Welcome to my *fifth* annual installment of poetry prompts for NAPOWRIMO! You can find past editions here:
- prompts for NAPOWRIMO 2024
- prompts for NAPOWRIMO 2023
- prompts for NAPOWRIMO 2022
- prompts for NAPOWRIMO 2021
As you write to the poetry prompts for NaPoWriMo 2025 (or any of the writing prompts published here), please be mindful of these important rules:
- Follow these prompts *wherever* they take you. Don’t get hung up on the details.
- Never, never, never, never, never, never copy the sample poems. They’re for inspiration only! If you borrow style or quote excerpts in your drafts, please be sure to credit the original and the poet.
POETRY PROMPTS for NaPoWriMo 2025 (or any poem-a-day challenge)
1. Wide open
Let’s start the month by saying yes to all of it, by being open to all the things, even “the work and the woof of it,” like the speaker in Rachel Greenberg’s poem “Yes.” For today’s draft, write a poem using “yes” at the start of each line or thought. Of course, if you’re feeling contrary, you’re welcome to refuse all the things by starting your lines with “no.” / Additional reading: anaphora poem examples
2. Want something? Go get it
Kelly Cressio-Moeller opens “Portent with Moonset & Blackbirds” with these lines: “For a long time I wanted / to drink a cup of winter, / to become tipsy on early / dark & longer starshine.” And here’s how she ends it: “… the fullest moon // poured its cool, bewitching light into / the small bowls of my room & garden. / As it hung impossibly low over / the Pacific, I drank & drank.” Using Kelly’s poem as inspiration, write a poem starting with a wish then go on a journey that brings the speaker to a place they’re able to fulfill it.
3. Not everything has to be about you
Just kidding. For this prompt, it absolutely does have to be about you. Write a poem that reacts to a newspaper headline in a very self-centered way. Make it all about you, as Emma Murf does in “NPR reports mummified monkey remains found in luggage at Boston’s airport.”
4. Perfectly imperfect
Hey, nobody’s perfect, right? Let’s lean into the places we fall short. Take a look at “I Fail in Many Tenses” by Donna Vorreyer then make a list of your own failures and use them to launch your poem. While it doesn’t have to be part of the assignment, notice how Donna’s poem turns at the end. After several stanzas of lamenting her failures, the speaker implores God for more. I’m in love with that twist and how it builds on the poem’s earlier celebrations and proclamations. / Additional reading: “Red-Spotted Newt” by by Liz Ahl
5. Comfort/dis-comfort food
Write a poem describing a scene that involves comfort food and the solace it gives you. Or… pick a food item, describe it and connect it to a source of tension in your life. / Recommended reading: “Soup” by Vaneeza Sohail and “Korean Pears” by Leona Sevick
6. Poetic justice
“Like” by Sasha Debevec-McKenney packs a literal and figurative punch. As it must! In Sasha’s poem, a man in a restaurant uses an offensive metaphor, and the speaker goes on to imagine other things the customer could’ve said instead. Start a poem with someone (maybe even you) saying the wrong thing (maybe even a terrible thing) and let the draft deliver some kind of poetic justice… even if it’s imaginary. Let the poem carry intense emotion, like rage or shame.
7. When the student is ready
For this prompt, write a poem about learning to do something. It can be a skill you learned as a kid (like tying your shoes, crossing the street, eating your vegetables, etc.) or as an adult (like eating your vegetables, LOL or planting a garden). Bring as much detail as possible into your “scenes.” / Recommended reading: “Returning to the Village” by Stephanie Niu and “Watching Noodle-Making Videos on YouTube” by Robbi Nester
8. Whatcha gonna do about it?
Probably nothing, even if “it” is the literal end of the world. Guilty as charged, and anyway… how much is in our control? Still, we ought to do something, so just for today let’s write a poem about fiddling while Rome burns, rearranging chairs on the Titanic, etc., etc. / Recommended reading: “The Apocalypse Is Almost Here, So We Do the Dishes” by Kyla Guimaraes and “Let Them Not Say” by Jane Hirshfield
9. Contents may settle during flight
Choose something from your purse or wallet, a desk drawer, a coat pocket, a coffee table, medicine cabinet, or something similar, then write a poem about what it holds. / Recommended reading: “I Wake up in the Underworld of My Own Dirty Purse” by Karyna McGlynn and “Inside My Lola’s Handbag” by Michelle Peñaloza
10. It’s your funeral
Imagine the day or season of your death and write a poem about how your loved ones carry on, how you imagine your demise or what you’ll miss when you’re gone. / Recommended reading: “Eurydice” by Jenny George, “On the Ferris Wheel at the County Fair, I Remember the YouTube Video About a Woman’s Near-Death Experience” by Jackleen Holton, “[I won’t be able to write from the grave]” by Fanny Howe and “A Suit or a Suitcase” by Maggie Smith.
11. Betty White died again
In February, I saw news of a postage stamp honoring Betty White, and I groaned to my husband, “Oh, no! Betty White died.” He let me know she had but that it was years ago. I’d forgotten and was sad all over again. For reasons I don’t quite understand, we take celebrity deaths hard. For today’s draft, let’s write a poem about what a celebrity meant to you before they passed (or what they continue to mean now that they’re gone). / Recommended reading: “We Worshiped Robin Williams” by Christopher Sturdy
12. “Seedbombing the desolation”
There’s so much in the world to fight against. So much. Our “go-to” strategies are taking to the streets, boycotting companies and writing elected officials, but for this prompt, write a poem about tiny gestures or symbolic acts that also signify protest. / Recommended reading: “Guerilla Gardener” by Sarah Carleton and “Political Action” by Bob Hicok
13. Daytripping
Recall a day trip with someone very special to you and write a poem about your activities and feelings. / Recommended reading: “The only poem I can write” by Helene Achanzar and “Beach Avenue” by Fatima Jafar
14. I wasn’t even there
Write a poem about something you missed, something you weren’t there for, something that happened without you. / Recommended reading: “How It Happened” by Judith Fox
15. Please take down your holiday decorations in a timely fashion
One of the only things I dislike more than winter and holidays is when people leave their Christmas lights, trees and lawn ornaments out well into January or even February. I joke that I’m going to put on my “President of the HOA” mean face and cite everyone for these violations. You don’t have to be a Scrooge like me, but today we’re still going to write a poem about cleaning up holiday or season decorations. (You’re allowed to take it in any direction you like, even one that’s sweet, unlike that terrible HOA lady.) / Recommended reading: “Elegy of the Jack-O-Lantern” by Daniel Brennan (2nd poem on the page)
16. Hold it up to the light
Write a poem that reframes something that plagues you. In the draft, offer yourself some grace and hope. Just try it on, even if you don’t quite believe it at first, and see where it takes you. / Recommended reading: “Instead of Depression” by Andrea Gibson. There’s so much tenderness in this poem.
17. Are you still watching?
Bring us into the room while you’re streaming a favorite movie or show with someone you love. Write a poem that shows us the room, tells us who’s there, gives us some dialog and incorporates a scene from the show. / Recommended reading: “How We Fly” by Joan Kwon Glass
18. Cut your own bangs
I made my hair dresser swear that if I ever sit in her chair and ask her to give me bangs she will refuse. Other than that (and refusing to go gray), I have few rules. I’ve had everything from a pixie cut to a bob to long hair down my back. That said, I am quite emotional about my hair, and I think that’s true for most of us. We feel some kind of way about what our hair has been up to at different times in our lives. Let’s play with that intensity and write a poem about a hair style you’ve had. / Recommended reading: “Bob” by Angela Narciso Torres
19. We’re making it up as we go along
“If only….” or “Suppose….” For today’s poem, let’s suspend reality and write a poem that starts with a preposterous notion… then follows it. / Recommended reading: “Invisible Nests” by Kelly Madigan and “Restaurant of Dreams” by Robert Okaji
20. Don’t be alarmed
Write a poem where you are unbothered by something scary or dangerous. / Recommended reading: “Acclimated” by Sarah Carleton
21. Identity politics poetics
There’s lots about ourselves that we can’t (and wouldn’t want to) change. Some of those things put us at risk in a culture that, more and more (I’m looking at you, America), “others” all but the straight white male able-bodied experience. It’s critical that we document what that’s like to live with that reality. Maybe you experience harm from -isms or -phobias or maybe you experience privilege. Either way, write a poem related to how perceptions, assumptions or cultural “norms” impact you. / Recommended reading: “evening : girl” by Gabrielle Brant Freeman
22. Write about what you *don’t* know (or can’t see)
You’ve heard the old advice: Write what you know. But for this writing prompt, let’s explore what you don’t know… or can’t see… or what does not happen after all. Write a poem about something from the lens of its absence. / Recommended reading: “and in the poem we search for the birds” by jason b. crawford and “Good News” by Alison Luterman
23. The sum of its parts
Consider the objects in your home. How did they get there? What resources were required to produce them? Write a poem about the origin of one or more of your possessions. / Recommended reading: “Putting Together Ikea Furniture” by Clint Margrave
24. “untidy, reckless, deviant”
That’s a list from a poem by Aiyana Masla. The full line goes like this: “the tangle / of white wild flowers / in the bright field / untidy, reckless, deviant / in their courage & in their beauty,/ their happiness a holiness, /visceral & redemptive.” Masla’s poem is titled “June,” and it’s positively gorgeous. For today’s draft, let’s start with a month as our title and write a poem that encapsulates observations and feelings about that month. / Recommended reading: In addition to Masla’s poem, check out these Poems for Every Month of the Year
25. Yeah, sure, but what are your poems about?
OK… this one is an odd one. But that only makes me love it more. Think about the landscape of your writing/poetry and make a list of what you’re doing or trying to do then turn that list into a poem. / Recommended reading: “Artist Statement” by Tarik Dobbs
26. Think fast
What would you save from apocalypse? What’s in your Noah’s arc or “just” in your car fleeing from some emergency? You have 10 minutes to gather your “valuables.” Write a poem about your most precious belongings. / Recommended reading: “Writing Poems in the Middle of a Catastrophe” by Özge Lena
27. What goes up but never comes down?
Your age. 🤣 Terrible jokes aside, ages and aging make great poetry fodder. Write a poem about a specific year in your life. It can be an age that has passed and is memorable or one that’s to come that you may be dreading or hope to embrace. / Recommended reading: “At Twenty” by Heidi Seaborn and “Two Months Before My 65th Birthday” by David James
28. Break the mold. Get out of the rut. Think outside the box.
Write a poem about a new way of doing something. / Recommended reading: “For When We Greet Each Other” by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
29. Ordinary rituals
We do rituals all the time even if we don’t recognize them. We gather for things like birthday parties, baby showers, bachelorette parties, funerals, etc. Even these small mindfulness practices are a kind of ritual. For today’s draft, think of a traditional or habitual activity and write a poem about it. / Recommended reading: “Blessing the Baby” by Diannely Antigua
30. Reverse engineer
What message would you like to send the world. Write it down and set it aside. Next, list the people you’d like to receive it. Now, write a poem that opens with the catalog of recipients and brings your message back in at the end. / Recommended reading: “For everyone who tried on the slipper before Cinderella” by Ariana Brown
Critical reminder –> When you harvest material from exercises inspired by OPP (other people’s poems), it’s essential for you to credit your model (i.e. make a note at the top of your poem, like after AUTHOR’s “POEM”) or remove the other poet’s scaffolding entirely and keep only the material you crafted. Make it your own. Every time.
Be sure to let me know if you use any of these poetry prompts for NaPoWriMo 2025 or any other time. Looking for more? You can find past poetry prompts here. You may also like to check out my collections of resources for writing inspiration — like prose poems, list poems, apocalypse poems, wild/innovative forms and more — for additional inspiration.
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