10 Writing Prompts to Turn Letters into Poems

Begin with a letter; arrive at a poem. When we write to a person, place, object or animal (real or imagined), the truth gets braver and the lines get lighter on their feet. The ten prompts below mix care with kick: quick starts, gentle focus, and just enough constraint to let the music through. “Dear…” you’re up!

Dear Rotary Phone,

Your face

still circles my finger

meeting the slow alphabet.

Under your dial tone

thunder before connection.

Kitchen corner curled lightning

stretches from room to room.

I lean into your Bakelite

cupping my whispers,

fess and confess

the news, gossip and giggle.

If I call that childhood crush,

will they answer?

Operator, please patch me to the before times.

1. Write to your future self about something only your hands remember.

2. Address a letter to an object that outlived its purpose (key with no door, orphaned earring).

3. “Dear ___, today I learned the weather inside me has moods.” Fill the blank with a place.

4. Send a letter across species—a note to the magpie who watches your alley.

5. Begin every line with “I didn’t know…” and end each with a concrete image.

6. Write a complaint to time, then add a p.s. that forgives it.

7. Borrow three lines from a beloved song; let each line answer a question you never asked.

8. Write to the person you were on a day you were brave.

9. Compose on a postcard from a city you’ve never visited; describe the sky as if it were a recipe.

10. Mail a letter to the word belonging. Ask what it needs from you this month.

    
    

Bonus: Read your letter aloud and strike every third adjective. Keep the nouns, let the verbs sing.