15 cottage core poetry prompts / poetry inspiration

Poetry has been with me in the quiet background for a long time. It’s something I have to have a still soul to do. Something that requires a little more than writing novels or blog posts, it requires a certain depth that begs to be conveyed in its entirety. To write poetry, one must be prepared to wholly write – with all of themselves, not just a part.

It can be difficult to know where to begin at times, so I have made a list of prompts to give you a little spark of inspiration to follow. Just remember, poems don’t have to be epic length (they can if you’d like). They can be three lines, or even one. Writing poetry doesn’t have to be difficult or laborious. It can be flowing and moving and easy.

All the following prompts are a little bit themed to cottage core, or the countryside. They hold that whimsy of nostalgia, and seem to hint at birthdays and quiet soft celebrations. Take these words and create some of your own.

The prompts:

1: “Her eyes wept in April, for April was cold and glowing…”

2: “I sit on the tender green of rolling hills…”

3: “Nothing caught my fancy like Christmas time…”

4: “Upon the night of silver grey, I found I’d thrown my love away…”

5: “Pearly clouds of peachy hue, they seem to call me back to you…”

6: “One little bird and a broken house…”

7: “My fingers frame the flowers of summer, nothing so sweet as sunflowers in my eyes…”

8: “Caught up in the revel of memory, not quite certain of dream or fact…”

9: “Zooming zooming out of sight, her soft hair is wind tangled in a moment…”

10: “Graceful and sweet and lovely, so was the girl in the corner shop…”

11: “Crinkled wrapping paper and tea light candles…”

12: “Silent nights, ever so loud and booming with song…”

13: “Nothing of him was there left in the books, or the cozy corners of empty rooms…”

14: “Something is upon me this morn like tender sunshine, I feel it wrapping me up…”

15: “Legs of cream and butter, my cheeks are strawberry jam…”

My poetry process

I enjoy the freedom of poetry, the way you can go wherever you like. It’s like an unplanned adventure, where you’re never quite sure of the destination, but simply follow the paths to somewhere pleasant.

My starting points for poems are usually grounded in my natural surroundings, nature, my house, the weather, the day. Then it’s a mystery from there. The words that come to me often inspire something new and interesting, something I wouldn’t have thought of without following free flow words, and trusting that they’ll take me somewhere beautiful.

Some of my poems are more emotionally focused, with lots of metaphors and descriptions of the inside of us. Other though, follow a scene or a description of nature that is completely in the physical. Nature is one of my favourite places to find inspiration, and I enjoy finding new ways to tell of its beauty and rapture.

Creating your own prompts

If you feel especially poetically inspired one day, why not write down some of your own prompts for later use? Make use of your current inspiration and jot down some first lines or topic options. Then, when you want to write at a later date, but don’t have many ideas, you can turn to your prompts and have somewhere to write from.

Perhaps, if this is your sort of thing, you could arrange the prompts into categories. There could be a “happy days” category, and a “rainy vibes” category. Perhaps a “summer nostalgia” one, or “in my feelings”. This way, you could easily find something to write depending on how you are feeling at the time.

By writing down lots of prompts, you’ll likely come up with some things you don’t usually come up with, as your more “normal” ideas exhaust, some more interesting and strange ones may surface as creativity takes over. It’s so crazy to see where imagination may take us, and to let ourselves be taken on the journey is the only ticket we need.

Why cottage core?

To me, cottage core is everything windflower fields, fresh bread and butter, bare feet on grass, and soft summery smiles. It’s a slow sort of beautiful, which captures what really matters in life. By writing cottage core themed poetry, we can bring such things to life, and invite people to a wholesome and nurturing story through our poems. Of course, it doesn’t have to be put in the box of “cottage core”, that’s simply the best word I came up with to describe such things. It could also be “nature poetry”, “wholesome poetry”, “soft girl poetry” or “nostalgic poetry”. You find whatever describes it best to you (or just don’t describe it at all).

I hope that by writing out poems from some of these poetry prompts, you can discover more about the world, and see it in a new and endearing light. Poetry is one of the most expressive forms of writing, and perhaps one of the most expressive forms of expression. May we find peace in finding the words for what our hearts hadn’t quite found meaning for yet.

If you would like to learn more about writing, feel free to browse more blog posts, or contact me if you have any questions. You can also find me on YouTube at The Windy Wildflower, or the podcast at The Windy Wildflower Podcast. We talk about writing, songwriting, and being a Christian creative in all these places. Join me on the journey of learning to glorify God with our creativity and making dreams a reality.