M Christine Delea's Blog, page 25

Soap by Karin Gottshall

Soap

by Karin Gottshall

(published in Juked, 2013)

It is full bitter winter when I begin

to bleed. Too ashamed to tell. Aligning myself

with the crows I take the back way home.

Pages of book reports blown down the hill.

What constitutes anger is passion plus a disappointment

of hopes. Bad math. The body plus the smell

of burning. The Pine-Sol ghost of the school hall

and early mornings I can’t wake up. The fluorescent

bulb was invented for us, and the closed window.

Moths hatching from the o...

I’m not a religious person but by Chen Chen

I’m not a religious person but

by Chen Chen

(published in his 2017 book, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, BOA)

God sent an angel. One of his least qualified, though. Fluent only in

Lemme get back to you. The angel sounded like me, early twenties,

unpaid interning. Proficient in fetching coffee, sending super

vague emails. It got so bad God personally had to speak to me.

This was annoying because I’m not a religious person. I thought

I’d made this clear to God...

You Tell Me You Want to Live Close to Nature by Joan Mazza

You Tell Me You Want to Live Close to Nature

by Joan Mazza

(published in The Mark Lit Review, August, 2021)

You plan to have acreage, a garden, pots with herbs

on every windowsill. You’ll have a dog and cat

or maybe two of each, and wildlife will gather

on your property, a sanctuary. How lovely

the fantasy of back-to-the-earth, the simple life.

I plant basil seeds in handmade flowerpots painted

with dragonflies and flowers, with potting soil I store

in the garage. The mice have other plans...

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men/Gang aft agley: Prompt

This famous line from the Scottish poet Robert Burns' poem, "To a mouse," is often "translated" into modern English as "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

And that is your prompt for this week!

Write about (or art about) a plan that went awry. This can be a personal plan, something completely made-up, or an historical event.

Obviously, this premise is the basis of much literature, art, TV, and films, from the story of Icarus to every episode of the TV show Fargo. It is part ...

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now by A. E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

by A. E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough,

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,

Twenty will not come again,

And take from seventy springs a score,

It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom

Fifty springs are little room,

About the woodlands I will go

To see the cherry hung with snow.

Saint Monica Burns It Down by Mary Biddinger

Saint Monica Burns It Down

by Mary Biddinger

(published in Valparaiso Poetry Review)

It wasn’t her house, but she would strip

it of its bricks if she could, imagining

all of the hair and sesame oil and lye

inside after she had finished. Rooms

where he slipped from pilled flannel

sheets to creep back into her window

with a warm Budweiser in each pocket,

as if he’d never even left. His two terriers

sputtering like motorbike engines through

the night, quiet in his absence, holed up

in ruts be...

The Saints Go Marching In: Prompt

After reading Mary Biddinger's wonderful poem, "Saint Monica Burns It Down," published in Valparaiso Poetry Review and posted today on my blog, I looked up Saint Monica. I am not familiar with many saints, and was curious what it is about Monica that made Biddinger choose this particular saint for her poem.

Wikipedia did not let me down! (Read its page on Saint Monica here.)

Saints Patrick, Joan of Arc, Francis of Assisi, Nicholas, George, and Francesca Saverio Cabrini are very familiar to ma...

Arizona by Kaitlyn McNab

Arizona

by Kaitlyn McNab

(published in Electric Lit, Issue 171, 2021)

I want to be whisked away to Arizona

and kissed in the depression of the Earth.

Surrounded by rocks that have heard the moans of creatures like me,

long necked

and ferocious

slow-stepping, and extraordinary.

 

Standing ankle-deep in oceans of sand

Under sun that refuses to give up

Sharing heat with someone that loves me,

that sees me as a beginning and the now,

their future and their lover from a past life

 

I ...

Poems I Probably Won’t Write About My Stepfather by Jennifer Stewart Miller

Poems I Probably Won’t Write About My Stepfather

by Jennifer Stewart Miller

(published in Crab Creek Review, March 25, 2021)

On Holding the Phone to Your Ear the Night Before You Die

So Your Half-Sister Can Read You a Poem

On Missing Your Last Breath Because I Had to Stop for Gas

Poem in Which My Mother Reminisces with the Funeral Director

About Meeting Him When He Was a Little Kid

How to Choose the Right Locally Sourced Wooden Urn

for a Former Forester

On First Wa...

Prompt: Like Santa's List, But Different

This week's prompt is easy for any writer or artist: you are asked to make a list.

For poets, this means a List Poem. History is full of great list poems, including Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing," which you can find here. Your list needs to go beyond just a word or two (so not just Maria: X-Box or Tyler: bicycle)--it needs to include description and images. List poems often use anaphora (the repetition of words/phrases at the start of each line); this device gives a chant-like quality ...