Write about uncapping a bottle. Pay vigorous attention to the five senses.

Check out Chuck's ekphrasis poetry on Alice Carpenter: https://www.ekphrastic.net/ekphrastic-journal/five-poems-chuck-salmons-on-alice-carpenter

Writing Prompt: Pick a noun that you feel passionately about. In a stream of consciousness exercise, write two separate descriptions for the same object. These two descriptions can illustrate two different perspectives, or directly clash.

Then, using these two halves, create a poetic whole.

Writing Prompt: Try meditation as a pre-writing warm-up. Make an effort to get in-tune with your higher self on a more conscious level. Ask yourself "Who am I?" and "What do I really believe in?" Jot down a list of social norms and societal customs that you totally disagree with. Think about laws, ideas, rules that you feel need to be changed or omitted from society as we know it.

Now reflect on personal freedom. in what ways do we, as individuals, need to change in order to live more authentic lifestyles customary only to ourselves? Take your brainstorming material and set out to write a great Beat poem in the style of Ginsberg & Ferlinghetti.

Writing Prompt: Tell a story out loud. Walk in circles, a zig-zag, any pattern as if you're having a long phone conversation. And speak out loud. Really wax poetic—stuff as many images, rhymes, slant rhymes, and metaphors as possible while describing your story. Talk as fast as you can and don't let yourself get hung up, embarrassed, or stop. When you're five minutes are up, sit down and write as much as you can remember (or record yourself). Then prepare for a whole lotta editing.

NOTE: There is an error in this episode's introduction. William Evans’ most recent book is not Still Can't Do My Daughter's Hair (2017), but We Inherit What the Fires Left (2020).