Read

We as writers don't live in a vacum either. With that said read. Read often.

On the poetry side I am reading 'Call Me Ishmael Tonight' by Agha Shahid Ali and 'The First Hay (na)ku Anthology' edited by Jean Vengua and Mark Young.

On the sci-fi side I am reading 'The Phoenix Exultant' by John C. Wright.

Make sure that you keep reading because that extra stimuli opens up new channels in your thinking and can cause you to go in direction that you wouldn't have thought of on your own.