Fun With Poetry Prompts from 30 Poems in 30 Days
Samantha Hernandez shows us how it's done
In 2024, Trio House Press released 30 Poems in 30 Days: Poetry Prompts Inspired by Trio House Press Poets. The book features 30 poems gleaned from Trio House Press poetry collections, along with a prompt after each poem to inspire new poetry based on some element of the poem.
This week’s Substack features the work of Samantha Hernandez, who wrote a poem based on one of the poems/prompts in 30 Poems in 30 Days. Enjoy
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A Poem based on “Fancy Meeting You Here” by David Groff by Samantha Hernandez
I chose David Groff’s poem and prompt because I love his poetry, and because if I could claim to have any supernatural power, it would be my ability to run into people from my past with an alarming frequency. It’s both a blessing and a curse, and also funny to consider why and how so many small moments and seemingly unimportant choices can lead two people who once knew each other to crossing paths again by chance. “Fancy Meeting You Here” expresses both that dreamlike feeling of one-sided recognition, and the oddness of mutual acknowledgment. It’s a feeling like conjuring a ghost.
David Groff from Clay (2012) Fancy Meeting You Here You were supposed to be dead, being missed for so long, like the others another empty window in a building blinking out. But there you were in the Haagen-Daz store, seamed and thinned but eating frozen yogurt, unlike a ghost. Not that you and I had many minutes remaining on our parking meter. Your voice as still gut-deep but full of nothing: lady gurus, affirmations that kept you alive (though they missed their shot with the pessimistic dead...). A dime of time and the red flag flipped to the LED zeros of your lovely eyes. You gave me a dismissing kiss and ambled out alive and now less precious to the street of unmissing persons, licking your globe of cone.
Prompt:
Write a poem about an unexpected encounter with someone from your past - either one that really happened, or one that you imagine could happen. Include details of the encounter, but also your own inner dialogue, as Groff does.
Samantha Hernandez You Again I imagine you and I trip over our noticing like a speed bump at the same time oh hello you, again, does it knock your sternum solidly center, a little too hard like it’s checking for signs of life? or is it gentle as the bell on a cat as she snakes through the corner deli’s plastic flaps our scene’s a mathematical problem–– how does my walk drift to this street I never take at the speed your bike enters our intersection? I see you in your symbols, first your familiar frame–– vanilla with rainbow sprinkles pained on, then on your arm a simple line drawn cowgirl what do you see on me, standing at a blur? who am I dazed at a crosswalk to mean enough to stop and say, oh hello you, again?
Samantha Hernandez is a poet and MFA candidate at the City College of New York. She agrees with Alice Notley that “poetry’s so common hardly anyone can find it.” Her work has appeared in Taco Bell Quartley, Endless Editions SPRTS, and The Marbled Sigh.
30 Poems in 30 Days: Poetry Prompts Inspired by Trio House Press Poets($12) is available for purchase directly from Trio House Press here, and is also available wherever books are sold. It is popular as both a textbook and as a way to jumpstart your writing practice.
If you’re in the Twin Cities on October 19th, 2024, stop by the Twin Cities Book Festival and pick up a copy at our table! You can also pick up copies of David Groff’s books, Clay and Live in Suspense directly from Trio House Press or from any bookstore.