One of the most valuable things that a poet (or any writer) can do is to stretch outside their usual comfort zones. We all fall into habits in our writing - not all of them bad, certainly, but habits nonetheless. And while habits can make you productive (make a habit of writing every day, for instance), they can also restrict you, especially if you're not even aware that you've fallen into one. So.

Spend a little time thinking about your habits. Look back at your last few weeks worth of poems and look for tendencies - they might be a trend toward writing with short lines, writing in rhyme, writing about a certain subject - anything that stands out is fair game for this exercise. If nothing stands out, stand by. I'll give you an alternate exercise to try.

Found something? Now.. using the prompt below, free write for ten minutes. Don't think about your habit, just write.

Your prompt is: blue jar

Ten minutes is up? Turn the page. Using the same prompt, write for ten minutes - but this time, deliberately avoid using your habitual style or subject or what-have-you.

When you're done, compare the two and see how you feel about them.

No habits? Alternate exercise
Free write for ten minutes on the prompt blue jar. For the second half of the exercise, write on the same prompt - but this time, write completely in words of one syllable.

Have fun!

1. nob cheese

2. your poetry

So, so similar, hardly any contrast excepting perhaps that nob cheese has more of a lasting effect on the senses.

blue jar
of menthol paste
outdated cure
broken, buried
worthless artifact
somewhere in a distant wood

Okay, Blue Jar....thanks for the opener. Here's what I came up with;

Blue Jar
You left
in the bathroom.

I turn it over in my hands
entranced
as if it is your heart
that I could somehow figure out
If only given enough time.

All I have is time.
Now that your left,
the blue jar
in the bathroom.

Blue jars
shining with the work of someone else's glaze
waiting for my hands to slip
and break the new, cool waves.

I instantly got a haiku from this prompt.

Title: Mysterious Blue Jar or Blue Jar Dyslexic

Vaseline or Vicks?
Anal sex or stuffy nose?
I wish I could read!

My writing habits are a reflection of my personality...reactionary and erratic! I take prompts from everything around me...I think I will enjoy this forum!