg: restricting the syllables used in each line, ending each line with the topic word, doing a reverse mono-rhyme where each lines starting word rhymes, making the poem make sense when written forwards and backwards. This rule can be anything, so get creative and make it a challenge.

Sometimes it is important to break the rules. I find that it can help to write a poem under certain structures or self-imposed rules, but as I am finishing the poem, find it useful to break those rules to add some extra impact to the piece. If the reader is expecting a certain thing, then breaking those expectations can be evocative. That said, it also can cause the piece to suffer, so be careful!

3: Don’t (Always) Limit Yourself

Some poetry will be best written ‘free form’. That is, no structure, no rhyme, no rules. Just words on a page. Sometimes these poems work best when left alone, presented as they come. Others may need some tweaking or tightening up. Others still would benefit from the application of some of the technical advice contained within this book – retroactively altering the structure and contents to make it ‘pop’.  Knowing what to do and when is the artform. A skill that you will be able to hone with practice and experimentation.

Empty doesn’t follow any of the rules I have discussed, other than line breaks, brevity, and consistent theme.  I used my intuition and experience to choose the words and the line breaks, and I slept on it to revise. Many of the other poems in this book started in a similar fashion, but I felt they needed to ‘tie the loop’ or would benefit from the introduction of ‘the rule of 3’, or that alliteration felt like it needed to be added. Once again, practice will hone your intuition on when and what changes to make.

empty

sitting
in the sun
in an empty field
my head
too heavy to hold
i numbly
weep
for the life
i was too afraid
to live

I take a lack of limits even further in a sentence without grammar completely discarding grammar, capitalisations, and even a resolution to the poem – all of which is done to enhance the meaning that is at the core the piece.

a sentence without grammar

i feel like a sentence
without grammar

perfectly legible
yet nonetheless
fundamentally lacking
something
everyone else seems
to have

i feel like a poem
that lacks a rhyme

capable
of functioning
to a high degree
yet nevertheless
unappealing
to the masses

i feel like a story
that was left unfinished

interesting
but ultimately
…

Activity – No Limits

Find a place of solitude and spend some time settling into the space. Take some slow calming breaths, get comfortable, and get yourself prepared to write. Then simply sit and listen to the sounds that arise. You are not aiming to rush or force anything. But when you feel the urge, write. Do not worry about the final product; it doesn’t matter how it sounds, if it is good, or even if it makes sense. Just get the words onto the page. Then, once you have written, look over your words, asking yourself if there is a potential poem in there.

• Can you tweak the writing as is with line breaks and other poetic tools to form a poem?

• Are there any themes, imagery, or symbolism you want to explore?

• Has something related (or not related) arrived that simply needs to be written?

If you answer yes to any of those questions, write!

4: Write Like X

Analysing another’s work and attempting to replicate it can provide useful insights and skills. I am not saying that you should imitate another’s style and make it your own, as doing so would likely result in a stale, uninspired, or clichéd piece of art. What I am saying is that there are significant lessons to be learnt from studying how other people write. If you are moved by their work, it would be wise to work out why. Rather than just reading the work, study it. Perhaps you will notice certain phrases, stylistic choices, beats, grammatical quirks, and other subtleties. Maybe you will then see opportunities to implement a version of this into your work. Remember, it may have already been said or done, but not by you. Do not stress if initially your writing seems to be a poor imitation of someone else. Just keep writing and expand your study to other poets and forms of inspiration. Eventually you will naturally integrate certain aspects of others work whilst simultaneously creating poetry that is uniquely your own.

Activity – Rewrite A Poem

Take any poem that you enjoy and rewrite it word for word.

Literally copy it down onto the page as it was originally presented. This will give you a real feel for how the poet crafted their work. You are literally writing what they wrote and by doing so, you are forced to pay far more attention to the word choice, structure, grammar etc than you would had you merely read it. This hyper focus will help you to integrate their style into your own, and thus inspire your future work.

Activity – Reform A Poem

Take the poem you chose above and reform it.

Reread each line and change some of the words, tweak its structure, play with its grammar. Your goal is to reform it so that what you create is like the original poem, but from another dimension. Similar meaning, similar style, similar words, just slightly altered.  Be as subtle or as bold as you like. This will show you how small choices can impact the totality of the poem. It will reveal that the original poets’ choices are just one of many possibilities of how the poem could have been written. It will show you that perhaps your unique creativity has value – even when playing within such a limited scope.

Activity – Respond To A Poem

Once again, take that same poem and this time respond to it.

Using the same structure and rules of the poem (if it has them) write your own poem about, or in response to, the original. You can retell the poem in your own words, express how you felt whilst reading, or use symbolism and memories from your own experiences to project the same emotionality and sentiment of the original. Once again, we are not aiming for a masterpiece here, just wanting to use another’s work as a starting point/catalyst for your own creativity. 

5: Rhyme Time

At the time of writing my eldest son is six years old. To keep him entertained during long car rides we play ‘Rhyme Time’. The rules are simple, I say a word, and he responds with a word that rhymes with it, then I give another, and he gives another. We continue until no more rhymes are given. He then chooses a new word, and the game begins again.

Eg: red, bed, head, shed etc

When this got too easy, the game evolved into ‘Rhyme Time Story Mode’ where instead of just saying rhyming words, they must be put into a sentence.

Eg: I bumped my head getting out of my red bed in the rush to get to my shed.

My hope is that I will be able to evolve this game further to include alliteration, emotionality, and eventually on the spot ABAB poem creations.

Eg:
I cannot complain
For I still have my head
Despite what was forgotten
Upon rising from my bed

Activity – Rhyme Time

For each of the following words, note down some rhymes. Put two or more into a simple sentence. Then into an ABAB structured poem.

1: ‘Creation’
2: ‘Show’
3: ‘Good’

You can do this game any time you like, with a partner or on your own. Just look around the room, consider your thoughts, or respond to a choice word you have read. This activity will get you flexing your rhyme muscles. The more repetitions, the stronger you will become.

6: Word Association

Another great way to warm up the creative parts of your mind is to play with word associations – basically this involves exploring the first thoughts that pop into your mind, in response to a prompt.

Activity – Word Association

Below, you will find a list of words. I want you to read each one in turn, and instantly respond to them. Say or write down the first thing that comes to mind. Some words will be positive, some neutral, and some potentially negative. The idea is that we are just learning how to quickly respond to certain concepts and words, and in doing so getting out of our own way/turning off the internal editor. Remember, there are no wrong answers. All you need to do is respond with the first thing that arises.

1: Strength

2: Fun

3: Love

4: Family

5: Hate

6: The past

7: Success

8: Pain

9: Relaxation

10: Life

11: Pleasure

12: The future

13: Home

14: Parents

15: Trust

16: Fear

17: Joy

18: Forgiveness

19: Acceptance

20: Trauma

21: Childhood

22: Food

23: Happiness

24: Tree

25: The moon

7: Prime The Pump

A part of creativity involves ‘priming the pump’. Have you ever seen a hose or pump being used for the first time in a while? It needs to be primed - used a bit before the water flows cleanly. At first the debris comes shooting out, quickly followed by the brown disgusting water. But eventually, the flow runs pure, and the water is drinkable. The writing analogy suggests that we need to ‘prime the pump’ of our writing wells – basically spending some time at the start of each writing session just writing whatever crap we need to allow the good stuff to flow through us and onto the page.

Hidden at the back of a drawer, beside my writing desk, is a pile of 10 or more discarded notepads. Each one is full of ramblings, journal entries, nonsensical/half formed thoughts and poems that went nowhere. Apparently I needed to write all of that before I could write anything I felt comfortable enough to commit to finishing, let alone sharing. The scary thing for me is looking at all of that ‘wasted’ writing, knowing that I could have easily quit because I wasn’t doing anything of ‘worth’. True, the contents themselves aren’t worth anyone reading, but the act of writing them was vital for me to be writing these words now. The same is true for my poetry. Often it will take a few false starts and a lot of extra words before the ‘true poem’ reveals itself or allows itself to be written. If I was to force the work, or stop before the pump was fully primed, the poems would never have come!

Activity – Prime The Pump

Set a timer for 5 minutes and start writing.

Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, editing, audience, or anything. Just write. Your goal is to get words onto the page – without judgement or filter. If you need help starting, write the following line and continue from there,

‘I am doing the ‘prime the pump’ activity as a way to start the words flowing onto the page, I have chosen to start like this because I didn’t know how else to start this process, but now as I write these words, I am noticing some emotions, thoughts, feelings, images and memories arising, I will write these down now…’

As always, if this activity causes a piece of poetry or other writing to come, keep going beyond the 5 minutes, but whatever you do, don’t stop early!

Activity – Journaling As Writing Therapy

Journaling could be done as a single session, each day, as an additional way to ‘prime the pump’. I have found benefits of journaling as a part of my morning or night-time routine, or prior to a writing session. I spend 5 or so minutes writing about my life, how I am feeling in that moment, or discussing the impact of significant events, and from there springing into whatever creative piece I want to focus on. Alternatively, when under mental duress, I just free write and express all that is on my mind onto the page. Often, this results in a poem or two – and many of the poems shared here and published elsewhere have come from a journaling session.

Consider adding 5 minutes of journaling to your day, and the next time you are overwhelmed, write. Write until you are feeling better and then write some more. Then, that day or at some later stage, read over your words and see if a poem comes, either from the words you have written or inspired by them.

8: Playing With Perfection

In contrast to ‘priming the pump’ this time we are going to look at editing a piece of work to ‘make it perfect’. The goal being that we are going to take a poem and transform it into the best version of the poem that we can, through a process of editing, refinement, and rewriting. The goal isn’t only to make this one poem better, but rather play and practice manipulating our own work, and thus give us more tools and insights when we are writing future work.

Activity – Playing With Perfection

Take any poem you have written over the course of reading this book, or anything you have written in the past. Ideally something that is less than a page long.

During the rest of this activity, I want you to focus both on the technical changes to the poem, but also to the way those changes are making you feel. About the piece and also about yourself.

1: Read the poem out loud. Pause a little bit for a comma, a bit longer for a full stop, and longer still for a line break. Add the appropriate emphasis for any exclamation points or question marks. How does your poem sound to the ear? Are there any changes that need to be made? Save a copy of your unedited poem, and then make those changes.

2: Cut any superfluous words. Can you remove any words from a sentence and still retain the meaning? Consider all instances of ‘that’ often they can be removed. Consider any uses of ‘very’, can it and the proceeding word be changed to one stronger word that means the same thing? Make those changes and then repeat part 1 again.

3: Consider your grammar. Would the addition or removal of punctuation like commas, full stops, capital letters, exclamation marks, or questions marks, add to your piece? If so, make those changes and repeat part 1 again.

4: Look at the poem on the page. Is it appealing visually? Are there any tweaks you can make to the line breaks or formatting to make it look good? Make those changes and repeat part 1 again.

5: Compare the original version of the poem with the version you have just been working on. Do you like the changes? Does the poem evoke more emotion/imagery/feel better than the original? Have any core elements been removed that you feel need to be added back in? Make any changes you deem necessary, then repeat this entire process again if you like.

How did you feel during this editing process? Personally, I find that once I get over the shame and self-criticism, I can become ‘Editor Zac’ and view it from a detached perspective. It is almost as if I am no longer the person who wrote it, but just someone tasked with enhancing the piece to become the best it can be – regardless of who wrote it.

Over time, this exercise will make your writing objectively better. It will show you how and when to cut, and where you can make tweaks to be more evocative. But the greater benefit from this activity comes from the cut to your ego and the detachment from the end result. It will help you to detach yourself from the editing process when writing, and from the writing process when editing. Trust me when I say, that is true creative freedom.

That said, don’t forget the 80% adage from an earlier section - Write. Edit. Move on.

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Read next:
How Taking a Break Can Improve Your Poetry

The Importance of Feedback in the Writing Process

How to Choose a Powerful Poem Title

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This chapter is from the book How To Write Evocative Poetry