The Power of the List Poem

Exploring two modes of list poetry.

4 min readOct 24, 2024

Hi! This article was originally published on my Substack about poetry and publishing, Effing the Ineffable. Subscribe for free here.

I don’t write a lot of list poems, also known as “catalog” or “inventory” poems. According to my notes app, I’ve finished exactly one list poem.

Unlike other forms, I feel confident I can write a list poem — ”so easy!”, I think hubristically — and so I’ve put it off, while instead playing with forms I am often frustrated with but that I think will more conclusively label me a serious poet.

At first glance, a list may seem like a limited form in what it can achieve poetically. Like the prose poem, list poems can be deceptively simple from the outside. We usually recognize lists immediately. Their sense of orderliness may be comforting.

They can also seem like a fun accessory to other, more central forms. The Robin to the sonnet’s Batman.

What does a list poem have to offer?

Don’t underestimate the list poem form — it’s loaded with potential. With deft use of the list form, you can…

layer a thematic or contextual frame over a set of images that unifies them
create a chant-like tone or litany
create a sense of organized disjunctive-ness
create a frame for tackling tricky subject matter

These reasons are enough to keep it as a tool in your poetry toolbox—but there’s so much more to list poems than the craft opportunities inherent to the form.

The most compelling list poems often transcend their format to achieve a deeper subtext, a narrative thread working between the lines:

“Really, though, all Indians are good at basketball because a basketball
has never been just a basketball — it has always been a full moon in this terminal darkness…”

As Diaz’s speaker puts it, “a basketball has never been just a basketball”; in the example of “Top Ten Reasons Why Indians Are Good at Basketball”, it’s a vehicle for discussing Native American culture and U.S. history of oppression and genocide.

In “Old Wives’ Tales” by Safia Elhillo, the subject is old wives tales, or, pieces of familial and/or cultural advice passed on through generations of women. The images create a meditation on the activities of these women: cleaning wounds, reflections on clothing and body modifications, rituals for protection from evil, and so forth. The list paints a greater picture, telling a loose story when the clauses are taken as a whole.

Two Modes of List Poetry

Mode 1: Inventory

This mode is focused on a seemingly straightforward “this is a list of X” type of premise. Here are some examples of inventory-style poems:

While some list poems may add extemporaneous information, spilling over and outside of the classic list format, the poems above focus more syntactically on following the premise set forth in the title. They feel especially decisive in their subject matter.

To try an inventory-style poem, simply decide your topic and write your clauses — just don’t forget to consider the deeper meaning or overarching “narrative” when the poem is taken as a whole.

Mode 2: Litany or anaphoric

List poems can provoke a litanic or incantation vibe due to the use of anaphora—a repeated word or phrase at the beginning of each clause.

Something about repetition really speaks to the body, doesn’t it? If you’re in more of a litany kind of mood, assign yourself a pattern — whatever feels good and like you want to say it over and over — and write from there, seeing where the phrase takes you.

Here are some beginning phrase examples:

“Build me…” — from “Light Home”, Kwame Dawes
“I executive order…” — from “I executive order”, Alyssa Arns
“For those who…” — from “For everyone who tried on the slipper before Cinderella”, Ariana Brown

The subject or object(s) of a list poem can be concrete or ephemeral — sharply defined or only loosely threaded together.

Writing Exercises

List poems can be excellent for overcoming writer’s block, providing an approachable template to get you rolling. Put another way: alist can act as a framework, a formula you can make your own.

Here are three list poem exercises to try:

Start a free write using anaphora, starting each line with a repeated phrase- “You told me…”
“What I wanted was…”
“That year…”
Take a favorite poem of yours — one that makes you feel confident — and write a list poem that complicates, sheds light, or provides another angle on the poem you’ve already written.
Write a list of all the poems you haven’t been able to write, or will never write.

List poems remind us that a poem can be anything. Poetry can take any structure. What can you contain within the page that will create meaning outside of it?

If you use these prompts, feel free to share your list poem(s) in the comments. I would love to read!