For t hose who are unfamiliar, the story "The Lady or the Tiger" is about a poor young man who falls in love with a "semi-barbaric" princess.  When her "semi-barbaric" father finds out, he condemns the young man to choose between two doors. Behind one door, a hungry tigers waits to devour him. A young woman sits behind door number two, waiting to marry the lad.

The story ends without revealing which door he chooses. The only clue we're given is that he looks to the princess before choosing a door. She gestures towards one of the doors. That is the door he selects.

The story has inspired several stories, songs, poems, and pieces of artwork. 

The Lady Prompt:

Write a poem about a difficult or impossible decision between two seemingly unrelated things. 

The Tiger Prompt:

What was behind that door? Write a poem about what the young man found when he opened the door. The Local Gems team unanimously believes that the tiger was behind the door he picked, but his fate is in your hands! 

Today's prompt may seem a little wacky. Wacky is good. We like wacky. It involves writing an "I Am" poem: a poem that lists all the traits and labels of a person. I Am poems are written in first person and, usually, each line begins with the phrase "I am."

Imagine for a moment that you are a non-human biological organism of any kind. Stretch your imagination a little further and picture you are said organism with the capacity to write a poem in English. Write an I am poem or a bio poem describing yourself.

Today's prompt is inspired by Cards Against Humanity, the party game that's popular among horrible people.

Fill in the blanks to complete the sentence. Write a poem that begins with the completed sentence.

For my next trick, I will pull _______________ out of _____________.

Write a poem made up of 5-7 stanzas of three lines each written in iambic trimeter: that is, each line contains three Iambs (one un-stressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable) for a total of six syllables per line. 

The resulting poem should have the rhythm of a waltz as waltzes are written in 3/4 time.

Today's prompt may seem like a challenge, but it's worth it.

Write a poem made of 5 haiku-like stanzas which summarizes a Shakespeare play. 

Music and poetry have gone hand-in-hand for ages. They make a classic pair like peanut butter and jelly, cheese and wine, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. 

Many classical poets intended their poetry to be put to or accompanied by music. Music can also inspire great poems. Today, let the tunes(and their lyrics) be your guide.

Write a poem inspired by the title of or a line from a specific song. This works best if you clear your mind beforehand and let the song pop into your head. Catchy tunes encouraged! Extra style points if your words fit the music that inspired them.

https://www.facebook.com/localgemspoetrypressBefore we get down to the prompt of the day, how is everyone doing? Today marks the halfway point of NaPoWriMo. Share your thoughts, experiences and poems with us on Facebook and in the comments. 

Today's prompt is inspired by one of our favorite other poetry websites: With Painted Words. Every month, With Painted Words posts a photo or painting that serves as a prompt for poets and fiction writers. The visual prompts can be quite powerful.

Today's prompt comes courtesy of Maria Illiou and is reproduced with her permission.

"I am a staunch believer that the American public has good taste when presented with great options."-Greg Koch, CEO Stone Brewing Co.

There's a lot of junk out there and there are a lot of things we, as members of western culture (not just those of us who are American) have to be discontent about. This prompt suggests you refocus your frustrations into something positive. 

Pick a product or service you feel is inferior. Services can include Internet providers, local and not so local government officials, and waste management providers. 

After taking a deep breath and letting go of any frustrations the inferior product or service might have caused, write a poem about the ideal. If you had your druthers, what would you replace this product or service with? What would you consider a great option?

Experimenting with line
breaks and stanza breaks can 
yield some

interesting results. Today's
prompt
asks
you
to

Of course,  it
also has
a
theme.

Write a poem about something you have been wanting and denying yourself or something you have been wanting and unable to have. Make sure the poem makes liberal use of line-breaks or even breaks stanzas mid-sentence. Experiment with open-ended or incomplete sentences as well. 

As you may already know, April is National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). If you didn't already know that, you haven't been paying much attention to anything else on this blog.

April is also National Autism Awareness Month. This can be a touchy subject for some as many people don't understand autism and many awareness campaigns don't say much beyond "there's this thing called autism and it exists." Without a deeper awareness, however, having a month dedicated to autism (or any kind of) awareness seems pointless.

Write a poem about an experience you've had with autism whether it be personal, through someone else, or through research.