EERRGGGHHH I AM SO TERRIBAD AT POETRY *** I GIVE UP FOR LIKE 20 MINUTES.Write a poem no longer than 5 lines about bread -- every day bread, holiday bread, the best bread, the worst bread, communion bread, Wonder bread, lefse, pita, metaphorical bread, etc, etc. But no longer than 5 lines!

*shudder*
Write a poem entitled “10 Reasons I Don’t Like _________________ and You Shouldn’t Like _____________ Either.” Your poem should include 10 numbered sections, at least one metaphor, a reference to a plant in home or backyard, an example of onomatopoeia, and a line from your favorite song.  

But what don’t you like? Mayonnaise? Birdsong at 5:00 in the morning? Rock gardens? Trump? FaceBook? Crocheting? Mean people? Guns? Hillary? Cold pizza? Polar bear swims? Poetry?

I chose the church shootings in june...? I think they were in june... Write about a news story from 2015

Write a poem of only 15 words. Consider having one word per line. Consider repeating a word or two. Consider playing with sound. Consider giving your poem a title that is nearly as long as the poem. Consider the topic of love.

True story bro.
You wake and find yourself quite comfortably in the passenger side of a vehicle heading…where, when, why, how, and who’s driving? Write a poem of possibility. The road is wide open ahead of you.

Start the song at 0:14 and start reading there too
Here is a piece of music by Django Reinhardt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QOd7urjwTQ

Listen and write a poem inspired by the music.You might focus on one section of the music and write lyrics to the melody, you might write a poem that reads like jazz, you might simply write a poem about something the music reminds you of. You could call your poem "Blues" after this particular piece of music. Or you could call it something else.  :) Consider avoiding mentions of France, gypsies, or guitars.

In the recent New Yorker, writer Elizabeth Kolbert has a great article on rising sea levels and how they will especially affect south Florida. Here's a link to the article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/21/the-siege-of-miami
In the penultimate section of the article, Kolbert writes that Bruce Mowry, city engineer of Miami Beach, muses, "I'm sure if we have had poets, they'd be writing about the swallowing of Miami Beach by the sea."  

How very odd that he thinks Miami Beach does not have poets and that he also feels their lack in new poetry about sea level rise which truly threatens their city. We must help! Let us step in and write some poems on their behalf. Write a poem about Miami Beach (I've never been there, but I won't let that stop me), the rising sea levels, climate change, flooding, or the strange ignorance of the poets in our midst

Rhyme scheme counts. ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Think about your day today. Spend 10-15 minutes writing about it. Start at the beginning and write down everything you did or noticed, anything that you thought or felt. Be detailed. At the end of your time, stop writing even if you didn't get as far through your day as you thought you would.

Now look back at what you've written and pick out the parts you think are worthy and begin creating a poem.  Maybe it's all worthy; maybe only a couple of lines are worthy. That's okay -- work with what you have. But wait, you're not done...now either change a two or three of the ideas in your poem to be completely different than what actually happened, and/or add a couple of things that are amazing, but just not true. Make your ordinary something more. Consider using a day of the week or the date as your title.

Write an elegy for something you've happily let go this year.
For example, I stopped drinking soda in July (I still miss it), and I stopped thinking I would eventually enjoy exercise (I still exercise; I've simply accepted that I'll never, ever, ever like it.)

Okie...
Use the words fringe, cringe, singe, binge, and unhinge in a poem, and if you can, Joe's bonus word: mandolin. Do not use any end rhymes, whatever you do