Justice Poem Prompts

A few weeks ago, I wrote a series of prompts for the Create in Me retreat planners to use.  My vision:  that people would fill in blanks and come up with interesting ways to think about justice.

I thought I'd post the exercise here, too, in case it would be more widely useful.

Justice Poem Prompts

 

 

Fill in the blanks, make new blanks, and see what happens.

 

 

What does justice look like?

 

 

--The elders say, “Our children need ___________________________.”

 

--The prophet calls upon the legislator and says, “Do  _________________________.”

 

--The flocks say, “Give us ___________________________________.”

 

--The angel Gabriel gives us these instructions:  “_____________________________.”

 

 

A different approach; fill in these blanks and then in the next section, fill in those blanks:

 

Detail of shift from one season to another ________________________________

 

Type of noise ________________________________________

 

Element of nature  _____________________________________________

 

Type of emotion _________________________________________________

 

Favorite flower __________________________________________________

 

Something very tiny  ________________________________________________

 

Floor or wall covering  ______________________________________________

 

Something nourishing ________________________________________________

 

Favorite fruit __________________________________________________________

 

Element of self-care  ______________________________________________

 

Something that oozes _____________________________________________

 

Favorite treat  ________________________________________________________

 

Something that turns _______________________________________________

 

Something that grinds   ___________________________________________________

 

Now let’s move to the next section and see what happens:

 

--A commitment to justice helps us offer __________________________________.

 

--We yearn for the day when justice covers the earth like ______________________________.

 

--We are crushed into bits smaller than _____________________ by injustice.

 

--Truth rolls down through the valley like ________________________________________.

 

--When I work for justice, it’s as if ________________________________________________.

 

--I first felt the move to justice as __________________________________ ripening.

 

--Evildoers cover their rotten foundations with _____________________________.

 

--We burn with __________________________________for truth and justice.

 

--Injustice grinds us like a giant ____________________________________________.

 

--The____________________________ of justice turns slowly, but the turning does occur.

 

--The ___________________________of justice has found fertile soil in my heart.

 

--_________________________grows in the garden of justice.

 

 

One last question which may prompt poems:

 

Is the pomegranate of justice different than the pineapple of justice?