Writing Prompt 23: Write a List Poem
This week I'm getting right to the point. Your prompt: write a list poem.
You know who writes a great list poem? Rachel B. Glaser. Here, as evidence, is her poem Tragic Snoopys (which you can also read, along with four other poems by her, right here, on the Pen America site). I recommend you read it out loud to someone who says they don't like poetry, as a challenge. I hope it challenges you to write a list poem of your own.
TRAGIC SNOOPYS
shriveled Snoopy
bent or dented Snoopy
burnt Snoopys
deflated Snoopys
shredded Snoopys
grilled Snoopy
stained Snoopys
shards of Snoopy in the street
rusted Snoopy
oily Snoopys at the bottom of the barrel
cracked and leaking Snoopy
the boiled Snoopy I saw in Russia
diced Bulgarian Snoopy
the corroded Snoopy on 8th st.
matted
lumpy
coma Snoopy
scratched or bleeding Snoopy
Siamese Snoopys
hugely fat Snoopy
stick-thin Snoopy
the bratty imposter Snoopy
scorned half-made Snoopys
poopy Snoopy
pile-of-Snoopy
the dried eyes of Snoopy under glass
cheap Snoopy imitation on the television
Snoopy fossils sold instead of studied
a dazed half-alive Snoopy
with the tread worn off
with the light gone out
the heart not in
a clicking sound
a wind-up tail
puffy CGI Snoopy
nuclear glow Snoopy
pimped out Snoopy
and this is not Snoopy at all
Snoopy doesn't have a bell
or any fins
that is not Snoopy's coiled hair
Snoopy's metal screw
the flag is not from Snoopy
the shoe doesn't fit Snoopy
look, it's the Snoopy from your high school
condemned Snoopy
illegal Snoopy dripping in the church basement
Snoopy slime scrubbed from the retaining wall
shellacked Snoopy on the walking bridge
twisted Snoopy in the turbine
I remember the last Snoopy in the marsh
and the one we passed in the car
a hawk carrying Snoopy into the sky
