Copyright 2026 - Chatter House Press
Poetry Lab began in 2010 when Penny and Helen started meeting
to experiment with random prompts and the challenge of writing
an impromptu poem. Others soon joined, and at its largest, six or
seven poets gathered around the table. The locations changed over
the years—libraries, coffee houses, and wherever there was room
to write—until COVID brought the in-person gatherings to a halt in
2020. We tried meeting virtually, but Poetry Lab was never quite the
same through a screen. By 2024, we were back around a table,
writing together. Now it’s time to open the Lab doors a little wider
and bring the prompts to a larger audience.
The goal is to arouse creativity. Not to create a perfect and ready to
publish poem, but discover a line or phrase as a basis of another
poem. Maybe several lines or phrases. On occassion, a solid poem
is born.
Here’s how the experiment works: Penny arrives with the bones of a
prompt, but everyone attending gets to embellish it by adding a
word, idea, image, or other twist. Then the clock starts. You have 20
minutes to write a complete poem—or something resembling one.
Use every part of the prompt, ignore half of it, take it somewhere
nobody expected; there are no prompt police at Poetry Lab. When
time is up, we read our freshly created poems round-robin style,
with no critique and no expectation of perfection. The prompt you
receive each week was created by the previous week’s Poetry Lab
participants, so every prompt carries a little bit of the table with it.
And if those 20 minutes (or more) produce something you think is
pretty darn good, submit your work.
Select poems may be shared.
The Original Poetry Lab
Since 2010
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Chatter House Press
Poetry Lab #2641 - October 7, 2026
THEME
Gender oriented words where the male version is positive and the
female version is negative (semantic derogation). Such as priest vs
priestess; wizard vs witch; master vs mistress; bachelor vs spinster;
governor vs governess; sir vs madam (from Katie Fillmore @kators88 -
tiktoc; @pinkpillrx - Instagram)
Use the following:
•
pick three words that have semantic derogation and use the negative
in a positive way.
Happy Writing
Select poems may be published on this site.
![[x]](index_htm_files/close.png "Close")
Copyright 2026 - Chatter House Press
Poetry Lab began in 2010 when Penny and Helen started meeting
to experiment with random prompts and the challenge of writing
an impromptu poem. Others soon joined, and at its largest, six or
seven poets gathered around the table. The locations changed over
the years—libraries, coffee houses, and wherever there was room
to write—until COVID brought the in-person gatherings to a halt in
2020. We tried meeting virtually, but Poetry Lab was never quite the
same through a screen. By 2024, we were back around a table,
writing together. Now it’s time to open the Lab doors a little wider
and bring the prompts to a larger audience.
The goal is to arouse creativity. Not to create a perfect and ready to
publish poem, but discover a line or phrase as a basis of another
poem. Maybe several lines or phrases. On occassion, a solid poem
is born.
Here’s how the experiment works: Penny arrives with the bones of a
prompt, but everyone attending gets to embellish it by adding a
word, idea, image, or other twist. Then the clock starts. You have 20
minutes to write a complete poem—or something resembling one.
Use every part of the prompt, ignore half of it, take it somewhere
nobody expected; there are no prompt police at Poetry Lab. When
time is up, we read our freshly created poems round-robin style,
with no critique and no expectation of perfection. The prompt you
receive each week was created by the previous week’s Poetry Lab
participants, so every prompt carries a little bit of the table with it.
And if those 20 minutes (or more) produce something you think is
pretty darn good, submit your work.
Select poems may be shared.
The Original Poetry Lab
Since 2010
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
