Poetry Challenge #71-Listing Up!

Find this list and more on Growing in the Garden website.

Spring is in full swing. Which for me means the frantic rush between post-winter clean up and pre-summer weeding & planting. A glorious time of year, but hectic—and the rest of life doesn’t slow when the garden goes into hypergrow either.

To keep up, I make lists (and borrow lists like this one.)

Lists are good. Checking items off lists is better.

Lists can help keep our “boats,” in the sometimes rough and rocky ocean, from well…listing and possibly crashing or sinking in the process…

What’s more, lists are easy, which makes them a great way to begin:

Poetry Challenge #71

Listing Up!

You can write list poems over and over with different results every time.

1. Begin with any topic and list things it makes you think of as quickly as you can.

2. Next go through the list and pick out one or more things that stick out for you.

3. Try making a list from the thing you picked out.

4. What does that thing make you think of?

5. Why did you pick it?

6. Add detail.

7. Use your senses.

8. Play with rhythm or rhyme.

Here are a couple prompts you can use to start if you want:

I like…
I wish I liked…
I remember…

Help! My peonies have fallen and can’t get up…in other words, they are listing, too!

Set the timer for 7 minutes.

Start writing!

Don’t think about it too much; just do it.

*Cindy Faughnan and I resolved to begin this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge more than 8 years ago! We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.

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