I got the chance to see Carl Dennis read his poem The God Who Loves You on Thursday night, at the Pulitzer Prize winners’ poetry celebration at Cooper Union. In this poem, we learn that one person has other potential futures which God can see. Listen to the poem and study it. What kind of God is this? What is the attitude of the “you” in the poem toward the alternate life, and what is the attitude of the seemingly omniscient narrator? How might you imagine an alternate future of your own, either for yourself or another persona? How might knowing about the alternative change the way your life is today?

How do you infuse a realistic tale with strands of fantasy? You may be familiar with Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. This week, I want you to explore writing a magical realist poem, where you offer some elements of fantasy without explanation, that only hint at meanings which your readers will discover. Maybe you’re writing about an office worker who ends up transforming into a philodendron that curls along the walls. Maybe a giraffe lowers its head to you at a zoo and tells you that it’s going to rain on your wedding day. For an example of this technique in a poem, read Alberto Rios’ A Man Then Suddenly Stops Moving.

When did you feel you were no longer a child, and had crossed the threshold into adulthood? Was there a particular moment? Perhaps you were invited to sit among the adults at a holiday dinner. Perhaps it was the day you first had sex. Perhaps it was the day you realized your father was truly vulnerable, that he was mortal and would die one day. What emotions came with the transition? Tap into those emotions as you write this poem. Either write about what distinguishes childhood from adulthood for you, or try to recapture childhood in a poem. For inspiration, read Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Childhood is the Kingdom Where Nobody Dies.

Have you ever wanted to step into someone else’s shoes? Write from another’s perspective? You can do this in your poetry. It’s called a persona poem, where the speaker of your poem is someone other than yourself. Choose wisely who you will write about- maybe you want to write from the perspective of a suicide bomber; maybe you want to write a poem that Trump or Hillary would write; maybe you want to write from your brother’s perspective when he saw his first child born. Whatever you choose, try to ground yourself in some emotion you think the speaker would feel. Use images and sensations that make sense for the speaker to use. Steer clear of anachronisms if you are writing about a historical figure- but if you find yourself doing that accidentally, maybe change the nature of the speaker. Perhaps Walt Disney was in fact cryogenically preserved and has now been reanimated with new insights about our modern society. As always, have fun with it!

For inspiration, read a classic persona poem by T. S. Eliot.

This is a particularly hard topic to write about, even think about so many years later. I want you to examine the way the poet attempts to honor the dead in this poem, Photograph from September 11. Does it work for you? Do you think the respect the poet offers the victims is sincere, the desire not to “add a last line”? Why might using metaphors and similes in poems about grief distance the reader from the feelings? It is hard not to be cliche, to try to say comforting things. I would like to encourage you to write about a grieving, not necessarily 9/11, perhaps something more personal to you, and attempt to allow yourself to simply describe things that happen in the poem, trying to evoke emotions that way, without resorting to metaphors that might allow you to wrap things up in a bow. Allow yourself and your readers to sit and experience the grief and pain. Can you leave the poem open-ended in some way?

A wormhole connects two spots in space-time, allowing for travel between them. Imagine you go through a wormhole—what is on the other side? Take a look at Mary Karr’s Disgraceland for a biblical take on wormhole.

Think of different foods and drinks. Imagine preparing a dish or think of the steps you take when you eat something. What toppings do you add to your pizza, and how do you eat it? I tend to like Hawaiian pizza with ham and pineapple, and I usually eat the crust first. Bring these details to a poem, but I also want you to transform your food and drink into a metaphor, to say something about an emotion or action that people take. See Naomi Nishab Nye’s The Traveling Onion for an example.

How do search engines impact your life? What story do your searches tell? If you commonly use Google, try this exercise: while logged in, start typing each letter of the alphabet into Google and see what searches it remembers or suggests to you. Pick the most interesting search for each letter of the alphabet and string them together in an abecedarian poem. If you don’t use Google, think about an interesting search you’ve done lately. What information did you find out? How did it make you feel? Also check out Amber Tamblyn’s poem Untitled, which takes you on an emotional rollercoaster as she reports a series of searches.

Write a poem in which the speaker is hearing voices. What do the voices say? Who seems to be speaking? How does the speaker feel, how does he or she react? Take a look at this excellent example by Jennifer L. Knox, Name That Tune.