POETRY STARTERS - FIRST LINES

Developed by Glennis Hobbs, ©2001

Sometimes, all you needed to get started writing a poem is that elusive first line. Here are some suggested first lines. Have fun writing.

1. as I lay waiting for my surgery
   
2. it's not easy being (fill in blank with a colour)
   
3. a friend is someone who
   
4. another night in a cheap motel
   
5. it's a long drive to
   
6. if I could go back to yesterday
   
7. if God wanted me to touch the floor
   
8. a year ago I wondered what I'd be doing a year from now
   
9. my dear enemy
   
10. a face he/she has never seen
11. last week at four in the morning after
    
12. I am here to unearth my feeling for ......
    
13. words are....
    
14. a psychic saw...
    
15. as a child I chanted
    
16. my family is not my enemy
    
17. I feel sexy when I wear ....
    
18. when I can't go outside because of the weather, I...
    
19. snow (or rain, or fog, or sunshine substiute some other word related to weather) makes me think of you
    
20. I was tied up in knots
    
21. three a. m. silence, I'm all alone
    
22. if my pet wrote about me, what would he say
    
23. I want to be your slave
    
24. if I had three wishes
    
25. I am the last of my line
    
26. I am an old woman (man) now, but then I was
    
27. last night I dreamt I went to (place) again
    
28. no one remembers her origins
    
29. in the dusty little corners of (place)
    
30. the sky above the lake was the colour of...
31. it was love at first sight
    
32. when I see closed doors
    
33. because I could not stop for
    
34. I wrote you a poem
    
35. when you take a day off
    
36. when you're sleep deprived
    
37. a lie is like a ...
    
38. by the fireplace tonight
    
39. a man (woman) is not old until....
    
40. success has a simple formula
    
41. your beauty is beyond compare
    
42. my happiness depends on....
    
43. on angel's wings
    
44. a road less travelled