Tribute to Prompt Poems

Conversation with
Joseph Fasano

The Fall 2023 issue of Rattle features a tribute to poems written in response to writing prompts. While some write off prompts as mere exercises, for others they’re the key to unlocking creativity and restoring the sense of play with language. The special section includes prompt poems by 16 poets and a conversation with Joseph Fasano, whose popular template prompts have given non-poets their own access to the interior. In the open section, 22 poets familiar and new share a diverse set of powerful poems.
 

	Prompt Poems
	Frank Beltrano	The “B” List
	Caitlin Buxbaum	Speak
		Wolf
	Alice Capshaw	To the Man I Kissed Sitting on a Sunkist …
	Joseph Fasano	What to Say to Those Who Think You’re a Fool …
	D. Dina Friedman	In My Heart
	Kai Jensen	Bestiary
	Angelle McDougall	He Said Waltz with Me
	Brian O’Sullivan	Fall
	Lexi Pelle	Diet Coke
	Laura Ruby	Always Tender in the Wrong Places
	Matthew Buckley Smith	Ars Ecphrastica
	Lisa Stice	My Dad Loves the Smell of Asphalt
	Conan Tan	For Years, I Believed That
	Susan Trofimow	This Poem
	Haley Winans	I Gotta Fat Ass
	Shannon Connor Winward	Killing the Snake Plan
	..
	Open Poetry
	Alana Joblin Ain	Poet’s Guide to Home Repairs
	José A. Alcántara	To a Friend Who Does Not Believe in God
	John Brehm	Seven Haiku
		Morning in East Wallingford
	Wyn Cooper	Grief Dog
	Curtis Derrick	At the Love Feast
	Bija Gutoff	To the Woman Who Shoplifted …
	Javeria Hasnain	Mythomania
	David James	Two Months Before My 65th Birthday
	Karan Kapoor	Portrait of a Father as an Alcoholic
	Katherine Lo	Mark
	Clint Margrave	Putting Together Ikea Furniture
	Andrew Shattuck McBride	The Children I’ll Never Have …
	José Medina	Bésame en Español
	Joshua Mensch	An Act of Sabotage
	Nancy Carol Moody	Flung Drops, Fog
	Paulette A. Pashibin	From the Inside
	Brent Schaeffer	Barely 40, Your Brother Is Dying …
	Prartho Sereno	Charlie Chaplin & Me
	Gaetan Sgro	The Weight
	Carrie Shipers	Self-Portrait as Elizabeth Holmes
	Mike White	Southpaw
	Ross White	Replacement Friend
	..
	Conversation
	Joseph Fasano
	..
	Cover Art
	Adelma Dumalan Edwards. (web)