2025-26 NYSP Poetry Collection
Students participating in New York State of Poetry (NYSP) will write original poems in response to the selections found in the NYSP Poetry Collection. This collection is a curated selection of classic and contemporary poems representing a variety of poetic forms and diverse voices.
All poems submitted to the NYSP Anthology must be in response to a poem included in the NYSP Poetry Collection. We offer optional wiriting prompts for each poem below. Feel free to adapt or modify these prompts, or let the student respond to their selected poem in the manner of their choosing. Our hope is that students will find something in an existing poem that will ultimately inspire them to share their own unique voice and perspective.
After Reverdy by Ron Padgett
New York State
Optional Writing Prompt: This poem is inspired by the work of French poet Pierre Reverdy, who strove to uncover “the sublime simplicity of true reality” in his poems. Take a line from this poem, and use it as the first line of a new, original poem.
American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin [“Inside me is a black-eyed animal”] by Terrance Hayes
Sonnet • New York State
Optional Writing Prompt: Explore the sonnet’s traditional formal qualities. You can reference the Handbook of Poetic Forms (page 178) or “Learning the Sonnet” from The Poetry Foundation. How does Terrance Hayes’s sonnet fit within the form’s tradition? What rules does it break? Write your own sonnet attempting to maintain at least two of the sonnet’s formal traditions while also breaking at least one.
Autumn, New York, 1999 by Patricia Spears Jones
Former New York State Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: In “Autumn, New York, 1999,” Patricia Spears Jones contemplates autumn and its eventual transition to winter. As you prepare to respond to this poem, consider the current season. What does it look and feel like where you are? What might the forthcoming season hold for you? Write a poem exploring these seasons and how the time of year shapes life around you.
Coal by Audre Lorde
Persona Poem • Former New York State Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: Audre Lorde’s “Coal” is a persona poem in which she writes about Blackness and language from the perspective of coal. Choose an inanimate object, and write a poem from the perspective of that object. What might that object have to say about human concerns and feelings?
Optional Writing Prompt: Explore the haiku’s traditional formal qualities. You can reference the Handbook of Poetic Forms (page 86) or “Haiku” from The Poetry Foundation. Though we often think of haiku as brief, individual poems, they were originally written as part of a collaborative sequence. In a group setting, one poet would write a haiku which another poet would respond to with their own haiku and so on, forming a unified sequence. How does each haiku in Harryette Mullen’s “Conversation in Isolation” stand alone as an independent poem and also connect to create a longer sequence? Write a haiku sequence where each haiku can stand on its own and also connect to create a longer poem.
The Dream of a Lacquer Box by Kimiko Hahn
New York State Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: In “The Dream of a Lacquer Box,” Kimiko Hahn writes about an object from a dream—a lacquer box—and explores identity, culture, and family through that object. Think of a dream that you’ve had. Can you remember any details? Were there any objects or symbols in the dream that felt important? If so, why? Write a poem about the object, symbol, place, or person that appeared in your dream.
Duplex by Jericho Brown
Duplex
Optional Writing Prompt: Jericho Brown invented the duplex form, which borrows formal elements from other poetic forms like the sonnet, the ghazal, and the blues. You can learn more about the duplex in The Poetry Foundation’s Glossary of Poetic Terms and in “From the Archive: Pulitzer Prize Winner Jericho Brown's ‘Invention.’” Reading Brown’s poem, where do you see the influence of the sonnet, the ghazal, and the blues? Also notice that the name of the form and the title of the poem—“Duplex”—are a kind of home. Write your own duplex about what “home” means to you.
Optional Writing Prompt: In “Famous,” Naomi Shihab Nye writes about fame as a relationship between things: “The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek” and “The boot is famous to the earth.” A shift happens in the eighth stanza when she no longer describes fame through distant objects but through the first person. Write a poem exploring what you would like to be known for, whether famously or in your personal relationships.
Optional Writing Prompt: Explore what metaphor is and how it can be used in poetry. Remember that metaphor speaks as if one thing is already another thing, whereas simile tells us one thing is “like” something else. Emily Dickinson’s poem, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers,” is an extended metaphor in which the abstract concept of “hope” is described as a bird. Write a poem about hope or another feeling using a metaphor to explore that concept or feeling.
Optional Writing Prompt: Explore the sonnet’s traditional formal qualities. You can reference the Handbook of Poetic Forms (page 178) or “Learning the Sonnet” from The Poetry Foundation. While sonnets are often known for being about love, they can be written about many things. Ada Limón’s sonnet explores how nature can teach us resilience. Write your own sonnet about something you have observed or learned from nature.
The Layers by Stanley Kunitz
Former New York State Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: In “The Layers,” Stanley Kunitz writes in the voice of someone who is reflecting on their life and where it is headed. Halfway through the poem Kunitz poses the question: “How shall the heart be reconciled / to its feast of losses?” Near the end of the poem, “a nimbus-clouded voice” appears to offer instructional guidance. Consider Kunitz's question, and imagine someone has asked you, “How shall the heart be reconciled / to its feast of losses?” Write a poem responding to this question.
Optional Writing Prompt: In “Listening in Deep Space,” Diane Thiel writes about the practice of sending objects into space to share with other life forms. She writes that we send Stravinsky’s music and whale songs “searching for connection.” Write a poem about the objects you would send into space to teach about life on Earth. Alternatively, write a poem about the objects you would share with another person to deepen a human connection.
Meditations in an Emergency by Cameron Awkward-Rich
Block Poem • Prose Poem
Optional Writing Prompt: Cameron Awkward-Rich’s “Meditations in an Emergency” is written as a block poem. This form resembles how prose might be shared in a newspaper column or magazine. Why do you think the poem is written in this form? How does the form affect your understanding of the content, the tone, or the final feeling the poem leaves you with? Write your own block or prose poem responding to Awkward-Rich’s line, “There’s a dream I have in which I love the world.”
Optional Writing Prompt: An elegy is a poem that expresses grief for a person who has died. The person might be someone the poet knew personally, or they may be a public figure the poet respected. While elegies express grief, they often move toward a place of consolation in knowing the dedicated person lives on, whether in our memory, in art, or in another life. Elegies sometimes use imagery of resurrection or return from the dead. In Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s poem, the speaker addresses someone who has died, wishing they could still eat together. Calvocoressi writes, “You can come in your light / body or skeleton or be invisible I don’t even / care.” Write an elegy to someone you have lost or to a public figure who has died. Invite them to come back for one hour. Where would they meet you? What would you do together?
Optional Writing Prompt: Donika Kelly’s poem is a response to a moment of heightened feeling. The speaker is moved by the forces of nature around them. Write a poem using the last line of Kelly’s poem as the first line of yours: “let me move like a tide come in.” Incorporate your name, as Kelly does, somewhere in the body of your poem.
Ode to Dirt by Sharon Olds
Ode • Former New York State Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: An ode is a poem that offers praise to a person, place, thing, or idea. We sometimes assume odes should be written about grand subjects (John Keats wrote “Ode on a Grecian Urn” to an ancient artwork), but Sharon Olds proves that odes can also be written about ordinary subjects like dirt. Write your own ode to something unexpected and ordinary.
Ode to the Whitman Line “When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d” by Kimiko Hahn
Ode • New York State Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: Kimiko Hahn considers the first line (and title) of Walt Whitman’s poem “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” in her own poem. Choose a line from another poem. Why did this line stand out to you? What questions does it raise for you? Write your own poem responding to your chosen line.
One Art by Elizabeth Bishop
Villanelle
Optional Writing Prompt: Explore the villanelle’s form. You can reference the Handbook of Poetic Forms (page 197) or The Poetry Foundation’s Glossary of Poetic Terms. The villanelle is notoriously tricky because the poet must develop lines that can be repeated throughout the poem. Notice how Elizabeth Bishop plays with this repetition in “One Art,” changing the repeated lines just enough to create new meaning while also retaining the core of the original lines. Write a villanelle about something you’ve lost. Feel free to play with your repeated lines as Bishop does.
Optional Writing Prompt: Historically, sonnets often explore themes of love. Pablo Neruda surprises the reader by beginning his poem with the words “I don’t love you. . . .” Neruda’s sonnet turns out to be a love poem in the end. Try writing an anti-love sonnet that is actually about something you love. Maybe, like Neruda, you write about the ways you do not love something or someone in order to convey how you do love them. Or maybe you write a love sonnet to something that is not usually seen as loveable. Consider utilizing repetition in your closing couplet as Neruda does.
Optional Writing Prompt: In “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, the speaker recounts a story told by a traveler who encountered the ruins of a statue depicting a once powerful king. We do not know who the speaker of the poem is, where he meets this traveler, or what he thinks about the story he has heard, though the final image of sands stretching far away is presumably the speaker’s own observation. Write a poem beginning with Shelley’s closing line, “The lone and level sands stretch far away,” that reveals more about Shelley’s speaker and their response to the traveler’s story.
Poem [“Lana Turner has collapsed!”] by Frank O’Hara
New York State
Optional Writing Prompt: Frank O’Hara often wrote poems about daily life: walking down the street, shopping, phone calls with friends. He also frequently writes about celebrities such as Billie Holiday, James Dean, and Lana Turner. Think of something that has happened in pop culture that has made an impression on you. Write a poem about that event and how you reacted to it in your own life. Where were you? Did you talk about it with friends? What feelings did that news evoke in you?
Rain by Kazim Ali
Ghazal
Optional Writing Prompt: Explore the ghazal’s form. You can refer to the Handbook of Poetic Forms (page 84) or The Poetry Foundation’s Glossary of Poetic Terms. How does Kazim Ali’s poem adhere to the formal elements of the ghazal? Where does it break the rules? Write your own ghazal attempting to follow as many of the rules of the form. Think carefully about which word you choose to repeat—it will follow you throughout the poem!
Self-Portrait as So Much Potential by Chen Chen
New York State
Optional Writing Prompt: It is easy to feel pressure about our future, others’ expectations of us, and our potential. Chen Chen writes about this in his poem “Self-Portrait as So Much Potential.” Write a poem using the same title, and explore whatever feelings come to mind when you think about “potential” and what that means to you.
Siren Song by Margaret Atwood
Persona Poem
Optional Writing Prompt: Margaret Atwood writes “Siren Song” in the voice of a mythical siren, known for luring sailors to their demise. Note how the speaker is an unreliable narrator, deceiving the reader as they would deceive a sailor. Write a poem in the voice of a mythical creature or god of your choosing. Think about how what they say could indirectly hint to the reader about their motives or intentions.
The Shapes of Leaves by Arthur Sze
United States Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: In “The Shape of Leaves,” Arthur Sze compares human feelings to the shapes of leaves. Think of a feeling you would be interested in writing about. If that feeling had a shape (or multiple shapes), what would it be? What concrete object might it resemble? Write a poem exploring this feeling as a concrete shape.
That’s My Heart Right There by Willie Perdomo
Former New York State Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: In this poem, Willie Perdomo explores the casual saying, “That’s my heart right there,” using repetition for emphasis, rhythm, and dramatic effect. Think of a saying you or someone you know says frequently. It can be a silly, casual, or serious word or phrase. Write a poem that explores this piece of language, repeating it throughout the poem. Try to examine this saying or phrase from as many angles as possible.
[Things feel partial. My love for things is partial. Mikel on his last legs, covered] by Diane Seuss
Elegy • Sonnet
Optional Writing Prompt: Diane Seuss’s poem is both an elegy and a sonnet. It explores how difficult it is to let one’s self feel grief completely. The poem opens: “Things feel partial.” At times, the speaker describes feelings through images rather than telling us directly. Looking at chrysanthemums, the speaker says, “all I saw was a smear / of yellow flowers.” Presumably the speaker cannot see the chrysanthemums clearly because they are crying. Write a sonnet about a time when you faced a challenging feeling. How might that feeling be described through images rather than talking about the feeling directly? If you would like to, consider including a rhyme in your final couplet as Seuss does.
Optional Writing Prompt: In Ross Gay’s poem “The Truth,” the speaker repeats the word “because” over and over as they lead up to revealing a truth—the difficult moment of witnessing someone else cry. Think of a moment where you experienced a deep truth, whether that truth was a kind of revelation or simply being fully present in a moment. Write a poem that builds up to that truth by first repeating “because ______” or another refrain (repeated word or phrase) of your choosing.
To You by Kenneth Koch
New York State
Optional Writing Prompt: In “To You,” Kenneth Koch writes about love using simile, metaphor, and image. Write a love poem to a person, place, thing, or idea using the same techniques Koch uses in his poem. Begin your poem with his line, “For this we live a thousand years. . . .”
What the Living Do by Marie Howe
Elegy • Former New York State Poet Laureate
Optional Writing Prompt: “What the Living Do” is an elegy to Marie Howe’s younger brother John. In the poem, Howe addresses her brother directly and reports to him on the daily things living people do. Write a poem with the title “What the Living Do” addressed to a person, real or imagined, who has died. Tell them about what you do as a living person.
Additional Resources for Educators
Explore Teachers & Writers Magazine to discover lesson plans, essays, interviews, and more resources for teaching creative writing to your students. Below are some recommendations for teaching the above poems and poets:
“A Sacred, Unusual Space: A Conversation with Terrance Hayes” by Karisma Price (Interview)
“A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers: Let the Poem Do the Teaching” by Maya Pindyck and Ruth Vinz (Essay)
“A Window into an Experience of a Moment in a Season: A Conversation on Haiku with Anne Burgevin” by Robert Hirschfield (Interview)
“Because Poems: Teaching Ross Gay’s ‘The Truth’ to Middle and High School Students” by Sarah Dohrmann (Lesson Plan)
“Flexing Our Rhyming Muscles: Introducing the Ghazal” by Abriana Jetté (Lesson Plan, Essay)
“How Long Peace Takes: Writing about World Issues Using the Work of Naomi Shihab Nye” by Merna Ann Hecht (Lesson Plan)
“Like Cutting a Watermelon with a Sharp Knife: On Haiku and Cultivating a Receptivity for Imagery” by Jesse Curran (Lesson Plan)
“Playing with Difficulty: High School Seniors Explore Challenging Literature with Arthur Sze's QUIPU” by Andy Fogle (Essay)
“Seeking the Silk Dragon: A Conversation with Arthur Sze” by Andy Fogle (Interview)
“Writing a Dream Poem: Using Dreams to Create Poetry and Visual Art” by Bill Zavatsky (Lesson Plan)
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