The Poetry Fishbowl is now CLOSED. Thank you all for your time and attention.Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is
"short forms." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.
I'll be soliciting poetic forms of 60 lines or less, so basically below my epic range rather than only the short-short length of 10 lines or less. Free verse below the length limit is also fine. Here are
15 short forms with descriptions. Among my favorite short forms not listed there:
hexaduad,
indriso,
sestina,
villanelle. This list of
168 forms is alphabetical. Poets Garrett has my
favorite list of forms, including a list of
repeating-interlocking forms. Their
main page has links to poetic forms of 3-10 lines. Plus a few of my own: A darrow poem is a short, haiku-like musing by dark elves. A
khazal is a Whispering Sands desert poem in couplets. A moose track is a repeating-interlocking form. A tweet wire is a tiny 10-line poem designed for Twitter. Some short forms, like haiku and tanka, work well as verses in a longer poem. I have
The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco so most forms should be in there. You can also prompt with a link to any exotic form you find; I collect these things.
In addition to forms, I also need topical prompts. One-word or short-phrase framing will assist in keeping them small enough to fit within the theme. Here is a
huge list of common themes. This
page of idioms has alphabetical and topical listings. I love writing poems about an individual word; see
The Phrontistery (WARNING! Black hole caliber time sink ahead!) for glossaries. Have an orientation that is not well represented in literature? Ask for a
sexual,
romantic, or other orientation! If it's not on any of my lists, just include a description or link to one. I also list
gender identities and
my characters with disabilities. Want to help me play with my bookshelf? :D I have
The Conflict Thesaurus,
The Conflict Thesaurus Volume 2,
The Occupation Thesaurus,
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus,
The Urban Setting Thesaurus,
The Rural Setting Thesaurus,
The Emotion Thesaurus,
The Positive Trait Thesaurus,
The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and
The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus. Simply click "Read Sample" and view the table of contents for a list of cool ideas. You can prompt a sestina with six end words; I usually pick 5 short flexible words and one long exotic word, but I'll work with whatever I get. Favorite characters, threads, series, settings, etc. are also fair game but this is NOT the time for long plotty prompts. Consider combining a name or title with a short form, theme, or idiom. If you like to prompt with photos, this is a great opportunity for that. Just type in a topic (see above for possibilities) and click the Image link in your favorite search engine.
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ysabetwordsmith
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Tuesday: Hurt/Comfort
Jan. 5th, 2026 09:44 pmWe’re looking for guest hosts to help keep the community going on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can sign up for any Tuesday and Thursday pairing that works for you, one week or multiple, totally up to you.
What you need to know:
* You must be able to post on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth
* If you don’t have an account on one of those platforms, just let me know which one and I’ll post on your behalf.
* Guest hosting is low-pressure. Just use the hosting template and insert your theme and three prompts to get us started.
* You don’t need prior hosting experience, just enthusiasm and reliability.
👉 Interested?
Sign up using the form and details in the sign-up post here: (link)
If you have questions or want to double-check expectations before signing up, feel free to reach out. I’d love to have you help keep
Now, for today's theme. Hurt/Comfort. When you hurt them, make sure to comfort them too.
Just a few rules:
No more than five prompts in a row.
No more than three prompts in the same fandom.
Use the character's full names and the fandom's full name
No spoilers in prompts for a month after airing, or use the spoiler cut option found here. Unfortunately, DW doesn’t have a cut tag, so use your best judgment when it comes to spoilers.
If your fill contains spoilers, warn and leave plenty of space, or use the above-mentioned spoiler cut.
Prompts should be formatted as follows: [Use the character's full names and fandom's full name]
Fandom, Character +/ Character, Prompt
Some examples to get the ball rolling...
NCIS, Tony DiNozzo (undercover during season 4 to catch "La Grenouille" ) + Team, bad news from home
CSI: Miami, Horatio Caine/Marisol Delko Caine, forgetting the pain
Teen Wolf, Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, shelter
We are now using AO3 to bookmark filled prompts. If you fill a prompt and post it to AO3 please add it to the Bite Sized Bits of Fic from 2026 collection. See further notes on this new option here.
Not feeling any of today’s prompts? You can use LJ’s advanced search options to limit keyword results to only comments in this community. Fret not, DW members; we are working on a way to search through old entries for prompts for you! As of right now, the best way to search for a lonely prompt on DW is to search the community’s archive, which can be found [[HERE]].
While the use of LJ's advanced search and DW’s archive are options, bookmarking the links of prompts you like might work better for searching in the future.
As a friendly reminder about our schedule, Lonely Prompts and sharing completed fills are encouraged on Sundays, while new themes and prompts are posted on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Saturdays are a Free for All day. We'll share our posts on DW and LJ for everyone's convenience. Keep an eye out for notifications!
If you have a Dreamwidth account and would feel more comfortable participating there, please feel free to do so…and spread the word!
tag=HurtComfort