Creative Writing Prompt: Ginsberg’s Ends

This week we’re focusing on poet Allen Ginsberg. So, naturally, we offer up a Ginsberg-inspired creative writing prompt to get you in a beatnik, meditative, “chanty” state of mind.

Note that Ginsberg was often wrapped up in the idea of “widening the area of consciousness.” He did not shy away from radical elements but rather brought them to the forefront. And, quite often, his poems are best absorbed when heard rather than read… so “hear” your poem as you write it. Does it take the tone of a dirge, a lament, a song, something else?

Write a poem at least 14 lines long that uses at least 12 of the following words:

brow
scepter
sawdust
wool
wind
visible
flats
machine
wiley
symmetry
mind
ants
sway
lightbulbs
taxis

You can make any grammatical changes you like to make the words fit your poem. All of these words are end words of Ginsberg’s lines from his poems “Sunflower Sutra,” “My Sad Self,” and “Wales Visitation.”

Make an effort to create long lines in imitation of Ginsberg’s style.

See all of our National Poetry Month posts