M Christine Delea's Blog, page 26

Thanks by W.S. Merwin

Thanks

by W.S. Merwin

published in Migration: New and Selected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2005)

Listen

with the night falling we are saying thank you

we are stopping on the bridges to bow from the railings

we are running out of the glass rooms

with our mouths full of food to look at the sky

and say thank you

we are standing by the water thanking it

standing by the windows looking out

in our directions

back from a series of hospitals back from a mugging

after funerals we are say...

Almost heaven, West Virginia: Prompt

Your prompt for this week popped into my head as I looked for a poem to post today from Robert Wood Lynn's incredible collection, Mothman Apologia. The title of this prompt is, of course, the first 4 words of John Denver's song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads."

West Virginia is a place where I have lived (twice) and I also visit a lot. I have been on those country (and urban) roads in every part of the state. It is one of my favorite places in the country, even with its myriad troubles (one of th...

Almost heaven, West Virginia

Your prompt for this week popped into my head as I looked for a poem to post today from Robert Wood Lynn's incredible collection, Mothman Apologia. The title of this prompt is, of course, the first 4 words of John Denver's song, "Take Me Home, Country Roads."

West Virginia is a place where I have lived (twice) and I also visit a lot. I have been on those country (and urban) roads in every part of the state. It is one of my favorite places in the country, even with its myriad troubles (one of th...

(The Mothman Leaves the Used Car Lot Empty-Handed) by Robert Wood Lynn

(The Mothman Leaves the Used Car Lot Empty-Handed)

by Robert Wood Lynn

published in his book, Mothman Apologia, from Yale University Press, 2022

You said the problem with driving a pickup is

never getting to be the one riding in the bed.

This is what I meant when I told you I had

trouble choosing grace. I want to, I do.

But also I need to be one of the ones who

gets to lie back against the wheel well.

To let the breeze lick my face, let it trick

the eyes into crying, let it...

Thanksgiving by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Thanksgiving

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

We walk on starry fields of white  

And do not see the daisies;

For blessings common in our sight  

We rarely offer praises.

We sigh for some supreme delight  

To crown our lives with splendor,

And quite ignore our daily store  

Of pleasures sweet and tender.

Our cares are bold and push their way  

Upon our thought and feeling.

They hand about us all the day,  

Our time from pleasure stealing.

So unobtrusive many a joy   ...

Love in a Time of Climate Change by Craig Santos Perez

Love in a Time of Climate Change

by Craig Santos Perez

(published in his book, Habitat Threshold, 2020, Omnidawn)

recycling Pablo Neruda’s “Sonnet XVII”

I don’t love you as if you were rare earth metals,

conflict diamonds, or reserves of crude oil that cause

war. I love you as one loves the most vulnerable

species: urgently, between the habitat and its loss.

I love you as one loves the last seed saved

within a vault, gestating...

My Love Is Like a Red, Red Sky (From Pollution): Prompt

Craig Santos Perez is one of the best poets writing environmentally-aware poetry these days. His poem posted on my blog today, "Love in a Time of Climate Change," is such a clever embrace of the personal and political. His poem also takes its form from a Pablo Neruda sonnet, as he notes, and that poem is below.

Love Sonnet XVII

by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark things ...

My Love Is Like a Red, Red Sky (From Pollution)

Craig Santos Perez is one of the best poets writing environmentally-aware poetry these days. His poem posted on my blog today, "Love in a Time of Climate Change," is such a clever embrace of the personal and political. His poem also takes its form from a Pablo Neruda sonnet, as the notes notes, and that poem is below.

Love Sonnet XVII

by Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were a salt rose, or topaz

or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.

I love you as certain dark ...

Butsuma by Bern Mulvey

Butsuma

by Bern Mulvey

(published in his 2008 book, The Fat Sheep Everyone Wants, CSU Press)

Time to meet the relatives, only they’re dead.

It’s like a WWII newsreel, all the black-and-white,

the marugari and fukurasuzume hairstyles,

the montsuki, the formal death of kimonos, even a sword

or two. Why am I here? The mother-in-law-to-be

narrates causes of death. This one, stomach cancer,

that one, cerebral hemmorrhage. She fast-forwards

to her brother, machine-gunned t...

Let's Keep Things Light: Creative Prompt

The last poems posted on my blog, prior to today's post, are all serious and intense and powerful. Each one tells a bit of a woman's life, and they are beautifully told.

Today's poem? Not so much.

Ogden Nash wrote short, funny poems (mostly, although he has a few serious ones, and some that are both). He was an American poet who was born in 1902 and died in 1971.

You can read more about him here.

The poem I posted today is one of his longer ones, all of 9 lines!

Your prompt for today is to ...