At the event the other night, a Creative Writing professor explained to the audience that he tells his students to imitate great poets in order to learn. "If you want to write a song," he said, "you must learn a lot of songs. And if you want to write a poem, you must read a lot of poems."

This gave me an idea for a prompt, for myself and for anyone else who wants it. I think I am going to choose one poet a month, read a ton of their poetry, and try to write in their style. The possibilities are endless -- ee cummings, Walt Whitman, Maya Angelou, Lucille Clifton, Sylvia Plath, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes -- pretty much anyone I admire. And it will definitely help me learn new styles and how to be more flexible in my writing.