Poem Starters and Creative Writing Ideas

Here are lots of poem starters that you can use for your own poetry writing. (If you're looking for story starters instead, click here). At the bottom of the page, you'll find links to more pages with creative writing ideas.

Poetry ideas - Write a poem about:

1. Night-time
2. A particular color
3. Being underwater
4. A person whose life you're curious about
5. Your mother's perfume
6. Falling asleep or waking up
7. Growing older
8. The feeling of getting lost in a book
9. How to know if you're in love
10. A bad dream
11. A ghost
12. Your city, town, or neighborhood
13. An important life choice you've made
14. Spring, summer, fall, or winter
15. Something most people see as ugly but which you see as beautiful
16. Jealousy
17. Becoming a parent
18. An event that changed you
19. A place you visited -- how you imagined it beforehand, and what it was actually like
20. The ocean
21. Forgetting
22. The speed of light
23. A voodoo doll
24. Reflections on a window
25. A newspaper headline
26. Your greatest fear
27. Your grandmother's hands
28. A particular toy you had as a child
29. Being invisible
30. A time you felt homesick
31. Having an affair, or discovering your partner is having one
32. Birthdays
33. A favorite food and a specific memory of eating it
34. An imaginary city
35. Driving with the radio on
36. Life in an aquarium
37. Dancing
38. Walking with your eyes closed
39. What a computer might daydream about
40. Time travel
41. Brothers or sisters
42. Your job, or a job you've had
43. Weddings
44. Leaving home
45. Camping
46. A zoo
47. A historical event from the perspective of someone who saw it firsthand (You will have to do some research for this).
48. Holding your breath
49. Intimacy and privacy
50. A time you were tempted to do something you feel is wrong
51. Physical attraction to someone
52. A superstition you have
53. Someone you admire

Learn techniques for writing successful poems in our online course.

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Poem starters- the five senses

54. Write about the taste of: an egg, an orange, medicine, cinnamon
55. Write about the smell of: burning food, melting snow, the ocean, your grandparents' home, the inside of a bus, pavement after the rain
56. Write about the sound of: a radio changing channels, a dog howling, a football or baseball game, your parents talking in another room
57. Write about the sight of: lit windows in a house when you're standing outside at night, someone you love when he or she doesn't know you're watching, a dying plant, shadows on snow
58. Write about the feeling of: grass under bare feet, a really bad kiss, the headrush when you stand up too fast, sore muscles, falling asleep in the back seat of a moving car.

Poem starters- three elements

Write a poem that contains all three of the elements in any of the lists below:

59. a dessert, a memory, and someone in your family
60. dancing, a pitch-black room, and the smell of lilacs
61. a balloon, smoke, and a keyhole
62. a secret box, an ice cube tray, and a velvet ribbon
63. a betrayal, soap, and a plane ticket

Poem starters - keep writing

Where would you like to go now? Choose a link below:

• Click here for even more poetry ideas.
• Click here for a list of CWN pages with poetry prompts.
• Click here to sign up for our online course, Essentials of Poetry Writing.
• Click here for advice on how to write poetry.
• Click here for story starters and fiction writing ideas.

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