Maybe your muse needs a little nudge? Try prompting with a few words, a subject, a hint or an idea from one of our writers.

Sometimes an example works best… From time immemorial, poets have been inspired by other poets. Read a poem to your muse and see if it doesn’t get those juices flowing…

Perhaps your muse is drawn to the strains of the violin or the clash of cymbals. Give your muse something to dance about with selections of music or playlists that inspire…

Give your muse something to think about with a meditation. These are short exercises to help you visualize and think about the things – from family to a single green leaf to why you live the way you do – that give your muse something to say.

Can’t seem to get started? Here are some first lines to get you started. There are no rules – put a first line in the middle of a poem, riff off of it or use it to kickstart a freewrite exercise…

A photo, a painting, a sculpture.. the visual arts have inspired poets since before they wrote their poems down. This category is for visual writing prompts, from photographs to abstract art.

We used to have a cat that would go missing for hours at a time. She’d disappear under a bed or out a door and not deign to respond to all the usual cues. Until the day my daughter started singing her favorite song – with his name in the lyrics. Lo and behold, out he strolled, gathered himself on his haunches and leapt into her arms. Worked like a charm from then on.

Over the years, we’ve had cats that came running at the sound of the can opener, the opening of a cabinet door, the rattle of dry cat food in the box and even the sound of clickety-clicking knitting needles. (Pebbles was an odd one, she was. Liked nothing better than to sit and stare, hypnotized, at the needles clicking and snicking while I was knitting.

Another cat story. I used to work at a homeless shelter that served three meals a day. The meals were – frankly – pretty damn good, thanks to the cooking prowess of an ex-Navy cook who knew how to make anything taste good. One morning, the shelter served breakfast to the current city council as part of a tour of the facility. One counselor, patting her belly in satisfaction, exclaimed to the director, “No wonder you have so many homeless people in the area. They’re just like cats. If you feed them, they keep coming back!”

Muses are like that. If you feed them, they’re likely to stick their noses out more often. But they’re more like cats than that – they tend to be finicky little fae, liking their own favorite foods and turning their noses up at all other offerings. My own muse prefers words – first lines especially, and brief writing prompts. Music doesn’t do much other than make her sleepy, but I know at least one poet whose words can’t spill out of the keyboard fast enough when he hears music that inspires his muse. Some are happiest when inspired by another poem – either they think they can do it better, or they want to take it further. Others prefer a meditation and an exercise to get their juices flowing.

Whatever your muse finds appealing, we hope we can offer him or her a steady smorgasbord of morsels to keep her happy, well-fed, and sitting on the edge of your notebook – or keyboard.