In Celebration of Spring: A Poetry Prompt from Instructor Elizabeth Rees

In celebration of National Poetry Month, The Writer’s Center is sharing prompts from current and former instructors. This installment includes a prompt from Elizabeth Rees.

Photo Credit: Maryland State Arts Council.

I used this prompt in a class I taught last year, and the theme of the class that day was spring. I think wordplay is at the heart of poetry—a good dose of word love! I gave this prompt because I think it's important to sustain a level of playfulness when it comes to the serious making of poems.
In celebration of spring, write a playful poem that uses the word “spring” in multiple ways. Try to incorporate other puns as well into the poem.

Elizabeth Rees, M.A., has taught at several leading colleges, including Harvard University, the U.S. Naval Academy, Howard University, and in The Johns Hopkins University’s graduate program. She works as a “Poet-in-the-Schools” for Maryland State Arts Council. She has been twice-nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and has published over 250 poems in journals such as Partisan Review, The Kenyon Review, AGNI, North American Review, among others. She has four award-winning chapbooks, most recently, Tilting Gravity, winner of Codhill Press’ 2009 contest. Her first book, Every Branch a Root, came out in late 2014.