M Christine Delea's Blog, page 10

Despair by Anthony Hecht

Despair

by Anthony Hecht

(published in Selected Poems, edited by J. D. McClatchy, 2012, Alfred Knopf)

Sadness. The moist grey shawls of drifting sea-fog,

Salting scrub pine, drenching the cranberry bogs,

Erasing all but foreground, making a ghost

Of anyone who walks softly away;

And the faint, penitent psalmody of the ocean.

Gloom. It appears among the winter mountains

On rainy days. Or the tiled walls of the subway

In caged and aging light, in the steel scream

And echoing vault of the depa...

The Patience of Ordinary Things by Pat Schneider

The Patience of Ordinary Things

by Pat Schneider

(published in her 2019 book, From The Weight of Love, Negative Capability Press)

It is a kind of love, is it not?

How the cup holds the tea,

How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,

How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes

Or toes. How soles of feet know

Where they're supposed to be.

I've been thinking about the patience

Of ordinary things, how clothes

Wait respectfully in closets

And soap dries quietly in the dish,

And towels drink the...

Choices: Prompt

Based on Carl Sandburg's poem, Window, which is posted on my blog today, you have a few choices for today's prompt.

1.) Create a piece in which a window plays a prominent role.

2.) Create a piece in which light suddenly interrupts darkness.

3.) Write a poem that--no matter how many lines--is just one sentence.

4.) Create a piece in which the speaker is moving in some way.

5.) Relate an experience you have had on a train.

Have fun!

Window by Carl Sandburg

Window

by Carl Sandburg

Night from a railroad car window

Is a great, dark, soft thing

Broken across with slashes of light.

I love to travel by train, especially the few times I had a sleeper on an Amtrak. The food was great, the employees were wonderful, the privacy was such a blessing, and the ability to stretch out on a bed and watch the "great, dark, soft" world blur by was exciting.

So I must admit that my own love of train travel influences my love of this poem. However, there are obje...

September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden

September 1, 1939

by W.H. Auden

I sit in one of the dives

On Fifty-second Street

Uncertain and afraid

As the clever hopes expire

Of a low dishonest decade:

Waves of anger and fear

Circulate over the bright

And darkened lands of the earth

,Obsessing our private lives;

The unmentionable odour of death

Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can

Unearth the whole offence

From Luther until now

That has driven a culture mad,

Find what occurred at Linz,

What huge imago made

A psychopath...

September 1, 1939 by W. H. Audemn

September 1, 1939

by W.H. Auden

I sit in one of the dives

On Fifty-second Street

Uncertain and afraid

As the clever hopes expire

Of a low dishonest decade:

Waves of anger and fear

Circulate over the bright

And darkened lands of the earth

,Obsessing our private lives;

The unmentionable odour of death

Offends the September night.

Accurate scholarship can

Unearth the whole offence

From Luther until now

That has driven a culture mad,

Find what occurred at Linz,

What huge imago made

A psychopath...

I Wanna Hold Your Hand: Prompt

Please read today's poem on my blog: "Holding Vigil" by Alison Luterman (published on the Rattle website on November 3, 2024).

Then go here and watch/re-watch the video of The Beatles singing "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" on The Ed Sullivan Show. You should especially do this if you were not alive when The Beatles were a group, don't know who Ed Sullivan was, and haven't a clue as to why I named this prompt after one of their songs.

If you want another blast from the past, check out a rememberance ...

Holding Vigil by Alison Luterman

Holding Vigil

by Alison Luterman

(published in Rattle, Poets Respond, on November 3, 2024)

My cousin asks if I can describe this moment,

the heaviness of it, like sitting outside

the operating room while someone you love

is in surgery and you’re on those awful plastic chairs

eating flaming Doritos from the vending machine

which is the only thing that seems appealing to you, dinner-wise,

waiting for the moment when the doctor will come out

in her scrubs and face-mask, which she’ll pull down

t...

Bless This School for Girls by Warsan Shire

Bless This School for Girls

by Warsan Shire

(published in he2022 book, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head from Rocking Chair Books)

Falis taught us more about our bodies

than we’d ever glean from the curriculum;

periods, uterus contractions, early symptoms

of cysts, signs of infertility, abortions and where

they were punishable by death, miscarriage—

how long it took to pass the clots and why

you shouldn’t flush as a reflex. Our lady of red

rags—bless her—no one ever though...

Another Name Game: Prompt

Think of fairly common names that are also words that are things other than names. I am thinking of--and these will show my age--Art, Rose, Randy, Will, Sandy, Melody, Bill, Frank, Violet, Ray, Mike, Robin, Daisy, Fern, Buck, Tom, Dolly, Pat, Nick, John, and Peg. There are many more, especially if you start thinking of names that are more contemporary and/or just less traditional: Prince, Star, Clover, Nova, Briar, Ash, Justice, Cricket, Angel, as well as a variety of the place names that parent...