Carolee Bennett Poetry Blog

“Good Universe Next Door” is my poetry blog. Launched in 2012, it features writing prompts, book reviews, lists of poems (by style), resources and musings about the creative life, which I thankfully find impossible to separate from regular life. 

In its early years, it earned very modest page views: between 2,000 and 5,000 annually. However, Good Universe Next Door realized exponential growth from 2021 to 2026 with yearly page views now topping 100K (as of December 2025). Since January 2023, more than 141K unique users* have visited the site. 

I’ve been blogging since the mid-2000s, cutting my teeth as a poet and literary citizen at a time that preceded social media. Back then, poets and writers connected via comments on blogs and collaborated on generative projects that were also blog-based. 

At the core of this blogging journey is my whole heart — what I love about the writer’s life and where I struggle creatively and personally. At every juncture, publishing Good Universe Next Door has gone hand-in-hand with my understanding of and connection to my work and the work of other writers.

*January 2023 through May 2026

RECENT POSTS OF NOTE

• “We’re Traveling Through Space” and Other Reminders of a Creative Life
• Artmaking as Pleasure: “Uncontainable, Unmanageable”
• A Vast Middle Ground Between “Talented” and “Worthless”
• “Sure Is a Rough House, Isn’t It?”

POETRY PROMPTS

• Dozens of original poetry writing prompts

POETRY LISTS & RESOURCES

• Odes and Praise Poems
• Anaphora in Poetry
• “Someday I’ll Love” Poems After a Line by Frank O’Hara
• Letter Poem Examples
• Poems for Every Month of the Year
• Prose Poems for Writing Inspiration
• The One With the Octopus (over 20 examples)
• The One With 70+ Poems for the End of the World
• Barbie in the Poetry World
• Different (& Wild!) Poetry Forms 
• 70+ List Poems