Prompts

Here’s an idea —write it backwards.
Remove every consonant
that sounds sus. I mean sibilant.
Shuffle your universe deck. Remember
your childhood toy, your childhood haunt,
your childhood hopes, your long, long,
childhood. Fuck childhood. You are free now.
Time is a concept.
Don’t forget—
weight loss is not linear.
I mean time is not linear.
Take a poem— write its mirror.
Write between its lines. Try this form:
I’ve made it more associative and with extra
complication. Cut words into small squares
stir them in a water glass,
(warm water), add a tab of Alka-Seltzer—
call it performance art.
Publish that.
Write your anxiety dream bits down —prove
yours is a special language, frightening
and sharp. Leave it all to compost in a dark
place for many rhymes. Walk away.
Keep your eye on the moon.

Suzanne Frischkorn is the author of eight poetry collections including Fixed Star forthcoming from JackLeg Press. Her honors include the Aldrich Poetry Award for her chapbook Spring Tide, selected by Mary Oliver, an Emerging Writers Fellowship from the Writer’s Center for her book Lit Windowpane, and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. She is an Editor for $ – Poetry is Currency and serves on the Terrain.org Editorial Board.

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