M Christine Delea's Blog, page 36

Famously Naked: Writing Prompt

I hope you read today's blog poem, "Rolling Naked in the Morning Dew" by Pattiann Rogers before trying this prompt (if not, go read it--it is an amazing poem).

Rogers states in her poem that Lillie Langtry, the British actress and producer, liked to roll naked in the morning dew. I like to think, and this is all conjecture, that Rogers read this bit of trivia somewhere and wanted to put it into a poem. Being a poet who writes about nature in both a scientific and an appreciative manner, the poe...

Rolling Naked in the Morning Dew by Pattiann Rogers

Rolling Naked in the Morning Dew

by Pattiann Rogers

published in her book, Splitting and Binding, and in Orion Magazine

Out among the wet grasses and wild barley-coveredMeadows, backside, frontside, through the white cloverAnd feather peabush, over spongy tussocksAnd shaggy-mane mushrooms, the abandoned nestsOf larks and bobolinks, face to faceWith vole trails, snail niches, jellySlug eggs; or in a stone-walled garden, levelWith the stemmed bulbs of orange and scarlet tulips,Cricke...

the way and the way things are by nila northSun

the way and the way things are

by nila northSun

gramma thinks about her grandchildren

they’re losing the ways

don’t know how to talk indian

don’t understand me when

i ask for tobacco

don’t know how to skin a rabbit

sad sad

they’re losing the ways

but gramma

you told your daughters

marry white men

told them they would have

nicer houses

fancy cars

pretty clothes

could live in the city

gramma your daughters did

they couldn’t speak indian anymore

how could we grandchildren learn

ther...

Easter Eggs: Writing Prompt

Use of the term "Easter Eggs" to refer to something hidden is, according to Dictionary.com, from the 1980s and the video games that I certainly remember. A short etymology can be found on that site by clicking here.

We will also use Easter Eggs in your writing this week.

Take something that is fairly well-known, such as a cliché, a line from a book or movie, the beginning of an historic speech or document, a song lyric, etc., and hide those exact words in your poem, flash, journal, etc. You c...

Spilled Sugar by Thylias Moss

Spilled Sugar

by Thylias Moss

I cannot forget the sugar on the table.

The hand that spilled it was not that of

my usual father, three layers of clothes

for a wind he felt from hallway to kitchen,

the brightest room though the lightbulbs

were greasy.

The sugar like bleached anthills of ground teeth.

It seemed to issue from open wounds in his palms.

Each day, more of Father granulated, the injury spread

like dye through cotton, staining all the wash,

condemning the house.

The gas jets on the s...

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarrell

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

by Randall Jarrell

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Artificial Intelligence: Writing Prompt

First, if you are not aware of what is happening to some literary journals, click here and here and read these articles about AI-written "literature" being submitted to literary journals.

I spent much of today (Day 2 of a much needed Mental Health break) revising a poem and revising it some more. I have never liked the title I had originally given it, but was so fried after all that revising, my brain could no longer function. Coming up with a better title was beyond me. So I thought I would tr...

From the Index To Breaking Up For Dummies by Philip Memmer

From the Index To Breaking Up For Dummies

by Philip Memmer

published in his chapbook Greatest Hits #262 (Pudding House Press)

A

abandoned (being, feeling)

abyss (see feelings, sinking)

ache (head, heart)

adapting

address (changing, new)

adieu (hearing, saying)

adios (hearing, saying)

adrift

adultery (see affair)

affair (hers, his)

affection (giving, wanting)

afraid

albatross (figurative hanging of)

alcohol (excessive consumption of)

alimony (timely paying of)

alone

amnesia (see forge...

At the Holocaust Museum by Alice Friman

At the Holocaust Museum

December 1999

by Alice Friman

Like Dante, we too are led down.

The elevator that swooped us up

and spewed us out, leaves us—

clusters of strangers—to the inexorable power

of no way to go but with each other

and the relentless spiral of design.

We shuffle, slow as sludge

in a drain, winding to the bottom.

We gawk, not in disbelief but believing

this has little to do with us—our comfort

in the face of explanations that explain

nothing, the old jackboot footage

of r...

In Praise of the Insects that Remain Hidden in the Grass by J. Estanislao Lopez

In Praise of the Insects that Remain Hidden in the Grass

by J. Estanislao Lopez

published in LEON Literary Review, Issue #18: Poetry, 2020

A wren fetches one last serving of insectsin the yard as dusk stirs competing appetites.

Some insects attempt to fly awaynot knowing they’ve played themselves

straight into the wren’s mouth; othersstay hidden under damp knots of grass.

I rise from my chair, where I had beenmaking a meal of my regrets. I leave

the wet shelter of shame, spreading w...