Poetry doesn’t need to rhyme. It doesn’t need to follow rules. It’s simply a place to explore your feelings with honesty and curiosity.
These 5 simple prompts are designed to help you dig into your emotions—whether you’re feeling joy, grief, frustration, or something you can’t quite name. Let them guide you to put feelings on paper, even when the words feel stuck.
You should find that as you begin to write, words begin to flow to you. Write it all down, don't stop to think, or edit in your brain. This can stifle the ideas and you can go back and edit later. You might need to pause here and there to think about rhyme but the main thing is to let those feelings flow.
1. Write About Your Emotion as a Person
If your emotion could walk into the room, who would it be?
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What does it look like?
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How does it sit, talk, or move?
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What does it want to say to you?
For example:
“My anger is a girl with fire-red shoes, tapping her foot and daring me to speak my truth”
Giving your emotion a shape and personality can help you separate it from yourself, so you can observe it more gently. What would a conversation look like between you and your guilt, between you and your sadness.
2. Describe Your Feeling as a Place
Imagine your current emotion is a place on a map. Is it a stormy beach? A quiet attic? A crowded city street? A sunlit glade in the woods.
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What sounds, colours, and smells are there?
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Who (or what) lives there?
You could begin with:
“Today my sadness is an empty cinema, waiting for a film to play. Creaky seats, lost popcorn.”
This prompt helps turn abstract feelings into something visual and tangible.
3. Use the “I Remember” Prompt
Start every line with “I remember…” and let memories surface without overthinking.
Some will be connected to your current emotion, others might surprise you. You might write:
“I remember the first time I felt small, hiding behind my mother’s coat in a shop full of bright shoes.”
This free-flowing exercise often reveals layers of emotion that are hard to reach with logic alone. It's quite incredible how memories long past can suddenly resurface and put you right back in that moment.
4. Write a Letter You’ll Never Send
Choose a person, feeling, or moment that’s weighing on your mind. Write them a letter, but in the form of a poem.
You don’t have to be polite or careful—let the words spill out:
“Dear yesterday, I know. You're gone. But it's all so soon.”
The beauty of this prompt is that no one ever has to see it. It’s just for you—a release on the page.
5. Use a Colour as Your Starting Point
Pick a colour that matches your mood. Write down everything that colour reminds you of, then shape it into a poem.
For example, if you choose blue:
“Blue is the bruise, the whisper of rain on windows, the taste of the ocean when tears meet my lips.”
Colours connect to memory and emotion, making them a powerful starting point for self-expression.
Final Thought
Poetry is a safe, creative way to make sense of what you feel—without needing to explain it to anyone.
Pick one of these prompts, grab a pen, and let your emotions take the lead. Your words don’t have to be perfect. They just have to be yours.
Want to turn your poetry into art? I've got 5 ideas to help with that right here!
5 Poetry Prompts to Help You Process Emotions.
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