It’s fun to do exercises, as a learning type of thing.

One I used was 20 Little Poetry Project by Jim Simmerman, where you write a poem, answering these questions.

1. Begin the poem with a metaphor.

2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.

3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in

succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.

4. Use one example of synesthesia [mixing the senses].

5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.

6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.

7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.

8. Use a word [slang?] you’ve never seen in a poem.

9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.

10. Use a piece of talk you’ve heard [preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand].

11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: The [adjective] [concrete noun] of [abstract noun]…

12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.

13. Make the character in the poem do something he/she could not do in real life.1

14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.

15. Write in the future tense such that part of the poem sounds like a prediction.

16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.

17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but makes no sense.

18. Use a phrase in a language other than English.

19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification)

20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but echoes an image from earlier in the poem.

(see poem that came from this)