To continue our week of posts dedicated to Sylvia Plath, we have a creative writing prompt associated with her specifically.
Since what Plath wrote was often considered confessional poetry, write a poem that reveals a deep feeling or belief that you have inside. It need not be completely literal – allusion is very effective in poetry.
Think about how Plath wrote her book The Bell Jar… it was semi-autobiographical. Who’s to say what was true and what was fiction? Take the same liberty in this poem.
For example, write about a specific person but change their name. Write about a specific incident but change the location or the major players involved. And so on. Be confessional in a less obvious sense. (Sometimes it’s easier to be truly confessional when you’re “changing names to protect the identities of those persons living or dead.”)
Or… don’t change any of the major details of the belief or experience you’re writing about and be confessional literally.
Experiment. You may even feel some catharsis from digging deep and putting certain feelings into words.