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POETRY RESOURCES AND OTHER POETICS FOR POETRY READERS AND POETS

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

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