10 Word Poetry Prompt
This is a fun addition to any journal. No, it isn’t actually a ten word poem. It involves using ten random words with no apparent commonality within a poem, preferably one for each line. This technique can be adjusted to include a theme or be perfectly unexpected. I prefer the unexpected.
I have provided ten words for you to use below or you can use ten words chosen at random from your dictionary, your favorite book or anywhere there are words. You can even use an old journal. Open up the book, close your eyes and point (ten times).
Once you have your ten words pick a theme (or not) and then let your creativity strike and your thoughts slide. Feel free to move the words around or create stanza breaks but each word must be on a separate line. Work on a problem or run away from one. This is one activity with so many possibilities. Go where the words lead you. Have fun with it. You can find more writing prompts at The Write Prompts blog.
Here are 10 words to get you started: 
mango –
ridge –
harp –
necessary –
fruit-roll-up –
army –
residual –
gypsy –
relations –
kindness –
Example:
*The Sweetness of Mangos* ~ M. E. Wood
mangos in the morning,
the ridge of his upper lip,
a harp playing in the background,
necessary things for my fantasy.
shredded fruit-roll-up smells
invade my nostrils like an army,
leaving nothing but residual wishes
in my gypsy mind.
human relations forced full
of kindness and sweetness of mangos.
It is necessary to eat a fruit roll-up
when you are dreaming about exotic fruits
like mangoes and not the army of hard
imported mangoes pretending to smell
of other lands where their seeds and roots grew.
But now their relations from the past
have no residual juice.
In kindness I consider them,
their hard bodies pressed
tight to the ridge of the fruit display,
their gypsy past
a novelty but their future in my fruit basket
next to the Washington Red Delicious
and the tropical, now common bananas, looks bleak like a wedding day with no harp or violin music
or father daughter dance or embarrassing stories.
True, we say that things ripen in the warmth
of a paper bag placed on the kitchen counter
but often they rotten
before we get the chance
to bite in and be disappointed.