M Christine Delea's Blog, page 32

Translations!

On July 9, I posted a prompt that used sentences in languages other than English as a way to do Sound Translations to start a draft.

I promised to post what language each sentence was from, and what they each were in English. I said I would do that on July 16.

I completely forgot! Mea culpa!

So here are the sentences, and if you need to check out the original prompt, do so! It really is a lot of fun and a great way to write something unexpected.

Here are the sentences:

Tá mo mhúinteoir ag mú...

Do Not Go: Writing Prompt

Have you read today's poem that I posted on this very blog? If not, get thee to it--Dylan Thomas' "Do not go gentle into that good night" is an iconic poem. In it, he commands/soothes/memorializes with his father who is dying. Thomas himself, a hard-partying Welshman, died a year after this villanelle was first published, at the age of 39. His theatrical readings of his poetry did a lot to popularize poetry; these readings also brought him to America four times, and he became great friends with ...

Do not go gentle into that good night by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night

by Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sa...

The Grammar Lesson by Steve Kowit

The Grammar Lesson

by Steve Kowit

(Poetry 180, Library of Congress website)

A noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.

An adjective is what describes the noun.

In "The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

of and with are prepositions. The's

an article, a can's a noun,

a noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does.

A can can roll - or not. What isn't was

or might be, might meaning not yet known.

"Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz"

is present tense. While words like our and ...

Maybe the Best Prompt Ever!

I am so happy with this prompt and I think everyone will have fun with it, even if you just turn it into a party game!

Back in the 1990s, there was a writing exercise called Bad Translation (or something similar). You were to find a poem written in a language with which you were unfamiliar, and then “translate” it based on how you think the words sound. As you can imagine, the end results were generally nonsensical, but it was a fun way to get your creative juices flowing.

This week’s prompt i...

Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Recuerdo

by Edna St.Vincent Millay

We were very tired, we were very merry—

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.

It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—

But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,

We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;

And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—

We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;

And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,

From a dozen of each we had bought some...

A Diver for the NYPD Talks to His Girlfriend by Richard Garcia

A Diver for the NYPD Talks to His Girlfriend

by Richard Garcia

(published in the anthology, Urban Nature: Poems About Wildlife in the City, 2000

edited by Laure-Anne Bosselaar and Emily Hiestand

I can’t even see my hands in front of my face

through the darkness—mud, raw sewage,

black clouds of who knows what,

gas and oil leaking out of all the cars

that have been shoved into the river.

But my hands have learned to see,

sliding sideways down wrinkled concrete,

over slime-covered rocks, bro...

Freedom: Writing Prompt

This week's writing prompt is simple; what you do with it can be as complex as you want to make it.

Use the word/idea of freedom and go from there.

Your freedom may be very personal, or historical, or even based in a George Michael song. Maybe it means the wild horses you saw earlier this summer or how you felt after your divorce. Perhaps it makes you think about writing a persona poem from the point of view of a caged zoo animal, or a saved kidnapping victim, or a child laborer at the end of...

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

The New Colossus

by Emma Lazarus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your hu...

Lament for the Invisible Lesbians by Alison Binney

Lament for the Invisible Lesbians

by Alison Binney

published in Impossible Archetype, Issue 6

You hid yourselves so well, invisible ones,


you disappeared behind the masks you wore:


devoted daughters, governesses, nuns,


companions, witches, bluestockings and whores.

You kept the home fires burning, stepped aside,


played second fiddle, learned to smile and nod,


were always bridesmaids, sometimes even brides,


sought solace in your friendships, gardens, God.

Your vows were camouflaged as...