July 05

2017

by YCA Volunteer

Today is Wednesday, July 5th, and we have a brand new writing prompt for you today. Every Wednesday we will be sharing a writing prompt to help you write. If you choose to write, please tag us on social media: @youngchiauthors on Twitter & @youngchicagoauthors on Instagram.

Today’s prompt features work from Nikki Giovanni. Today’s writing prompt is called:

Ego Trippin

List:

Reasons why you are dope

Things you are good at doing

Things you are an expert in

Things you have taught other people

Compliments you’ve been given

Things people have been made of you for doing/liking/having etc.

Read:

Ego-Trippin’ by Nikki Giovanni

I was born in the Congo

I walked to the Fertile Crescent and built

The Sphinx

I designed a pyramid so tough that a star

That only glows every one hundred years falls

Into the center giving divine perfect light

I am bad

I sat on the throne

Drinking nectar with Allah

I got hot and sent an ice age to Europe

To cool my thirst

My oldest daughter is Nefertiti

The tears from my birth pains

Created the Nile

I am a beautiful woman

I gazed on the forest and burned

Out the Sahara desert

With a packet of goat’s meat

And a change of clothes

I crossed it in two hours

I am a gazelle so swift

So swift you can’t catch me

For a birthday present when he was three

I gave my son Hannibal an elephant

He gave me Rome for mother’s day

My strength flows ever on

My son Noah built New/Ark and

I stood proudly at the helm

As we sailed on a soft summer day

I turned myself into myself and was

Jesus

Men intone my loving name

All praises All praises

I am the one who would save

I sowed diamonds in my backyard

My bowels deliver uranium

The filings from my fingernails are

Semi-precious jewels

On a trip north

I caught a cold and blew

My nose giving oil to the Arab world

I am so hip even my errors are correct

I sailed west to reach east and had to round off

The earth as I went

The hair from my head thinned and gold was laid

Across three continents

I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal

I cannot be comprehended except by my permission

I mean…I…can fly

Like a bird in the sky

Writing Prompt:

Use your list to write a poem about how dope you are, celebrating your strengths as well as your flaws.