April 01

National Poetry Month Writing Prompt 1/30

by YCA Volunteer

Hello YCA Fam,

April is National Poetry Month, and many poets choose to write one poem each day during April to celebrate the occasion. This year, we are going to be posting a writing prompt every day during April to help you with this writing challenge. Many of these prompts were developed by the YCA Artistic team for our weekly writing workshop, Check The Method. If you write poems to these prompts, share them on social media and tag us (@youngchiauthors on Twitter & @youngchicagoauthors on Instagram).

Here is prompt number 1, which uses a poem by Nikki Giovanni:

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.