Have you ever been lonely after a breakup? Fallen down? Had a cup of coffee alone? Been in love with your best friend? Gotten a phone call from a friend you hadn't seen in ages? Found money on the sidewalk? Noticed that a loved one was getting old? Been asked a difficult question? Seen a street musician busking?

Every one of those experiences inspired a poem for me. Several of those poems are posted here on Medium.

Experience is life. It happens every day. Everything you see, no matter how mundane, has the potential to become an image you may write about. In fact, the commonplace events are far more useful to the poet than the once-in-a-lifetime adventures. You need the latter when you're writing memoir, but for poetry you need the ordinary.

Regret is something everyone has felt. Think about some of the times you've spoken out of turn, or acted thoughtlessly and hurt another's feelings, or missed an opportunity. You don't need to describe any of those moments in detail, and the event you recall need not be the center of your poem, but you catch a reader's own emotional memories when you allude to the flash of disappointment you saw in someone's eyes.